September

Ah, September. As if the distant memory of summer holidays and the thought of longer nights and shorter days wasn’t enough to contend with, comparison website uSwitch has chosen this month of seasonal change to announce that the UK is officially the worst place to live in Europe. Taking into account factors such as ‘working hours, VAT, holidays, spending on health and education-and hours of sunshine’ our green and pleasant land falls short of its European counterparts with popular holiday hotspots France and Spain topping the website’s Quality of life Index. And, given that British people enjoy the lowest holiday entitlement in Europe alongside one of the highest retirement ages, we won’t be jetting off to these chart-topping destinations any time soon.

The findings do, however, highlight areas of real concern for the greater wellbeing of UK citizens. The survey of over 2000 adults found their greatest concern to be the notion of living in a ‘broken society’, with factors such as crime, violence, and cost of living all contributing to the overall feeling of disenchantment. Speaking to Walesonline.co.uk, Ewan Hilton, of mental health charity Gofal, blamed the combination of ‘long working hours, financial worries and poor housing’ as having lead to ‘increased levels of mental ill health in Wales’. Commenting on the findings, Mr Hilton drew attention to how Wales has ‘some of the most economically deprived areas in the UK’ before moving onto highlight how ‘unemployment, poor housing and a lack of opportunities do contribute to mental ill health’. Although the survey only targeted a relatively small number of people, the findings do highlight the importance of all aspects of wellbeing working together in order to attain sustainable personal wellbeing and health.

It would appear that it is not just the adult population who has become disenchanted with modern British life. In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, leading academics, teachers, authors and charity leaders express their concerns as to how ‘children’s wellbeing and mental health is being undermined by the pressures of modern life’. The letter draws attention to how advertising, parents, the education system and sedentary lifestyles have all resulted in Britain experiencing the ‘lowest levels of children’s wellbeing in the developed world’. Trapped within what the UN has deemed as ‘compulsive consumerism’, British children are caught within a ‘too much, too soon’ culture that is having a detrimental affect on their personal wellbeing. The letter expounds how the ‘time has come to move from awareness to action’, calling for a change in the curriculum, greater emphasis on outdoor based experiences and a change in advertising law in order to combat the situation.

The letters holistic approach makes for interesting reading as, rather than isolate certain negative influences, the findings look at the interchangeable relationship between a child’s home life and their academic and future wellbeing. Whilst the letter calls for a more ‘play based’ approach to schooling for the first full year of school it also acknowledges the importance of honing children’s developmental skills during their initial cognitive years. Sally Goddard Blythe, director for the Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology in Chester, cites children’s ‘sedentary’ home life as the main reason behind their poor levels of attainment and social assimilation within the school environment. Mrs Goddard Blythe blames excessive use of electronic media, computer games and general lifestyle habits for children’s under developed motor and communication skills. It would appear that the solution to the problem lies in a multi-faceted approach from all involved in a child’s early life. As Children’s Minister, Sarah Teather, explains, ‘as a society, we all have a stake in making sure there is time for family life and children are free to cherish their childhoods’.

All this talk of economic and social doom and gloom would have even the most health conscious of us reaching for a consolatory chocolate bar, but in an article for The Guradian, Robin McKie warns us that our relationship between food and mental wellbeing may be more complicated than we think. The article questions why certain foods are seen as comfort foods and questions whether it is a case of what we eat affecting how we feel, or whether how we feel affects what we eat. Dr Sadaf Farooqi, of the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research believes that science holds the key to determining how certain foods can affect our mood. Farooqi explains how people lacking in the enzyme monamine oxidase, a naturally occurring enzyme used to break down the amino acids in our food, ‘cannot properly metabolise products like cheese and red wine and have extreme reactions to them. They have headaches and act aggressively’. People’s varying levels of monamine oxidase could, therefore, contribute to what Farooqi deems as ‘all sorts of behavioural and mood problems’. So it would appear that what we eat affects how we feel, right? If only it was so simple. Andy Smith, Professor at Cardiff University, turns Farooqi’s argument around, claiming that a person’s mood ultimately affects their ‘choice of food’. Smith moves onto examine the emotional attachment people form with food, stating how ‘we seek out a chocolate snack when we feel upset or are emotional because, in the past, we have had pleasant associations with it. That is why it is a comfort food’. Either way, the findings are certainly food for thought…