The results are in. The age old question of whether chefs or publicans have the more healthy cholesterol levels has once and for all been put to bed by tests conducted on behalf of London Marathon-sponsoring beer brand Fuller's London Pride.
All right, it may not exactly be a question that you and your staff mull over every day. But the tests, conducted on a team (including me) of London Marathon runners representing the pub trade and a team representing chefs, help raise the profile of issues which all readers, as peddlers of drink and food, could do with being aware of.
The good news for those behind the bar, as opposed to those in the kitchen, is that the publicans narrowly edge it.
So what is cholesterol all about? Margarine brand Flora is sponsoring the chefs' team - marketed as a healthy alternative to butter, it has more than a passing interest in the fats which are so crucial in cholesterol levels. The nurses who conducted the tests were recruited by Flora, and were in a position to answer my questions. Cholesterol is produced by the liver from the fatty foods you eat, they told me. To stay healthy, the body needs some cholesterol. It is carried by proteins through the bloodstream to where it is needed. The combination of cholesterol and protein is called Lipoprotein. High levels of cholesterol in the blood are a risk factor for developing 'atheroma'.
Stop reading now if you are the type of person made physically sick by the kind of health warnings on the back of fag packets, but atheroma means fatty lumps which build up within the inside lining of arteries. A build up of this can make the arteries that supply the heart and brain narrower, and decrease blood flow to these organs. This will lead to a higher risk of nasty heart diseases, as well as strokes.
HDL is the so-called "good" cholesterol which helps to protect your veins and arteries. The higher the HDL, the better.
Total cholesterol/ HDL is the ratio of HDL to total cholesterol in your blood. A ratio of 4.5 or less is desirable.
As a member of the London Pride pub trade team, I had my own health-indicating bits and bobs measured. If my training for the Marathon is supposed to have made me healthier, I would hate to have been measured up before it started.
Health professionals tell me that I should be aiming for a total cholesterol level of less than 5mmol/L (and, no, you don't need to know what the fancy measure means right now). Mine was 5.46.
More encouraging, though, is that I should have levels of something called HDL (High Density Lipoprotein) of above 1.3 mmol/L. Mine was 1.99.
The London Pride team's average total cholesterol was 5.29, the chefs' 5.97. The London Pride team's HDL was 1.57, the chefs' 1.66. This gave the publicans a total cholesterol/ HDL ratio of 3.4, and the chefs a ratio of 3.6.
These figures can be improved by losing weight, increasing physical activity, stopping smoking, cutting down on alcohol intake, reducing prolonged stress, eating a healthy diet. All of this is sound advice for yourself or your customers. For more detail on exactly what, when and how much you should be eating… how far you should be running, rowing, cycling or whatever exercise you choose… and how much your punters can be ordering across the bar, see my next blog.
London Pride has is planning on taking the same measurements after the Marathon in April to determine the effect of our healthier lifestyles in the run-up. Expect the age old rivalry between publicans and chefs to resume.