Having a balanced diet is vital to living a long and healthy life. Well, that’s what everyone keeps saying – but is it true?

After all, William Staub – the American mechanical engineer who developed the first commercial treadmill, and who died at the respectable age of 96 last month from natural causes – didn’t have the broadest of diets.

Apparently he lived on tomatoes, toast – without butter or other spreads, and tea. Occasionally he would have some salad or cheese, but, other than that, he didn’t exactly eat a wide range of items from the ‘food pyramid’.

Other cases of people eating seemingly unhealthy diets but not encountering any real health problems exist, such as the woman who lives on cheese and chips or the individual who survives solely on one flavour of Monster Munch (how boring).

Yet I feel that, just as a car will eventually show signs of wear and tear if a driver continues to brake harshly and accelerate too quickly, these people are bound to feel the effects of their poor diet.

The body is an amazing thing, but where are they getting all the vitamins and other nutrients they need to keep functioning?

William Staub may have had a relatively plain diet, but it was quite a healthy one. Living on only Monster Munch though – I don’t think it can be done.

What makes original flavour Monster Munch? Vegetable oil, potato puree powder (hmm...tasty), corn starch, wheat flour, potato starch (oh, potato again), sugar, salt, sweet whey powder, cheese powder (can’t get enough of that yummy cheese powder), paprika powder, yeast, flavour enhancer (real food doesn’t need this), monosodium glutamate, and paprika extract.

I have no problem with people having this stuff as a snack. Live on it though – or any other extremely restricted diet – and, like a vehicle without coolant, you are heading for breakdown in my opinion.

Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional, but I think your GP or doctor will basically say what I just said (minus the car analogies).  

Labels: accelerate, balanced diet, brake, breakdown, car, coolant, driver, engineer, food pyramid, healthy, mechanical, Monster Munch, poor diet, wear and tear, William Staub