All or nothing…
The sales are on so it’s time for a bit of binge shopping
AFTER your summer holiday is over, once your two-week long-awaited break has finally finished do you find yourself sitting in the kitchen staring at your coffee and setting new goals, like it’s the New Year or something? Are you detoxing again? Just because you drank like a fish in Paphos or Patmos?
Not so long ago, most people would have just eased up on the drink and cigarettes for a couple of weeks, but now everyone goes cold turkey just because the holidays are over. And it’s not called ‘giving up’ anymore, because we want our abstinence to have that ring of austerity and drying-out clinics in Arizona. In any case, there is no guilt or self loathing attached to this decision. It is simply the natural rhythm of things these days: have a lot of what you want, then rein yourself in for a while, then let your hair down again. Get plastered at the weekend; take it easy between Monday and Thursday. Buy four pairs of shoes in a week (because the sales are on) then avoid the shops for a while. It’s the accepted pattern of modern life, and it seems perfectly harmless – until you mention the word binge…
Bingeing is something we associate with food and drink (though never with ourselves), but where we are really in denial is when it comes to our binge culture in general. Take holidays: once a break from our regular routine, they are now set aside expressly for bingeing, whether on sex and booze or on exercise and healthy living. The latest place for a fashionista to ascend on is The Ashram in California, for a week of 14-mile hikes and quinoa salads (guests have included Renee Zellweger, best known for her portrayal of classic binge personality, Bridget Jones, and the real-life classic binger Christian Slater).
We have binge friendships – new acquaintances who we see all the time for a short period, and who then, just as suddenly, cease to be the next best thing in our lives. We binge sexually and emotionally by having affairs – or short, intense marriages in the case of Angelina Jolie, or Chris Evans – and afterwards we binge on the gossip. We binge on sun, despite the risks, and goodies for the home (did we really need those quirky garden candles, that bright pink cushion?). We obsess about people in the public eye, then tire of them (remember Rebecca Loos? And Faria Alam?) and gorge ourselves on TV series, ideally the sort that go out every night for two weeks solid then end on a climactic high. We even have binge shops, such as Top Shop or Ikea (soon to hit the island), which we visit not to find the perfect top or teacup, but to be able to purchase everything in sight.
The funny thing is that we refuse to recognise this all-or-nothing pattern in our own lives. To us, the likes of Posh and Britney Spears are the ones living the binger life, even though we might be in the middle of our post-holiday purge, even though we’ve just been to the sales and now haven’t got quite enough for the horrendous phone bill. Tell you what: call it bored-sh**less syndrome, if it makes it any easier…
One lump or two?
It’s official: excess sugar can age your skin. The latest research from Clinique reveals that guzzling sweet things such as fizzy drinks and ice cream can lead to wrinkles, loss of elasticity and premature degeneration. How does this happen? Excess sugar bonds with protein fibres in the skin and this chemical reaction produces dangerous wastes called advanced glycosylation end products and also free radicals. The effect is that fibres stiffen and the skin loses elasticity, becoming more vulnerable to wrinkling, sagging and UV damage. OK, it’s not exactly news: the anti-aging expert Dr Nicholas Perricone has long been extolling the benefits of a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet for optimum skin health. But when Clinique joins in, you know something’s up. So how much sugar is excess sugar? According to Clinique’s research, the average Brit consumes about 20 tsp per day of added sugar; we should be aiming for 6-10 tsp. If you want to read more about the multiple dangers of sugar, William Dufty’s Sugar Blues is excellent. Your skin will thank you for it…
