So in watching BBC1's 'The Truth About Food' last night, I discovered the following:

1. Detox diets do not boost your body's natural ability to detoxify itself. Ha! Take that Gillian McKeith.

2. Tomatoes protect you against sun damage and wrinkles. So pack a tube of tomato puree when you next go on holiday.

3. Spinach protects you against macular degeneration, which can otherwise lead to blindness.

4. When you eat, the pyloric valve at the base of your stomach closes in order to keep food in the stomach to be digested before being released, bit by bit, into the small intestine. If you are drinking at the same time, the liquid is kept in the stomach with the food and released slowly into the intestine along with the food. If you drink alcohol without eating, the valve does nothing, allowing the liquid to run straight through your stomach and into the small intestine. The liver is thus put under greater pressure as it has less time to deal with a larger amount of alcohol. This is why you get drunk quicker when you drink without eating, and why drinking without eating is worse for your liver. Or something like that. Anyway, it gives me an even better excuse to pig out on nights out.*

5. A healthy diet is a colourful diet. Smarties, anyone?

6. Red wine, especially that made from Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, does protect you against heart disease. I think you all know what I think about that.

7. I need no excuses to eat more, or to drink more red wine. But I welcome them all the same.

Cheers Auntie!