SIR - I would like to pass on my sympathy to Paul Collins for his misfortune on the health front while at the same time letting him know that my remarks regarding past dietary habits were made with tongue firmly in cheek.

Although there was little exaggeration about what was consumed in the past, I can assure him that I have been savvy enough to realise that these excesses could not continue.

I now try to be sensible, as everyone should, however I do enjoy a modicum of what some would call ‘unhealthy’ foods and alcohol in ‘reasonable’ amounts.

I would still maintain that a lot of the so-called good advice is vastly over-the-top hysteria.

Colin Durkin, Moffat Close, Bradford