How easily will it be to shed a stone and a half of weight? Lucy Tansley, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex

Many people find it very difficult. Overweight people may eat more than they physiologically need but contrary to popular belief the majority don’t eat more than the average - it is just that they utilise the calories they consume rather more efficiently. In the language farmers use when discussing the beasts they are fattening, “they are good converters”. The only way to lose weight is to eat less.

When I wanted to lose three stone many years ago, I devised my own rather boring diet - I think its boring nature helped - which contained the right proportion of protein, fat and carbohydrate and all the essential vitamins and minerals. With it I lost weight easily at the rate of 3lb per week over about three or four months.

The first simple measure to take is to think of which is the most fattening food you like best and cut it out - in my case wine and chocolates.

Since a well-functioning liver is essential to a long life, what is the best way to protect it? Carrie Estill, Paris

Adequate protein in a mixed diet rich with vitamins, particularly those containing plenty of antioxidants, will help. Antioxidants are found in fruit and vegetables, and the general rule is that the brighter the colour of the vegetable the more the antioxidant they contain.

Meals heavy in fat will produce the symptoms people associate with liver troubles, but are probably more often related to strain on the pancreatic system.

The equivalent of two glasses of wine a day is ideal. Never drink to excess. In older age, livers can be damaged by high blood pressure and heart failure. Treat any high blood pressure at once and make certain that the very first signs of heart strain are detected.

I gave up smoking 15 years ago. I am now 54 years of age. How much of the damage that was previously done to my cardio-vascular system and lung pathology due to smoking is recoverable and how much is permanent? John Barnes, Aberdeen

Congratulations on giving up smoking. It must have been difficult after you had been addicted to it for about 20 years.

Some damage will have been done to your lungs during your 20 years of smoking, and probably your cardiovascular system would have suffered too, but the amount will vary from person to person. It is important to remember that your life expectancy will start to improve 20 minutes after the last cigarette. Within three days your taste buds are starting to return to normal, and your lung capacity is improving. After five years the risk of a heart attack has fallen by 50 per cent from what it was when you were smoking, and after ten years the risk of lung cancer is half that of someone who has continued to smoke.

I suspect that although you will have some residual damage, and an increased risk of bronchitis and emphysema, the ill effects of this may not become noticeable ever, and very probably, if they do, not until you are rather older - in your late 60s or 70s.

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