The Edwardian Diet

I'm back in action and refreshed, in part from my absence from the e-world and in part from a holiday - we've been on a cruise. It might seem I was cheating in saying I was voluntarily withdrawing from the internet for a while, but thanks to the wonders of satellite communications I could have stayed connected while on-board - I guess it made staying offline a lot easier, though.

Life on the Oriana made me think of what it must have been like to be one of the Edwardian gentry. A constant round of meals, punctuated by assorted entertainments and strolls around exotic places. In fact, it made me wonder why our current obesity epidemic wasn't happening 100 years ago among the rich.

After all, by the time you've had a cooked breakfast including those country house essentials devilled kidneys, a heaped buffet lunch (cold collation, my dear), perhaps afternoon tea, a five or six course dinner and attempted to resist the always available service to produce a little something more to eat, the pounds are bound to pile on. And this is day after day. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. It was a great holiday. But how did they manage to live like this all the time and not blow up like airships? Any suggestions gratefully accepted.