Health revolution hits Russia

Young Russians are becoming more health-conscious

By Caroline Wyatt BBC correspondent in Moscow

Sushi restaurants, health clubs and even oxygen bars... not the first things you would associate with Russia, a country whose image is more closely associated with smoking and vodka-drinking.

The average Russian male will not even live to the age of 60, because of the vodka, an unhealthy diet and industrial accidents.

But younger Russians, it seems, are becoming a lot more health-conscious than their parents' generation.

Sushi is competing with borshch for Russian tastebuds

The emerging middle classes in the big cities - those with enough cash - are starting to fulfil their desire for a healthier lifestyle, most noticeably in the capital, Moscow.

The clientele at the Shizlong Bar is typical.

The restaurant's name is the Russian version of the word "chaise-longue", a reclining chair, and the ambience is meant to conjure up a relaxed atmosphere of health and wealth.

At the bar, 21-year-old Svetlana is attaching black plastic tubes to her nose.

A new mobile phone accessory? A method of torture?

No, the blonde beautician says this is the latest trend on a night out.

The tubes are attached to canisters of pure oxygen.

Oxygen helps me relax. And you don't get a hangover the next day

Beautician Svetlana

She is paying to breathe in raspberry, orange or mint-flavour oxygen, at a cost of a mere $2 per blast.

Svetlana says it is better than drinking alcohol.

"Oxygen helps me relax. Instead of feeling drunk, I feel weightless and energised afterwards," she claims.

"And you don't get a hangover the next day!"

For those who need something a little more substantial, Shizlong also serves sushi, competing with all the other sushi bars that have sprung up in Moscow over the past year.

Tea total

In one of the cosy corner booths, customers Andrei Braginsky and Dasha Shatova are enjoying not a vodka nor even a gin and tonic, but the most fashionable drink of all - a cup of green tea.

You can't expect to get up and do a good day's work if you spend all night drinking vodka

Andrei Braginsky
PR consultant

Wearing a sharp designer suit, Andrei does PR for Russia's biggest mobile phone network, MTS.

His friend Dasha is a maths student and amateur gymnast who trains at the gym every day.

Both believe they are fairly typical of this new generation of twenty-somethings in urban Russia.

They drink in moderation, neither of them smokes, and Andrei says they and their contemporaries are a million miles removed from the old Russian stereotypes.

"People of our age now have money, and they have free time and they want to be good to themselves," he says.

"Work is very pressurised these days, and you can't expect to get up and do a good day's work if you spend all night drinking vodka.

"I don't think any of my friends do that any more - you can't afford to if you want to get ahead."

Preserve of the wealthy

Catering to those who want to be healthier is clearly a profitable business for some.

The Gemocode Clinic, a private Moscow health clinic, offers patients a new diet based on blood type.

The doctors here promise they can help 80% of clients lose weight effectively.

Drinking vodka 'is for the older generation'

Judging by the prices they charge, customers' wallets will also be a lot lighter by the end of the treatment.

Dr Sergei Medvedev says that all kinds of people come to the clinic, although most are relatively well-off.

"People want to be healthier so they can succeed in business and survive the everyday pressures of work," he explains.

"Russians look at lifestyle differently today. Country houses or dachas are now being built with swimming pools, and people are even starting to go jogging in the morning, with or without their bodyguards."

That is a telling remark. The kind of men and women he caters for can afford bodyguards - a symbol in Russia that you have really made it.

This new, healthier lifestyle remains the preserve of the rich and the very top of the emerging middle classes.

Joining a gym may be all the rage in Moscow, but membership will cost around $2,000 per year.

The average Russian salary is closer to $100 a month.

Perhaps that is one of the reasons why most ordinary Russians will take a lot of persuading before they spend several dollars on a blast of oxygen. Vodka and cigarettes are still a lot cheaper.