Do the most long lived people that you know have healthy lifestyles?

[Bumpitybumper]

I have been listening to a few podcasts lately that have really stressed the importance of healthy living and things like diet and exercise. None of them really have any tolerance for things that I think most of the population enjoy quite regularly like the odd biscuit or cake. They also don't think it's enough to eat a diet that would be traditionally considered healthy with 57
portions of fruit and veg as now the emphasis is on eating the right fruit and vegetables and nuts and seeds etc. You have to do a certain number of days cardio and strength training. It really is never ending.

It got me thinking that the people that I know that have lived the longest in relatively good health have generally been pretty active and eaten well but haven't really got anywhere close to the lifestyle that these health experts advocate. Is my experience unusual or have others found the same thing in their lives?

My husband was one of them, died aged 50 with bowel/liver cancer

slim/ fit as a fiddle and I’m talking long distance hiking and always active and never smoked.

however until his mid 40s he was obese and although he had lost a lot of weight he still had a diet high in ultra processed food, ate loads of ham,’bacon,’ sausages and also worked in factories nowhere there were lots of chemicals and crappy health and safety standards (I worked there myself so I know) and I think that his crappy diet, ingestion of a 20 year period of dangerous chemicals took his toll and by the time he was 50 it was too late

This is obviously just my personal anecdotal experience…

I think longevity is a bit of style and genetics. My mothers family all lived to a decent age. 10 siblings and not 1 had a heart attack, not 1 had a stroke, not 1 has had cancer. None of them have a particularly healthy life style and in fact a few have been long term smokers and drinkers. I’ve not idea how they managed to be healthy for so long give their lifestyles? I can only assume they have some genetic situation that comes into play. At least 3 are VeRy heavy smokers and 2 are alcoholics.

I think it's down to one's genes and happenstance.

My working class mother lived to 91 - she smoked the odd cigarette as a very young women, about once a year had a Mackeson or Snowball, and ate highly processed crappy food.

My great gran lived to about the age of 85 and was a chain smoker her whole life. My gran on the other side of the family was also a big smoker and lived until she was around 87. Both just had normal diets for their generation
i.e. no wellness foods but things like meat and two veg mostly. Generics definitely seems important.

My MIL is on her 90s - never knowingly exercised, likes her food (although never overweight), and just went about her life as a teacher and an avid clothes shopper! She’s never smoked though and rarely drank. No-one in her family before her lived this long, she’s still physically and mentally fit - I call her la cucaracha (behind her back obvs)

So many posters seem to agree that genetics are key. I don't know if that is a relief or depressing. I suppose it depends on if you think you have good genetics or not.

No. It's mostly genetics. I've also found that with myself--I used to be a runner, always ate well, etc., then developed a rare neurological condition and now have difficulty even walking.

Diet and exercise can help, but genetics is really the determining factor.

My granny is 93 next month she consumes no fruit & only veg with her dinner e.g stew or meat, potatos & veg. she doesn’t eat pasta or pizza or rice, she eats a lot of bread & eats the same things pretty much everyday including a couple of biscuits but she’s doing something right as her son died last year at 70 🤷‍♀️ her daily diet is like this

sausage sandwich for breakfast (she doesn’t eat cereals either)
cheese or ham sandwich for lunch or soup in the winter
cup of tea & a couple of chocolate biscuits (kit kat, rocky etc) mid afternoon
then her dinner
then a cake at night (pineapple cake, jam tart etc) or another biscuit

Both my grandparents on my dad's side are in their mid-90s. They have a huge garden and my grandma has always grown her own vegetables there for the family to eat. They never have highly processed foods, everything is from scratch. They don't drink or smoke. I really think this is what has kept them alive and well. My grandparents on my maternal side were the opposite, overweight, smokers, lived off egg and chip type dinners. Both died by the age of 70.

My great nan died at 101, she was about 4ft 11 tall and probably the same round. She smoked a cigar every day from the age of 13 and had a sherry or glass of port each evening after dinner. She had nine children, my Nan was the oldest and she died a couple of weeks ago at the age of 97. Seems it’s genetics as far as my maternal family go.

My relative who lived in to her mid 90s did not have a healthy diet in my lifetime, but I assume probably did in her younger days as there would not have been highly processed food available and she often spoke about how during the war years they ate well as they grew vegetables and had chickens for eggs. She always had a very low stress life though- through luck and a small inheritance she and her DH had a fully paid for home before they were married so they never had money worries despite both having what would not be classed as entry level jobs. She also never had any children, and never wanted any children. I suspect that the low stress plus genetic good luck is why she didn't have any significant illness in all her life, despite basically living on cake, chips and cups of tea for the last 20 years of it!

I tend to agree that it's down to genetics and luck but I also think that all these 90+ year olds lived on a restricted diet (because of the war/s and because life was restricted in the 20th century compared to now),
walked or cycled a lot,
didn't have bodies full of plastic (it's not just whales and dolphins),
didn't grow up with massive amounts of toxic chemicals poured on their food in the fields or on furnishings, packaging, cosmetics, etc, which leach into rivers and the sea and enter our bodies in various ways,
didn't eat meat full of antibiotics and growth hormones,
didn't live with polluted air and water from motor vehicle exhaust, industrial fumes etc., and so on.

Honestly it's not difficult to do a little research and see just how polluted an environment we live in now. Organic means nothing besides the poisons we live with.

The other thing you rarely hear about now is the nuclear accident at Chernobyl in 1986 when I remember it being said that the nuclear fallout cloud which hovered over Europe and the UK for years, not months, would lead to 25,000+ extra deaths from cancer 25+ years down the line. then there's the 2012 nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan which is still leaching nuclear waste into the sea and Japan is to start releasing contaminated water soon https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02057-y

Is it surprising that there is so much cancer and other illnesses now with environmental origins?

Yea and no. I know people who’ve been ultra careful with diet and exercise, they have lived long lives but generally spending a long time being ill and ultimately wasting away in a home of a horrible disease. Perversely, and those I know that are old and eat/drink anything and do little exercise are generally happier and healthier. The common factor I’ve seen is that stress makes you die younger, regardless of other lifestyle choices. But it’s a very small group to base any theory on! But I opt for eat/drink what I want and live stress free wherever possible. 🤷‍♀️

Health is a big business now. Gyms, supplements, various treatments etc etc. Is any of it needed? I'm not convinced.

All the older women in my family got their exercise from walking and doing housework. They didn't see a need for additional exercise outside of that. Now people drive everywhere, housework is more automated and/or they have a cleaner, so they do need more exercise.

Most of my relatives have made mid 80s irrespective of lifestyle. They don't do anything massively unhealthy but likewise never did anything that nowadays is deemed almost necessary to have a long life.

Mid 80's would suit me just fine. I have no desire to get to my 90s and beyond!

The common factor I’ve seen is that stress makes you die younger, regardless of other lifestyle choices

Agree with this 100%. I've seen the same over the years. It's why in my 50's I left my very high stress job and took a role below mine where the stress level is virtually zero. My hobbies are calming and relaxing and I entertain no drama among family & friends! My ongoing goal is to keep stress to an absolute minimum.

I've been thinking about this a lot recently!! These are my observations so far!

The long lifers I know grew up on (so spent the first 25-30 years of life) eating whole, home cooked food, because that's what there was.

They also lead quite active lifestyles out of necessity - everything was just more difficult without mod cons.

They didn't have all day programming on TV, socialising was in person, and families lived close by.

I think the mixture of real food, community, and using your body for it's purpose is the way to go.

All these people still had a glass of wine, beer and smoked at some point! And there was definitely cake.

On the flip side, even though they lived a long time, a lot of them found themselves quite decrepit in old age as they had never thought about actually 'exercising' before. They hadn't needed to. And as they got in to the last 25-30 years of life and modernity caught up with them, they then didn't actively pursue exercise or the way they used to eat.

Not in the slightest. My nan lived to over 100, drank, smoked, ate microwave meals loaded with salt and added more. She was also horrendously vicious to and about people and found nothing more hilarious than making children cry.

Actually no. My nana and my great nana lived to 98 and 100 respectively, neither ever went into nursing homes and remained independent until death, retaining most of their marbles until the end. Longevity seems to run in the genes of the women on that side because I believe many of the other women lived well into their 90's too.

Neither lived what would be considered "healthy" lifestyles these days. Both drank quite heavily, smoked like chimneys, and enjoyed more than the average amount of cakes and biscuits. Nana was vegetarian, great nana was not. They had horses and dogs so were both quite physically active, and worked hard, but neither exercised as an independent thing (no gyms or walking for the sake of it or anything).

I think genetics has more to do with it than anything really.

DH Nan died at 94. She never smoked and only had a glass of sherry at Xmas. She had a hard life though as her DH died at 40 leaving her with 5 small children.

The ones I knew grew up poor but not destitute. So not a lot of food, though not starving, no money for alcohol or cigarettes. So healthy due to lack of unhealthy options I guess.

My Grandad and one of my uncles both lived to a great age. More importantly, they were for and active right to the end. Probably, as father an son, genes played a part, but not all the sons lived so long.

They both had active jobs, both walked everywhere (Grandad lost his sight in one eye during the Grest War and never drove) both had allotments and the gentle activity that goes with that plus loads of vegetables, both drank only very minimally. I think they both smoked in their youth but not when I knew them.

My DH died at 53, he was over weight, sneered at "rabbit food" and did no exercise after he left the Army. He was unlucky too, but also told his cancer was incredibly rare in non smokers of healthy weight.

Not so sure about healthy lifestyle my Mum smoked like a chimney and was 94 when she died but she was always slim. Maybe the overweight elderly exist they exist but every very old person I have ever met has been slim.

my paternal grandfather eat organic food and exercised every day through his work, my maternal grandmother eat simple food and was a housewife but they never had a car so she walked everywhere. Both lived into their mid 90s. Neither ever snacked, they eat their meals and that was that.

For me its the living comfortably in your body until the end of your days, rather than having health issues which affect the quality of your life.

The food you eat will affect your internal organs, type 2 diabetes will shorten your life span, your kidneys will slowly decline over time is one major health issue facing thousands of people. Strokes and cardiovascular disease are the biggest killers, bad diet and inactivity are major contributing factors, they don't kill you outright but leave people lingering on

@Comety my grandfather had an allotment, all the vegetalbes where blanced and frozen for winter

So many posters seem to agree that genetics are key. I don't know if that is a relief or depressing. I suppose it depends on if you think you have good genetics or not.

Personally I find the whole genetics aspect depressing. I've been on and off veggie since my teens, never eat red/processed meat and exercise every day. Whilst I drink, it's not to excess and I'm a non smoker.

BUT my mother has chronic kidney disease so am I destined to have kidney issues too?

For reference she has a shockingly bad diet of ready meals, cakes etc and has been overweight for as long as I can remember. She has been in and out of hospital for the last year and yet still refuses to make any changes to her diet.