To think food choices aren't everything regarding longevity?

[ThePigandPear]

I see a lot of food threads here and on other websites where people clash over what constitutes healthy foods, upf, etc.
I have a good diet and would like to remain fit, but I get the feeling that a lot of people choose to obsess over food because it is something they think they can control in a very uncertain world.

One person will suggest obesity has risen in tow with ultra processed foods.
Another will say "no! it's seed oils, low fat, sugar and so on!".
But few people suggest increasing car use, or having become far more sedentary, since these are lifestyle factors that many don't feel they have control over.
It is simpler to blame food.

So a healthy diet is very important, but what about sleep quality, stress, social connection, mental health and activity? A lot of those are very complicated and can't be as easily fixed.
I recall thinking this after reading about the famous Blue Zones, that the elder population were out playing tennis and gardening with company most days. However, the Blue Zones centenarians have been more recently debunked...

Sadly I have known a few people with very healthy lifestyle's and diets become ill or disabled, and a few who have died young. And there are always examples of that chain smoking great uncle who lived to 104 on beer, bacon and lard.

Good, healthy food is one thing we can make an impact with, but it is only a small part of the story, for me. The healthiest older people I have known have been very active (a LOT of walking), from hiking to just getting around on foot. They have also kept a social life outside of their home, and oddly enough, been single!
This is only from my own experience of course.
My mum was the very image of yoga, healthy eating, mediation, yet still suffered some debilitating health issues that could not be controlled by lifestyle, and became somewhat reclusive and sedentary in her old age as she had lost her community links. Family members who have got out there and kept doing stuff did seem to live much longer lives, regardless some bad habits (luck permitting).

I just don't think some good bread with peanut butter for brekkie is going to make a massive difference, or the occasional jar of supermarket sauce, unless I am piping adulterated shit down my throat 24-7.

Yep - I had sugar sprinkled on top of my ski black cherry yogurt and a teaspoon stirred into a glass of lemonade to stop it being too gassy for me 😆

Enjoy you food and drink don't shovel it in is possibly a good starting point.
Eat an orange instead of orange juice (to get the fibre bits) and instead of a bunch of custard creams from time to time.

Just small changes like that help much more than their effort and cost indicate.

An orange is cheaper than a bag of crisps now. Even multipacks!

The UPF industry have experts in chemistry and psychology to make their products addictive, there is the UPF BBC documentary still online it's fascinating, even down to the crinkle of a packet to appeal to your senses. Very clever, very evil, it's being compared to the tricks the tobacco industry got up to last century. Cartoons characters advertising, get the kids addicted to your brand and you have a customer for life type thing.

And if you can change your mindset at looking at these products as a marketing ploy to get your cash with no interest in what it does to you or your family it makes it easier to not buy them. (Similar to social media/online content if you understand that they want your, and your children's time and attention whilst they don't let their own kids go on youtube, it's much easier to turn off).

It's all very clever it really is.

There’s no doubt pollution and micro plastics are a problem but I don’t see this as part of the problem with this man. He’s not responsible for global manufacturing, consumption and pollution is he?

He’s a living experiment and if he has the funds and wishes to use them to do his own personal clinical trials that’s his choice.

We don’t have to do things that are uncomfortable or risky in life, we can stay safe and stay exactly where we are. But flying the first aeroplane, building the first rocket, doing the first heart transplant, these all require risk taking. He’s doing what he’s doing because most doctors wouldn’t allow it through normal channels. The doctor who discovered that stomach ulcers were caused by h pylori infected himself in the lab to prove to the other doctors and the public that he’d found the cause.

I’m probably just more accepting and open than you in allowing people to live their own lives as they wish, but then I’m ND too and really don’t understand why people think they need to cast judgment. Hes not bothered what anyone else does. He’s just doing what he believes in. He can stop at any moment but maybe he actually likes feeling younger and stronger!

As a child i ate virtually all upf. my diet improved when i moved out amd by my mid 30s was mostly clean and minimal upfs.

It's like the spending Vs saving mentality. Some people think we are here to have a good time, not a long time, others consider it safer to plan for the best.

If I am going to live to 80+ I'd rather not be unwell or destitute by my own hands.
I might be unlucky, sure, but I'm going to give myself the beet chance.

I don't understand this mentality - no I haven't watched his stuff online but I have an opinion on it. What are you basing the opinion on?

My post sounds rude I know, it's not meant to be. I have tried rewriting it.

I often find myself wondering about the inventions of my parents generation that were so revolutionary from a convenience point of view… cars so you didn’t have to walk, fast food so you didn’t have to cook, television for on demand entertainment, computers for work efficiency etc. All these things that were so wonderful and convenient because they made life easier but little did anyone know how detrimental they would be to our health.

And now we have monetarized a whole generation of influencers who we are watching from our couches try and teach about the things we should already know but seem to have forgotten. Movement, homemade food, breathe work, taking tech holidays, sleep, spending time outdoors.

That Bryan Johnson still had grey hair despite all his youth elixir!

obviously now he just dyes it

I agree he almost certainly dyes it. It doesn’t look natural. It’s not for me personally - his whole routine looks overwhelming and I’d drop at the first challenge, but I do think he’s right to focus on sleep and many of his other suggestions are just good common sense. He’s a vegan because he doesn’t want to hurt animals. He’s a very gentle person if you listen to him talk but obviously has an iron will which many ND people do have.

We let women butcher their bodies with plastic implants in their boobs and bums, which sometimes kill them and fillers on the face and lips. Look at Katie Price and the myriad copycats. I agree the ends of the spectrum don’t look too convincing but at least BJ is trying to do something useful as opposed to just playing to sexualised societal standards in a bid to gain followers.

I sometimes wonder if he’ll go too far and seriously injure himself or even die. But it’s his body so his choice. That’s what we say to women we really shouldn’t have double standards.

He may alternatively discover something extraordinary. Or perhaps nothing at all or probably something fairly mediocre, who knows. In the meantime I wish him well and lots of success with his experiments.

it's his life & money so he can do what he wants tbh.

His life is extreme, like an astronaut training for mars, its interesting to see how far he can push it - fair play to him

He addressed the loneliness factor at the end by starting up walking groups

Agreed - I watched him on a Zoe episode recently and found him fascinating and certainly it changed my opinion about him, having been quite negative prior. He is extreme but that’s clearly his thing and his choice and interesting for the rest of us to learn from.

Sometimes it really is just bad luck.

My cousin never smoked, drank moderately, ate fruit and vegetables liberally and played tennis. She died, very sadly, of breast cancer in her early 50s.

We are in the process of finding out whether we have an abnormal BRCA2 gene in the family, which would explain a lot.

I work in a health system that is two tiered - private and public.

It makes me laugh heartily that people think profit-driven care is better. So so many people believe this, who in fact have zero idea about good quality health care and commonly believe if the hospital has nice carpet and offers wine with dinner its a good a hospital........ It remains the case even in this system that if there is something actually wrong with you your best chance of survival is a large public teaching hospital. I would have nothing more than the most minor of surgery in a private hospital, having experience working as a doctor in both settings and having both the knowledge and the finances to obtain the best care available in the private setting.

Not sure why you thought I was 'aghast' at fat from my post? What a bizarre conclusion.

If you think a healthy diet involves a daily lunch of white bread and dripping, so 1/3 of meals without protein or vegetables, with around ten cups of sugary tea on top, our views certainly differ.

We watched the documentary.

It’s all edited of course.

He didn’t seem happy, from a NT viewpoint, chasing a dream of aging backwards and not enjoying the precious life time he has right now. Never eating out, or kicking back, or not taking 142 tablets a day or going to bed/getting up late.

Does the planet need people living to 160? Especially rich ones, their individual carbon footprints are huge.

He could put his time, money and indisputable enthusiasm to projects that would benefit him, and more people right now and probably have more fun in the process.

Would he be doing this without social media? Could it be a way he remains relevant in his mind?
He didn’t come across as a sane, relaxed, happy guy.

It all seemed lonely and pointless to us. Which is a shame because he didn’t seem like a horrible man, just lost.

My grandparents often ate bread and dripping, as did my Mum.

It was properly baked bread from the baker, or made at home, often wholemeal. Not the stuff made in the fast method sold in supermarkets.

And the dripping was a layer of fat and a layer of jelly from the meat, juices, bone stock, etc, glistening gelatine protein rich jelly. This is what dripping is.

Yes, a lot of fat, but not hydrogenated etc.

And they all lived to over 90.

Being vegetarian is not healthy. We are designed to eat meat.

It's interesting you say that, as I've been reading about pp going keto, even carnivore, and it helping with Parkinsons.

Here's a study about keto and Parkinson's
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38869924/

My two relatives who lived past 100 had a number of things strikingly in common.

• they walked almost everywhere
• they cooked from scratch,
• they lived rurally, so had plenty of space and clean air
• they were relatively stress free, neither working outside the home
• neither drank much, or smoked
• neither was wealthy so their diets were fairly basic - lots of stews, home grown seasonal veg etc.
• both were busy, cheerful, sociable, opinionated and would pitch in to help others.

This .
every person I know who has had cancer was slim and fit . When I myself was under the 2 week pathway the consultant had a shopping list of interests .
had anyone in the family had cancer
did I now or ever smoke
had I ever worked in a building know to have had asbestos
had I ever had contact with harmful chemicals through work or recreation eg weed killers .
nothing at all about diet and exercise .

Places where people generally live longer, Japan, and skinnier, SE Asia, often use a lot more fat, connective tissue, collagen etc in their diets. The stuff where we go yuck. Like dripping .

https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/causes-of-cancer/bodyweight-and-cancer/how-does-obesity-cause-cancer

https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/obesity/obesity-fact-sheet

But it’s not just cancer causes. Being fit and healthy will help with the treatment, ie more tolerant of chemotherapy, better outcomes of radiotherapy and operations etc.