sixdogs
Super Star Member
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2007
- Messages
- 13,805
- Location
- Ohio
- Tractor
- Kubota M7040, Kubota MX5100, Deere 790 TLB, Farmall Super C
I am rather a nihilist when it comes to diet. While I believe the epidemiologic data on heart disease and diet, I recognize that what is true for the population average is not always true for an individual. That allows me to ignore, with a partially clear conscience, those parts of "healthy diet" recommendations that interfere with the enjoyment of life. I'd also rather have fun and enjoy my life now than add a few weeks or months to the tail end of life. Having watched parents age, I don't particularly want to reach my 90's and would be perfectly happy to wake up dead on my 86th birthday. If I die a bit early because I consumed a more flavorful diet, I would consider that a very fair trade.
Trouble is, it doesn't have to work that way. You could wind up at 72 laying in the middle of a parking lot and looking up at the sky after a stroke. There you lay, twitchin' one way and then the other while a kid with pimples and an 80 year old crossing guard wonder what to do next. Yeah, eat stuff and be merry but pay reaonable attention the the daily diet, exercise and it will increase your odds somewhat.
My 73 year old friend and I were out tootin' around the back roads two years back and discussing his mom's upcoming 100 th birthday party. He was talking how he would live to be the same age and considering his terrible diet, I thought that a bad idea in the Karma department.
Anyway, he was driving unusually bad, even for him. I had noticed recently that he was driving bad but that one day was all I could take. I said move over and I took the reins and when we got home had my wife call his wife and explain he needed to see a doctor and ASAP. Turns out he had a brain problem and probably had a stroke or two maybe days or weeks earlier and neglected the symptoms.
That was nearly the last time he drove and now it's a big deal if he can get his walker around the dining room table. So there but for the grace of God go I.
Sure, eat stuff but don't count on ancestry to lower your total cholesterol, blood pressure or life expectancy. Genes help, but life is relative. I've seen a lot of people die over the years and if there is a commonality to it I'd say it won't happen on our terms.