Yeah, I think one key to longevity is to keep moving. Even better if you can get zone 2 movement mixed in there. Optimizing strength and VO2 max will push your marginal decade out there. I don’t run much anymore but I walk and hike daily and my hikes have significant elevation gain so I’m getting good VO2 max work.
I go up steep hills on a heavy bike almost every day.
I have a couple double black diamond trails I hike every week. A little over 1 mile and over 1K ft elevation gain. I’ve been hiking them for 20 years. I started wearing a weighted vest this year and I feel like I’ve gotten stronger. I love passing the young guys on the trail while wearing that thing. lol
Of course if god wanted us to be healthy, he wouldnt have invented beef wellington
When my wife and I retired (early) we decided eating healthier was going to be important and over the last 8 years or so we have done that. Recently we read a couple of books on UPF and it confirmed to us what a good lifestyle choice it has been.
If you can track them down, these two were very interesting. Once you know what some of the “ingredients” are it certainly makes you look at the back of a packet and make an informed choice.
One of the books also refers to some foods as Industrially Produced Edible Substances - thats enough for me to avoid to them. The addictive nature of these foods is also concerning.
Ultra-Processed People by Chris Van Tulleken
The Dorito Effect by Mark Schatzker
In the end, its all personal choice but there is no way I will ever go back to buying or eating anything that is more than minimally processed.
From Professor Michael Pollan of Harvard University:
“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
In addition, from me:
“Move as much as you can. Get out of breath. Lift stuff. Stretch.”
Best wishes,
Brian D.
I became vegan 4 years ago, and cut out drinking (except on special occasions), no sugary drinks, also I try now to eat a more balanced protein, fat, carb diet. Also I try and exercise everyday - 35 mins at least. I feel a lot better and no heath issues (I’m 55)
Why no fish?
Far too much emphasis on foods and not enough on balance.
The occasional burger with chips is fine, regular consumption not so good…
Between what?
I aasumed between different foods - a wide range of different food ingredients and sources of protein, fat and carbohydrate, such as types of veg (e.g. various green, various root, pulses), types of cereal, types of fruit, types of meat and fish, etc - a bit of most and not too much of any one.
my reasons for stopping were ethical and also health and well being.
Thank you for sharing - a thoughtful post. Another thing is I have learned is to stay calm and in mental peace and try and live mindfully. Stress is bad.
I’ve been making my own sausages for a while.
Simple ingredients- Italian sausage a favourite using just fennel, garlic, ground pepper and salt with fresh ground pork shoulder.
None of the further added questionables stuffed into them like nitrates, stabilisers and god knows what else.
Recently getting into curing my own meats.
Always loved hams, salami and chorizo and usually only buy the best. Although they are still questionable and definitely ultra processed.
Doing my own should be a step in the right direction.
Ham has been the easiest so far. Looking at smoking them next.
Have read a few articles of late suggesting that 30 a week is more important than 5 a day. That’s 30 different “natural” foods - nuts, seeds, fruits, legumes, vegetables, etc. The rational is that the gut microbiome benefits from a broad range of different nutrients. Interestingly, and helpfully, coffee, tea and chocolate count as 3 of the 30.
Also seems to be more of a push on the benefits of fermented foods, kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut, kimchi and so on. Was even one suggestion (again helpfully) that bottle (or cask) conditioned ales were of benefit.
Personally I have found the 30 a week and fermented foods (unpasteurised) suggestions to be beneficial to my health. Of course we are all individuals and have different needs, for example I am afflicted with a couple of auto immune disorders and as a consequence have a low carbohydrate diet. Were I to follow the current Government dietary guidelines I’d be tucked up in bed stuffing my face with painkillers.
Willy.
I think one important thing NOT to do, as alluded in my first post in this thread, is jump on and follow fads. All sorts of dietary recommendations, warnings, etc come and go, some with no real dietary science background to them. Even official government advice, though based on evidence, has sometimes been found to be wrong: e.g back in the 1970 or maybe 80s: butter is harmful, so people switched to other yellow spreads …with high levels of hydrogenated fats. Then it was realised that actually in moderation butter is not harmful, but hydrogenated fats in excess likely are. Or eggs are bad for you due to their cholesterol … then later eggs are good for you. A glass of red wine a day is good for you … then maybe not so much (that one I liked, and did adopt - but must confess it was wilful excuse not true belief it was right!).
This again is where balance and “a bit of everything and not too much of one thing” seems to me to be the way to do it, never a knee-jerk reaction to latest news but taking it, where well substantiated, as useful assisting guidance while still mindful of the need for balance.
Yes there’s nothing wrong with sausages every now and then, especially if they’re grilled. Making your own fresh ones is even better and nothing in there that’s particularly bad.
Hams, salami and chorizo are more processed and apparently have a more definite link to cancer. However, in small/moderate quantities, they’re not going to do any damage.
Like I said earlier, your whole life is a balancing act of what gives you pleasure and what’s good/bad for you. Perhaps the person eating sausages tonight is having a salad with chorizo thrown in. This makes them eat salad or more salad. Also the thought that the person is eating his favourite food tonight encourages them to go for a run in the afternoon.
Perhaps the person who thinks he’s eating the perfect plant-based diet is not exactly thrilled about his dinner tonight and so his enthusiasm to go running is dashed.
The examples are endless.
One caveat, smoking. Damages everything and reduces your ability to be active.
Hi Dev
I gave up meat for three years in the 1990s because of an aversion to factory farming.
The reason I started again was because I went on a long climbing and trekking trip in Nepal with a girlfriend in the monsoon.
I was the guide and porter for both of us, carrying both rucksacks, and we got bitten a lot by leeches.
I got dysentery which laid me out for four days in a tiny hamlet.
As we got going again I had lost a lot of weight and strength.
We were eating a curry one night and I commented on how delicious it was, and then we discovered it had chicken in it.
After that I started eating small amounts of meat again in my diet until I recently gave up meat again at the end of last year.
Photo of me still very thin on the way home from that trip is below (probably taken in Tibet).
Jim
As well as all the harm smokers do to themselves, I broke this news to a constant moaner at work today.
He smokes 20 B&H every single day. So does his non-working wife.
£15.30p per pack.
So, before tax etc, each year he has to earn over £14k. To make himself a lot less healthy.
The last time I ate meat was in 1981, but I do eat a bit of fish. I’m rather partial to Quorn plastic chicken, which is nice in a sandwich with sliced tomato and chutney. Of course, this fake meat crap is beyond ultra processed, so I’m giving it up. It’s not cheap and has plastic packaging anyway.