Quote:
Originally Posted by graciegirl
Cooking food over an open fire is not supposed to be good for you and now you are told to avoid a lot of barbecued meat as it is a carcinogen.
I think that all of those things that you mentioned are valid reasons that would contribute to a healthy life. I think people should eat a variety of food and particularly of different colors, that is the easiest way to think of it. Not as much meat as we used too and more vegetables and fruits, but still, STILL, cancer and bad things can happen to us.
Long life is not the prize for being virtuous. Wonderful medicines now exist that help us live longer and more healthily. Antibiotics and blood pressure medicines and medicine that lowers our cholesterol (which in many cases is caused by a genetic factor, rather than a diet factor) and a whole plethora of medicines are helping us live longer lives.
Diet and exercise are two very important factors in living a healthy life.
Choose a good physician, trained at a place you respect and do what he/she tells you to do is also very good advice.
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Good post. Most of what you say I agree with. No matter how healthy someone tries to be, something can always happen. And if something bad does happen, of course drugs should be considered as an option. But I think of drugs as a last resort if all of my attempts to be healthy fail. I know from experience that my system won't tolerate drugs very well. I believe I would be known as a "slow processor". For example, even a little caffeine each day seems to add up in my system. Anyway, here's some information I prepared just for you. See what you think of it:
"Health Expectancy Versus Life Expectancy"
The above heading comes from page 327 of the book, "The Okinawa Program". (2001 edition) Under that heading the authors explain that health expectancy is more important than life expectancy. Who among us would want to live 10 or 15 extra years in "decrepitude or dementia"?
At the time the book was published in 2001, Okinawans had a life expectancy of 81.2 and Americans had a life expectancy of 76.8. Not only was their life expectancy greater, but their "health expectancy" was greater too. They had less cancer, for example, and thus fewer deaths from cancer.
Yearly cancer deaths per 100,000 people:
........................OKinawa................U.S .
Breast:...................6....................... 33
Ovarian...................3....................... .7
Prostate..................4....................... .28
Colon.......................8..................... ...19
USF's Dr. Petersen has said that our health survey results will be compared with other groups. Will we be compared to other groups in the U.S. who have taken the same test? I think so, but what will that prove? Not much, in my opinion. We need to find a way to compare ourselves with the best in the world: Okinawans! To settle for less would be wimpy, in my opinion.