Quote:
Originally Posted by jimbo2012
That is very interesting question, my quick answer is processed foods.
But currently the USA ranks #38 in the world relating to life expectancy. 
Average life span
1880 41
1900 49
1930 59
1950 68
1970 70
1990 75
2011 78
Leading causes heart, cancer, stroke, pulmonary, PNEUMONIA. DIABETES (the last two are increasing)
So not that many made it into the 90's as you may have thought. |
Perhaps no one knows for sure how many made it. But just in my family alone there were several. All of my grandparents were born in the 1870s and all of them lived very long lives. One grandmother lived to 89 and my grandfather lived to 97. The others were close behind. I had a great aunt who lived to 100. And there was another ancestor (listed in my family tree that was researched by my cousin's wife) of a man who was born in 1850 and died in 1956. How about that!! He lived to 106 years old.
One reason why your charts show such short lives is because there was a high rate of infant mortality. But if you didn't die as an infant or during the first 5 years, and didn't die from yellow fever etc, your chances were pretty good. From my understanding, all of my ancestors who were born in Europe had gardens. And they mostly ate natural whole foods rather than processed. They didn't have access to read meat either.