AdamFrisch wrote:
What’s the average lifespan of Swedes? 9th highest in the world. Guess who has similar food – cream, potatoes, butter, meat – Switzerland: 2nd highest lifespan in the world. The Japanese eat more rice and salty soy sauce than anyone else – 1st in longevity.
I’d say it has more to do with them being rich nations with advanced health care, able to extend lifespan more than others by use of medicine/surgery.
Exactly. Compare the typical street scene in say Greece with the typical street scene in say the UK or some other wealthy N European country. In Greece you see really old people hanging outdoors and being social. In the UK you don’t see many; they are largely in really poor health, with poor mobility, spending a lot of time in hospital and ending their lives glued to a chair all day in £500/week care homes where they get fed jam sandwiches… but they do make great statistics for the lifespan.
Habitual diet plays a huge role.
I lived in Japan for two years. Just by moving there and changing to a local diet (including local snacks / their equivalent of a bag of crisps, seven-eleven prepacked lunches etc.; not an ultra-health one) I slowly lost a stone (that’s about 6kg for the continentals, and 14lbs for the Americans). It took around half a year to adjust and then stayed level. This just happened on its own, no conscious action was taken on my part, and since it happened slowly it took some time to notice.
Then I moved back to Europe, and lo and behold, over about half a year it crept back up again to where it was before.
Then, as I aged a few more years, weight started to creep up a bit, and I changed one thing only – I cut out coca-cola (I consumed a lot, full sugar, too) entirely since earlier this year, and I am now halfway between in-Japan (where I also drank copious amounts of coke) and post-Japan weights. Still slowly drifting downwards, I hope not too much, otherwise I will have to eat more crisps :-) (I am around 68kgs / 10.5stone / 150lbs now)
Perhaps. But most northern European countries have pretty good health care, what explains the anomaly?
Another thing from a pro at constant dieting like myself: exercise is great and necessary, but it’s not a great weight loss tool in itself. The old adage, “losing weight is 80% diet and 20% exercise” seems pretty true. Personally, to lose weight I have to reduce intake, I can’t exercise it away.
losing weight is 80% diet and 20% exercise
I’d say it is more like 90/10 
Obviously it depends on the exercise but most people who need to lose weight are not going to get anywhere near the amount needed, no matter how hard they kill themselves. I do the gym too, a little, and see them all the time. A lot of them are drinking a litre of some glow-in-the-dark sugar solution while on the exercise bike. No idea who sent them there. Probably their GP, telling them “you can eat anything in moderation” (the standard NHS line, acknowledging that politics is the art of the possible, but coming up with a load of bollox like “if you don’t drink milk your bones will disappear”).
The reason for my post #33 is that I feel losing weight via eating plant-based stuff can be really easy.
But most northern European countries have pretty good health care
I don’t believe it does much. It prolongs life for sure, but most chronic conditions have no solutions. There is no pill which just fixes diabetes, alzheimers, etc (anything of relevance really). Cancer treatments are mostly medieval. They can screw together a broken leg pretty well; everything else is a lot more complicated, with side effects etc.
The optimal BMI if longlivety is your goal is between 25 and 27 btw, so slightly overweight.
Cycling to work has me down to 22.5, and the world health survey knocked 12 calendar years off. Although 60 is the real 60!
When you climb 8-10% gradients in North London on a steel commuter, a 22.5 BMI helps.
Cobalt wrote:
drifting downwards, I hope not too much, otherwise I will have to eat more crisps :-) (I am around 68kgs / 10.5stone / 150lbs now)
If you are an adult I suggest eating more….
I found a very good way to have some daily exercise! I purchased and live in an apartment at the 5th floor of a building without lift :) A bit of sado-maso but excellent for health.
ploucandco wrote:
I found a very good way to have some daily exercise! I purchased and live in an apartment at the 5th floor of a building without lift :)
I never use escalators or lifts either, even when there is one. Always the stairs (I find it ridiculous when people use the lift in a hotel to go down the two floors towards to gym). Apart from that, I have not had any proper exercise since I left school (in 1980), I have not even owned a pair of training shoes since that time. I have never ever set a foot in a fitness studio or gym and never will unless prescribed by a doctor. Nevertheless, the “test” in Peter’s link above makes me 12 years younger than I am – so it must be mainly because of nutrition I guess:
I don’t think very often about health issues, but since I decided that I want to make my living from flying aircraft I have to from time to time. So far all is well and if I don’t catch some fancy disease, cancer (from which I wouldn’t know how to protect myself) or fall off a horse and break my neck I should make it to retirement age in the cockpit. And always stay well below the “optimum” BMI. Way below.
I do wonder how that link computes your age. I suspect it puts the values into bands, rather than into a “continuous” formula. It makes me 43 i.e. 17 years below real time.
