h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In my opinion how long you live doesn't much matter about food or booze. its much more about how lucky you were with your genes, and how lucky you are accident wise. My Grandfather was always being told off about his booze intake and booze killed him, he fell down the steps of the pub going out when he was 70. My grandmother lived to 100 smoked and drank a bit most of her life, and they did not have the healthiest of diets. my Father was an army PE instructor but died at36 from a heart attack. Icould give more examples but genarally speaking, forget the rest luck is the main thing.

I think in essence you're probably right. We can help ourselves a bit along the way I suppose but in the main, here's hoping to good luck

Well, we all have our anecdotes. For example, both my mother and father smoked quite heavily. My mother died in her late 40s from emphysema. My father, however, continued until he was 65 or so and suddenly (very abruptly) just have up, having the day previously bought his full month's supply. He kept them on the shelf above his bed, knowing that they were there should be ever need them. He never touvhed them again. He eventually died aged 82 from a totally non-smoking related condition (kidney/water-retention problems).

I believe that he never suffered from respiratory problems because, as a gardener, he had a very active outdoor life which kept his lungs reasonably clean.

I am a believer in eating a full range of different foodstuffs - but in moderation. As omnivores, we have the dentition to deal with meat and fruit/vegetables and therefore it MUST be most healthy to eat this variety. That is what we're 'designed' to do. I once had a chemistry lecturer who was a vegetarian, and he was frequently off work due to one illness or another.

My Entry on broccoli A48674244 explains that this is one of the so-called 'super foods' protective against a variety of cancers, including cervical - which is caused mainly by a virus (Human Papilloma Virus)

'...and they did not have the healthiest of diets.'

Well, 'healthy diet' is related to oners activity levels. Thus, miners etc needed a high fat diet to maintain their energy levels. Thus my Dad, who was a Geordie, coming from the mining community of NJarrow-Upon-Tyne loved bread and dripping . However, this would be considered very unhealthy nowadays, now that people tend to have much more sedentary jobs

So, in short, I think my take-home message is to 'relax and don't worry about it'.

Eat everything0 you like, but in moderation.

If you read the press, one day something is particularly beneficial, the next it is harmful. comes into this category. Until recently, drinking moderate amounts of was said to be protective against disease, the next (very recently) any amount of alcohol is dangerous . Just keep on drinking the - but in reasonable moderation

... and w.r.t. 'moderation', it's mainly the combination of a more sedentary life-style with over-indulgence in food which has given rise to the current A13785014 epidemic, whereby the current younger generation are set to be the first generation in history to be outlived by their parents

Genes do matter, but then again..... My parents are 88 and 89 respectively. They have some health problems that I don't have, and I have some problems that they never had.

Is exercise the answer? If you look at my father, who still chops wood and plays tennis, the answer is yes. If you look at my mother, who has never done mucjh physically, the answer is no.

Okay, how about having a strong will to live? Sometimes that works. Look at george Burns. But my Aunt Mary had a severe stroke in her 84th year. She begged the doctors to let her die. They refused. She lived another 8 years. Wanting to die will not help you if medical science and your body conspire to deny your wish.

How about a positive mental outlook? Depressives should die young, right? Tell that to Irving Berlin, who lived to be 102, and was miserable for the last 30 years of it.

There are a few areas in which longevity is generally better nowadays. Remember penicillin? Polio vaccine? There's a whole raft of microbes that want us dead, but we figured out ways of thwarting them. Lately, medical science has done a very good job of preventing people from dying young from hypertension and high cholesterol. Society in general has refused to tolerate smoking indoors in many places, with the result that many people developed the will power to stop smoking or at least smoke less. All these things count. A few decades from now, there may be almost as many men as women in the ranks of the senior citizens.

I think genes have a very strong part to play in health as in many other areas of life as they give a predisposition to various physical traits and illnesses. Exercise and diet are important but I can't see that worrying about either of these is any good whatsoever. Also there has to be the emotional and psychological motivation to want to live longer which can be provided by friends and family as well as important interests in life. So, in summary, I would say that longevity is something that is influenced by many aspects of a person's life which is why a fully balanced attitude is probably the best option.

'Exercise and diet are important but I can't see that worrying about either of these is any good whatsoever.'

Exactly what I said above. We are omnivores, so are 'designed' to eat any sort of foodstuff. It's just important that we do so in reasonable moderation.

Something that has been realised fairly recently is that human beings evolved at a time when food was very scarce and difficult to obtain. Therefore, in order to survive, we had to 'eat our fill' at the time.Human evolution hasn't been going for long enough for this need to be driven from our systems, and hence we have a tendency to 'binge eat'. We must make a conscious effort to avoid this, with food now being in such plentiful supply.

The famines *are* coming; they're just late like everything else.
The Beijing area is in the middle of a severe drought now. Who knows where drought could strike next? The capacity for eating when food is plentiful may yet come in handy in the future. But, yes, binge eating all the time is bad for longevity.