This is true-we do have to die from something but hopefully it is old age!   You know, at about 100+ we have slowly rusted away on the inside from breathing and we cark it.  A lot of people take the attitude of, “I have to die from something, so while I am here, I might as well enjoy myself and I like steak, chips, coke and alcohol”(or whatever there particular poison is).  One of the problems of course is that there is not clear information for people about what to avoid for a longer healthier life and what to do for a longer healthier life.   Clear sustained information along with increase in price, does change behaviour-look what has happened with cigarettes.   The same thing could be achieved with processed and take away food, meat and dairy.

People are clear that  they have to die from something, but not so clear that they have to live with whatever they are going to die from for a very long time.  This can be very unpleasant, unless it is  healthy old age, that you are going to die from.  I am quite happy living with old age for a long time.  Not so happy living with heart failure, diabetes, arthritis, lung disease of various kinds, various bowel inflammatory diseases, alzeihmers or other brain disorders and so on.

The period of life that people are experiencing, where their quality of life is greatly diminished due to chronic illness is extending.   It is not much fun to be sick and restricted  in the possibilities for your life.  Simple pleasures are often lost to you.  For example, we went camping last weekend and I saw a man who couldn’t get down to the beach, where he wanted to take photos of the sunset, as he was unable to walk up and down the path to the beach.

He stated his knees were no good.  It was easy to see why they may be no good.  He was obese, so the pressure on his knees over his life would have been enormous.  They weren’t designed to carry that weight.  It is likely he was also eating inflammatory foods(arthritis is an autoimmune disease-inappropriate immune response causing inflammation.  This is true of  many of the diseases of the western world)

Along with food, sex is one of the great pleasure of life.  In America, 40% of men over 40 have trouble getting an erection because their blood vessels are blocked with cholesterol and fat and they can’t get enough blood flow.   This is why Drs are seeing trouble getting an erection as a sign of possible heart disease.

The good news is that you don’t have to become vegan or an extreme exercise freak to extend your life and  increase the quality of your life.  Being a vegan exercise freak, will be extremely good for you and you will feel great, but smaller steps will make a difference.     Four steps cut your chance of disease and extend your life.  These are:

• don’t smoke(that is a no brainer)
• don’t be overweight (bmi(body mass index) less than 30
• 3.5 hours of physical activity/week
• eat healthy where eating healthy is defined as eating lots of fruit and veggies, lots of whole grain bread and low meat (this is not the optimum diet for the human body, but in this study, this is what they were using as the benchmark)

http://nutritionfacts.org/video/turning-the-clock-back-14-years/

So, it doesn’t have to be all or nothing.  Any step in the right direction is good and as they say, “from little things big things grow!”