Is nutrition extending or shortening lifespan?

(BuckRimfire) #1

I didn’t read all the linked articles, but the subhead “The wonders of modern medicine and nutrition…” caught my eye. Pretty sure the real wonders here are basic sanitation and antibiotics, and reduction in food-insufficiency. The McGovern committee’s original remit was to address the latter problem, and in the US they were at least substantially successful at that before they turned their attention to the dietary guidelines.

Post-dietary guidelines, it’s likely that nutrition policy is shortening lifespan with the diabetes epidemic. Just a little red meat (pun intended) for discussion…

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #2

There are a couple of videos on the Low Carb Down Under channel on YouTube, recordings of presentations at LCDU events by a senior executive at Swiss Re, one of the worlds largest reinsurers of life-insurance companies, which is greatly concerned that life expectancy has stopped increasing and has actually started to decline in Western countries as a result of the epidemic of chronic diseases.

Crédit Suisse’s life insurance division is also concerned by this development, and interestingly, the two companies’ research suggests to them that sugar consumption and the dietary guidelines are to blame.

The point in the linked article, that average lifespan in ancient times was low as the result of infant mortality and childhood diseases, was also noted by white doctors who encountered the Plains Indians of the United States before their diet shifted from their traditional diet to encompass refined sugar, seed oils, and refined starches. Despite the predations of infectious disease, anyone who survived to adulthood could expect to reach 100. These tribes were noted for the high percentage of their population 100 years old or older.

(BuckRimfire) #3

A few weeks ago, I had a tab open containing a long PDF version of one of the Swiss insurance company reports. I admit I didn’t read all of it, and now I can’t find it again in either my browser history or bookmarks. Another lame-8ss failure of record keeping!

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #4

I haven’t been able to train myself to do it, but I want to get in the habit of bookmarking first, reading later.

#5

If you use Chrome, it came out with a reading list feature recently which does just this. Kind of a special bookmark place.