The fastest growing demographic group in America today is centenarians.
Now, as you struggle with whether you should drink 8 glasses of water or take xyz supplement or whether caffeine or alcohol is good or bad for your health, think about this:
A centenarian today was born in 2007. They survived
- An era of diphtheria, childhood diarrhea, typhoid, tuberculosis, all common diseases in the early part of the century.
- No vaccines against childhood diseases, ever.
- The smoke from open fires and industrial smokestacks from 1900 until 1950 at which time cars became the leading cause of smog.
- Breakfast of eggs and bacon, lunch of tuna fish sandwiches made at home, and dinners of pot roast, gravy, mashed potatoes, carrots, and apple pie for dessert (but no trans fats or high fructose corn syrup). More on this later in the month.
- WW I, the great depression, and WW II
- More than a few of them smoked at some time in their life.
- And perhaps even high blood pressure and cholesterol that went untreated for years (because we did not know any better).
- Social security, retirement, and pensions were not even in the vocabulary. Let alone, cars or planes, or phones, or computers, or the Internet. And certainly not U-Tube.
And still, they lived to 100. Maybe we need to rethink some of our rigidity about what it takes to be healthy.
These people who became centenarians ate natural food grown in their garden (a big, big hint); they did weekend work outdoors even if they had an office job; they spent the weekend gardening outdoors; they walked to the store, every store, all the time. And they did not watch television; they did not drive to and from the mall; they did not worry about supplements because they got all of their complete nutrition in everything natural that they ate.
So tonight, take a long walk, then have a glass of wine with dinner, enjoy your apple (fruit) pie dessert, and laugh. Life is good, life is long, life is good health.
Stay well. Dr. Bob