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Here's what seems blindingly obvious to me from everything I've read: eating a balanced diet, staying fit (strength and cardio), having a healthy social life, a
by jgrahamc 3y ago
Here's what seems blindingly obvious to me from everything I've read: eating a balanced diet, staying fit (strength and cardio), having a healthy social life, are vital for staying healthy as you age.
- upofadown 3y agoThe study only considered cardiorespiratory fitness. So from what we know from the study, eating a balanced diet, being strong, and having a healthy social life might all cause prostate cancer.
- _dark_matter_ 3y agoAnyone who regularly lifts weights enough to "be strong" will have far above average cardiorespitory fitness. For example, cardio became my limiting factor deadlifting, and I had to start incorporating more running in order to lift more. Heavy weights can work out your cardio system to a surprising degree!
- vasco 3y agoSocial life is good for a healthy brain but there's other ways. The main benefit of "social" is not living alone so someone calls an ambulance for you when you have a stroke or a bad fall at home.
- frereubu 3y agoA friend of mine is a cardiac nurse and get massively frustrated by the overly complex regimens that people follow while ignoring the obvious stuff. e.g. going for low-gluten diets while drinking too much alcohol and not exercising enough. In terms of food I've always loved Michael Pollen's description of healthy eating as opposed to fad diets: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
- pauln99 3y agoI think Pollen should have said "Eat real food", and stopped there. Then our appetite will take care of itself, and won't require conscious - and ultimately - futile endeavour. And eating meat's fine (from a health perspective, if not ethical necessarily). We've been eating it for a couple of millions of years.
- n4r9 3y ago> eating meat's fine... We've been eating it for a couple of millions of years. The behaviour of ancient humans doesn't necessarily indicate what will keep us modern humans healthy into old age, though. Do we even know whether they ate meat everyday? Personally speaking, I will generally put on too much weight if I follow my appetite and don't count calories or follow some kind of plan. That's true even if I eat "real", home-cooked food.
- darkstar_16 3y agoThis is true. The early humans likely just ate one meal a day, and were moving a lot. They also ate when they got hungry and not necessarily when it's time for "lunch".
- vidanay 3y agoI'm almost certain that scheduled meals rose to prominence with the industrial revolution (aka, "clocking in and out".)
- eggdaft 3y agoI’d roll back a bit on meat. It can be very fatty, particularly red meat. And it does significantly raise risks of various diseases, including cancer. If you’re going to eat it, I’d be very selective about the types and sources you consume. Humans didn’t exist millions of years ago…
- Etheryte 3y agoI'd say this is intentionally missing the point. Where you draw the line between homo sapiens and the previous predecessor is subjective and largely arbitrary. The point is that we and our evolutionary ancestors have been eating most edible things we could get our hands on for as long as we go back.
- throwawaaarrgh 3y agoExcept that everyone's body is different, and sometimes you really should be on a particular diet of some kind. Ask your doctor what to eat, eat that. When they say "stop drinking", "cut back the salt", "eat more fiber", etc, do it.
- oldpersonintx 3y agoThe idea that you need a highly personalized custom diet is a lie peddled by everyone who profits from this You do not need to see a doctor prior to eating kale Your doctor is a person who uses WebMD to determine what prescription to write you as quickly as possible. Your doctor is probably unhealthy also.
- saiya-jin 3y agoMy wife is a doctor, most of of our friends have at least one, often both as doctors. Most of them are living healthily, but that may be also due to location - Geneva, Switzerland which has strong French influence. Meaning good high quality food is default, portions smaller than US, tons of physical exercise is a default here, we have beautiful nature and mountains at our doorsteps so that helps. My banking IT colleagues fall into exactly same category. But then there are the rest, which have various issues like eating crap, overweight, no sports etc. Yet they know fully darn well where it leads to. Either they make some mental bypass like smokers 'it won't happen to me', or they are at peace and enjoy themselves. Proper knowledge of consequences is not enough to persuade everybody, regardless of their IQ. Also, even healthily folks that are say anxious go sometimes on regretful binging spree when things get tougher.
- MrVandemar 3y ago> Ask your doctor what to eat, eat that. Ummmm ... maybe. I work in a medical practice, and I don't think the doctor's really have that great an understanding of nutrition. I'm not sure it's even something they study at med-school.
- Celmfire 3y ago
- MattGaiser 3y agoI don't think there is much disagreement on how to be healthier. The problem is how to be healthier without it costing too much in terms of effort, pain, sacrifice, etc.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- ulfw 3y agoWhat does gluten have to do with heart health?
- brodouevencode 3y agoMinimal, but that was not what OP said.
- ak_111 3y agoThe extreme all meat diet have only started gaining wide mainstream traction (as far as I can tell) only over the last 6-8 years (and for some reason seems to overlap strongly with certain segment of crypto and MAGA population). So it will be interesting to track progress in the population who committed to it in the next few years since I think it takes a decade or so for a diet to start exhibiting long-term health effects in a significant sample. Anecdotally from my small group of 10 friends that I know who committed to it, 3 quit it after a few months because they couldn't give up carbs, 4 still swear by it after a few years, and 3 said that it was causing them health problems around the year mark so they gave it up.
- blitzar 3y ago> The extreme all meat diet have only started gaining wide mainstream traction (as far as I can tell) only over the last 6-8 years The extreme all meat diet was called "The Atkins Diet" 20 years ago, you might have seen it mentioned on a retro rerun of a tv show. As with most things, and certainly everything to do with diet, excercise and fashion - there is nothing actually new.
- infecto 3y agoHow is low gluten obvious?
- cuchoi 3y agoThe author was giving that as an example of a complicated diet that might not help as much as "the obvious".
- ddalex 3y agoI've read that regular ejaculations reduce prostate cancer risk. Perhaps getting fit and eating right lead to more regular ejaculations by more easily encountering sexual partners ?
- NotSuspicious 3y ago[dead]
- manfre 3y agoYou assume a partner is needed.
- jgrahamc 3y ago[dead]
- blitzar 3y agoThat risk of prostate cancer was reduced by 20 percent for men who ejaculated 21 times a month, compared to men who ejaculated four to seven times a month [0], A similar Australian study found the risk was reduced by 36 percent when men ejaculated seven times a week [1]. You gotta pump those numbers up. Those are rookie numbers in this racket. [0] https://bjui-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1464-410X.2003.04319.x https://bjui-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.104... [1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15069045/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15069045/
- blitzar 3y ago> eating a balanced diet, staying fit (strength and cardio), having a healthy social life can reduce cancer / heart disease / stroke / lung disease / early death / every other known ailment risk by X0%
- philshem 3y ago> eating a balanced diet, staying fit (strength and cardio), having a healthy social life ... and sleep
- throwawaaarrgh 3y agoAdults need less sleep as they age. Still useful to have it, of course...
- going_north 3y agoIf you exercise more in order to get fit, sleep becomes more important.
- LoveMortuus 3y agoCould you please point me towards some papers, where I could learn more about this, because I was under the impression that the amount of required sleep doesn't really change throughout the life (excluding the baby faze).
- bregma 3y agoYou want to live forever? Don't do any of the things that make living worthwhile.
- simmerup 3y agoThere’s more to life than processed food and sitting on a couch
- hgomersall 3y agoNot doing exercise makes living worthwhile?
- LoveMortuus 3y agoI do think that people underestimate the dangers of prolonged stress. My hypothesis is that stress is the real killed. This might be survivorship bias, but I often see people that are above average old, smoking. That's why I think that perhaps the reduction of stress that smoking provides, could be more beneficial than the negative side. We do know that nicotine does have a neuroprotective effect and smoking does include a specific way of breathing. I'm not saying smoking is good or that anyone should smoke. But I do think it's worth investigating. I personally try to avoid stress whenever possible, of course, within reason.
- chii 3y ago> often see people that are above average old, smoking. it's quite a sample bias, because those who you see smoking are likely quite healthy and thus is _able_ to smoke to old age (or won a genetic lottery to be able to withstand smoking). What you need to count is how many people smoke, and then the % of them dying earlier than those who don't. Otherwise, sample bias will give you the wrong conclusions, esp. if this bias is affirming your own world view.
- zeteo 3y agoIsn't it the same with exercise, though? > Those who you see exercising are likely quite healthy and thus _able_ to exercise to old age (or won a genetic lottery to be able to withstand a lot of exercising). > What you need to count is how many people try to exercise, and then the % of them dying earlier than those who don't
- chii 3y agoIt's not exactly the same, because there's actually studies that tries to answer this exact question - https://youtu.be/-3dt7rpvz4g?t=294 https://youtu.be/-3dt7rpvz4g?t=294 TLDW; the curve of risk/mortality vs amount of exercise is a u-shaped curve, which means if you _don't_ exercise, you also die earlier, and if exercised _too much_ , you also die earlier.
- danjc 3y ago
- Attummm 3y agoThe statement, although true, is missing nuance. For example, a balanced diet is ambiguous. Does a balanced diet include fast food? How much ultra-processed food? How many carbs? Do we need to change the above answers with age or when someone is diabetic or has high blood pressure? Thus, even though almost everyone will agree with the balanced diet statement from the outset, what constitutes a balanced diet will yield a diversity of answers.
- wazoox 3y agoA sane diet includes exactly zero ultra processed food, I think the data is pretty clear now.
- sigmoid10 3y ago>Does a balanced diet include fast food? How much ultra-processed food? There seems to be some confusion here. "Balanced" means balanced in terms of micro and macro-nutrients that the body needs. Not balanced in the ratios of ultra-processed junk food and healthy food.
- Attummm 3y agoThat was my point on ambiguity, leads to confusion. Your interpretation is yours but how would your interpretation account for research on ultra processed food. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/what-are-ultra-processed-foods-and-are-they-bad-for-our-health-2020010918605 https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/what-are-ultra-processed...
- sigmoid10 3y agoThat was not the question. Your question was: "Does a balanced diet include fast food?" The answer to that is simple: No. A balanced diet is a healthy mix of essential nutrients. Highly processes foods rich in fat or sugar are not part of it [1]. Most advisories merely acknowledge that a large part of the population doesn't want to stop eating this stuff completely. But the real goal should always be zero. [1] https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/food-guidelines-and-food-labels/the-eatwell-guide/ https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/food-guidelines-and-fo...
- matsemann 3y agoThe problem with that statement is that it's basically a tautology, since the words "balanced", "healthy" etc. hide all the complexities. What is a "balanced" diet? What is moderately fit? What is the definition of a healthy social life?
- medo-bear 3y agoHere is my 'common sense' attempt: > What is a "balanced" diet? Eating all the necessary macro and micro nutrients in bounds of callorie requirements. > What is moderately fit? Walk for 5km without issue. Do 10 pushups. Do 20 situps. Do 20 squats. > What is the definition of a healthy social life? Dont let work be your whole life. To many people free time pretty much boils down to having dinner and going to bed. Instead engage more in socializing outdoors.
- eurekin 3y ago> Walk for 5km without issue. Do 10 pushups. Do 20 situps. Do 20 squats. Squats are often considered one of the most challenging exercises, as my physiotherapist points out. It's easy to underestimate them – I did 70 squats once and ended up straining my back. The key to a proper squat is maintaining stable back support throughout the entire movement. This principle isn't just crucial for squats; it's fundamental for all heavy weightlifting exercises. It's also incredibly relevant to everyday tasks like doing laundry or cleaning, as these activities often involve similar lifting motions. This concept is known as maintaining stability in the sagittal plane. However, it's equally important to focus on coronal and axial support, strength, and pain-free movement. It's worth noting that exercises like situps and pushups, often seen as simpler, can also be performed incorrectly by beginners. Regarding diet, it's an even more complex topic. Nutrition needs can vary greatly from person to person, and a one-size-fits-all approach is rarely effective. It's essential to consider individual differences and specific circumstances when discussing dietary advice.
- medo-bear 3y agoSorry I meant weight-free squats. In fact I think you do not need a gym or any equipment in order to do basic exercises. If you get too consumed by the details you will never start. I think what I wrote is a good baseline to start from. Sure I get that there is no such thing as one-size-fits all, but same applies to anything we call 'common sense'. However common sense is usually practical for most people. Adjust as you go along.
- kerrsclyde 3y ago> having a healthy social life This is almost always omitted when it comes to health advice I feel it is one of the most important factors. Loneliness kills!
- ivandenysov 3y agoTotally agree. Also Peter Attia in his “Outlive” book insists that staying fit is more important than a balanced diet.
- rafaelero 3y agoThat doesn't sound correct. I don't think that athletes live longer than generally health conscious people.