6 ms·

Amish men live longer

63 points by johntfella 1y ago

Lio 1y ago
I'm glad they mention diet. I would imagine the 5 year difference could be explained simply by not smoking and not eating so much processed food.
- paulnpace 1y ago
  I'm surprised. Amish are known for drinking raw milk and making raw dairy, which is all basically pure poison.
  - bruffen 1y ago
    Citation very much needed
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
  - infecto 1y ago
    Definitely not poison. Risk of bacterial infection? Yes. I don’t know the stats on what that risk is though and for all I know perhaps it starts getting closer to zero when it’s your own farm and you are the one handling the whole process. Please note I am not advocating for raw milk, I think it is not a wise decision but I also don’t believe it to be poison.
  - christophilus 1y ago
    It’s the way humans consumed milk forever, though? Every infant consumes raw milk. Every milk-consuming culture on the planet did it until Pasteur. So… I’m not advocating raw milk consumption, but to call it poison is pure ignorance.
    - Bender 1y ago
      Every infant consumes raw milk From their mother. Human breast milk is very bitter and I'm sure protein wise very different than cow milk. I doubt scientists have really studied this. Humans are not supposed to be drinking bovine milk. As a visitor to this planet I find it strange. Milk has a lot of lactose and will have interesting affects on adults including but not limited to insulin resistance whereas babies are developing very fast and need simple quick energy.
      - graemep 1y ago
        > Humans are not supposed to be drinking bovine milk. Humans are not "supposed" to eat and drink most of what we do (maybe fruits are an exception). However, we have evolved to consume a lot of things - including, if we have the right genes, milk.
        Bender 1y ago
        Yeah, no. It's not normal just because people have been doing this for a long time. It has sugar which makes people addicted to it and will argue until they are blue in the face to defend it just like drug addicts will defend their behavior until their last breath. Milk can cause just as much a fatter liver as beer. People can get all their calcium from green leafy vegetables. Raw milk will also contain IGG, IGB, IGA that humans can create on their own. Adding animal immunoglobulins is not well studied. Humans can create their own.
        Earw0rm 1y ago
        If you're drinking milk in the quantities many guys drink beer, it's going to fatten a lot more than just your liver.
        Bender 1y ago
        If you're drinking milk in the quantities many guys drink beer, it's going to fatten a lot more than just your liver. As many people do and get a fatty liver and ultimately Cirrhosis.
  - Spooky23 1y ago
    The issue with raw milk is that over time it’s much more likely to grow bacteria if there is any interruption in the cold chain. Drinking it on the farm or close to when it’s very fresh isn’t super high risk. My family was in dairy and did it all of the time. Once it’s off the farm, all bets are off.
    - graemep 1y ago
      Its very tasty. I used to be able to buy raw milk from a local farm but its largely been killed off by regulation (in the UK). It is highly unlikely to be dangerous enough to have a significant, or even measurable, effect on life expectancies.
      - bluGill 1y ago
        > It is highly unlikely to be dangerous enough to have a significant, or even measurable, effect on life expectancies. Assuming you are a normal healthy adult who gets plenty of nutrition - like someone in the modern world. If you are eating near starvation your immune system won't be as strong. If you are otherwise unhealthy the potential bacteria can overwhelm you...
        Spooky23 1y ago
        So, do you leave your burritos out for 3 hours so the listeria can grow? Online arguments about anything like this since COVID boil down to “if you don’t die, it’s ok”. An old or sick person can easily die from food poisoning. If you are hearty and hale, you’re going to feel like crap and get stuff like violent diarrhea.
        bluGill 1y ago
        most milk doesn't even have anything growing in it. If you take care in storage - refrigeration, clean containers, and use it fast you are probably safe. Probably is of course odds and so if everyone did it there would be deaths - but most people would never be sick
  - xkbarkar 1y ago
    One of the few times I have used the downvote button in Hn for a comment. Its not a huge effort to at least try to add some source with such a claim, besides the comment does not even bring anything of value to the discussion.
- TimorousBestie 1y ago
  I don’t think any Amish group has a prohibition on smoking, though of course some communities probably frown on it.
  - 9cb14c1ec0 1y ago
    It varies from community to community. There are some communities that don't care, and others that do definitely prohibit it.
    - mothballed 1y ago
      I bet that's about as effective as banning vaping in school. It's also quite common to hear of Amish coming to work on an Englishman's property, and they are very happy to take beer as payment, to be consumed on site...
      - 9cb14c1ec0 1y ago
        Again, that varies from community to community. There are some communities where there is less religious fervor, and more just following tradition, and there are other communities that see their religious experience as the most important part of their identity. The stories you are referencing tend to come more from the communities that emphasize tradition over religious experience. Many people make the mistake of thinking of Amish as a single uniform blob, whereas in fact there are many very distinct subgroupings that don't have much to do with each other. In the state where I live, for example, there are at least 3 different distinct Amish groups (each with multiple communities, expanding at a very rapid rate), each of which does not necessarily consider the others to be true Amish, with the dividing lines primarily being this difference on or not tradition is prioritized over religious experience.
        mothballed 1y ago
        I'm referring to communities that have banned smoking, specifically. I'm betting that's about as effective as banning vaping in school, mind you to kids who don't even have a job or a car and have mostly been educated from the beginning not to do it.
- nucleardog 1y ago
  A while back I got curious and tried to do a bit of digging on this. I looked into the Hutterites in Canada as a group that lives a somewhat similar lifestyle, but don't entirely eschew modern technology and have free access to healthcare (where-as the Amish largely self-fund as a community, and I'm not sure how much pressure that would put on _not_ using healthcare services). In that case, the only real causes of death that showed a substantial difference from the surrounding population were the rates of cancer, and mostly the lung cancer for men and cervical cancer for women. The study didn't directly attribute it, but that would be pretty directly explained by lower rates of smoking and a lower rate of STDs (since we now know that a huge driver of cervical cancer is HPV).
- Brendinooo 1y ago
  Given the date ranges, air pollution could have factored in as well, though I'm not sure "processed food" would have been as prevalent, especially for the earliest cohort (which had the most disparate outcome)
- steviedotboston 1y ago
  the amish diet is pretty unhealthy. lots of carbs, fats, pies, bacon, etc. if you had an amish diet with an "english" lifestyle you would definitely have health issues.
  - IAmBroom 1y ago
    Compared to the standard surrounding American diet of highly processed carbs, fats, pies, bacon, etc. Diet obviously needs to be limited in throughput. I wouldn't recommend surviving on 10 pounds of nutraloaf, either.
- hulitu 1y ago
  And by working. Exercise, in moderation, is good for your heart.
cynicalsecurity 1y ago
Monks also probably live a longer live. I'm not sure it's worth it.
- k__ 1y ago
  No alcohol or nicotine and sleeping for the same period every day can go a long way. Might also avoid direct sun exposure, for good measure.
  - graemep 1y ago
    Are we talking about the same monks? Christian monks? The people developed champagne, chartreuse and many other alcoholic drinks? Some also work outdoors.
    - k__ 1y ago
      Fair. Yet, many nuns look at least 10 years younger than their age.
  - Bender 1y ago
    Also disciplined breathing techniques, Om chanting strengthens the lungs and regulates O2 flows. FWIW they do get sunlight. People need some sunlight. More specifically Mitochondria need sunlight or artificial sunlight from 600nm -> 1200nm.
- gadders 1y ago
  See also Eunuchs: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19699266 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19699266 "Castration had a huge effect on the lifespans of Korean men, according to an analysis of hundreds of years of eunuch "family" records. They lived up to 19 years longer than uncastrated men from the same social class and even outlived members of the royal family."
  - bluGill 1y ago
    Same family is likely not a useful comparison because lifestyle would be different. Eunuchs would be expected to serve the royal family, which implies plenty of food - not as good as the royals, but still plenty of it unlike their families back on the farm who lived closer to starvation at best and a bad year would cause a lot of deaths. At least that is what I'd expect, but I'm trying to extrapolate what I know of European history (acoup) to Korea. Anyone have better expertise able to talk about the experience of the different groups?
antirez 1y ago
Notably, still less than in any country in the European Union: given the lifestyle, is this a matter of the health care system, I guess? Anyway given that random EU folks live longer without switching to 1800 lifestyle, looks like there are better options.
- boomskats 1y ago
  I don't disagree, but could you provide some references/links to the datasets you're basing this on?
- apwell23 1y ago
  > , is this a matter of the health care system EUs have lower chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension than USA. Those are not diseases that have any answers in medical system so it wouldn't matter how advanced and available the system is. For example, 40% of ppl in usa are obese vs 12% Switzerland. 50% of ppl in usa have hypertension vs 20% Swiss. So what exactly is a medical system supposed to do if half your population is sickly and obese ? I see this 'medical system' stuff even from very educated ppl but I feel like i am missing something. Do ppl think having access to a doctor is going prevent one from being obese ? whats the logic.
  - alistairSH 1y ago
    I suppose if you extend the definition of "medical system" to include education and intervention, it makes sense. There's also medications in there - hypertension can be controlled with drugs, no? But, yes, I agree with your main point - obesity in the US is widespread and a massive influence on both longevity and health care costs.
  - deanmen 1y ago
    Nowadays maybe they could get Ozempic?
    - saintfire 1y ago
      Not sure that will make you live longer.
thelastgallon 1y ago
Amish men have very limited to no screen time at work and at home. The modern lifestyle is very rough on men, sedentary work, rest of the time on app/game/content screens.
- mothballed 1y ago
  They also don't get their income garnished by social security, so that basically frees up 12% (employee + employer) that can be used by the community directly for health rather than a scamfest by the government.
- bluGill 1y ago
  The study was of time periods mostly before screens though.
- smt88 1y ago
  Amish life expectancy is now 71 compared to 84ish. OP's data is 100+ years old and wqs analyzed in the 60s during a notable peak for medical quackery (cigarettes recommended for pregnant women, etc.)
Brendinooo 1y ago
If you didn't read the article - > These calculations were completed for cohorts of men born during 1895–1904, 1905–1914, 1915–1924, and 1925–1934 and the gap gradually closed with time. There was an 10-year difference in the first cohort which closed by about two years per cohort. So, a four-year gap in the most recent cohort is notable, but the narrative's probably a little different than you might guess when looking at the headline alone.
- moralestapia 1y ago
  >the narrative's probably a little different than you might guess when looking at the headline alone Stop talking mysteries. What's A and what's B?
  - Brendinooo 1y ago
    A and B are the first two letters of the Latin alphabet, though I don't see the relevance.
    - moralestapia 1y ago
      Sorry, I didn't know about your capabilities in particular. Please forget this interaction ever happened.
      - Brendinooo 1y ago
        I appreciate the ambiguity in this comment and choose to interpret it to mean that you underestimated me. (fwiw I didn't appreciate your demand that I comment in a particular way - if you'd asked nicely I would have answered differently, or at least not at all!)
- robwwilliams 1y ago
  Small sample size of about 1500 Amish men divided across 4 cohorts, all exposed to the great depression. Entry age minimum of 25 years. Sorry, but this is really marginal science. There are much stronger demographic and statistical studies of aging and mortality in humans. Here are some alternative examples of stronger studies to explore from PubMed. I keyed my search using the surnames of two well respected longevity demographers (Vaupel and Christensen): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=%20vaupel%20christensen&sort=date&page=2 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=%20vaupel%20christense...
pclmulqdq 1y ago
Balanced diet of fresh and unprocessed foods, extremely active lifestyle, no drugs/drinking. Of course they live a long time.
- Projectiboga 1y ago
  More sunlight too.
  - Rendello 1y ago
    I wonder if the opposite is a factor: like most traditional clothing, Amish clothing blocks most sunlight.
    - tjwebbnorfolk 1y ago
      You'd have to be outside to get that "benefit". Sedentary people have sunlight blocked by their roof. Sunlight kills bacteria and viruses, stimulates vitamin D production, and has a number of emotional/cognitive benefits. Being inside 24/7 is not good for you. For most of our history we spent every daylight hour outside hunting or farming, we're adapted to this situation.
- Balgair 1y ago
  The Amish do eat a lot of unpasteurized stuff, at least the ones near me did. But they also have the benefits of modern medicine when things get really dicey, as far as I know. I'd ask for an Amish voice here to chime in, but, you know... It's like the raw milk people but for everything. If you ever tried milking a cow, with the udders machine that close to its' rear, then you'd never drink the stuff raw when you have another option. Cross contamination? Wy I hardly know her! Years ago when I used to live near them, I'd go to the markets and get their deserts. Best cheesecake I've ever had. Totally unpasteurized stuff, tastes amazing. I'd never let my kids go near it now though. E. Coli is very nasty on the littles.
curtisszmania 1y ago
[dead]
miltonlost 1y ago
HackerNews claims to be scientific and logical, but this paper comes out from old old data (1965!), and the ant-science, pro-RFK Jr come out of the woodwork to say how it's valuable for today.
rml 1y ago
see also: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1695733/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1695733/
giardini 1y ago
Can't help but think of Weird Al Yankovic's "Amish Paradise" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOfZLb33uCg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOfZLb33uCg
- johntfella 1y ago
  when I was a less kind uncle I convinced my nephew who had no knowledge of Weird Al nor Coolio that an amish farmer really wrote the song. This would come back to haunt him in junior high music class when he got talking about it to his teacher who in turned got a good laugh.

63 points by johntfella 1y ago

Lio 1y ago

I'm glad they mention diet. I would imagine the 5 year difference could be explained simply by not smoking and not eating so much processed food.

paulnpace 1y ago
I'm surprised. Amish are known for drinking raw milk and making raw dairy, which is all basically pure poison.
- bruffen 1y ago
  Citation very much needed
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
- infecto 1y ago
  Definitely not poison. Risk of bacterial infection? Yes. I don’t know the stats on what that risk is though and for all I know perhaps it starts getting closer to zero when it’s your own farm and you are the one handling the whole process. Please note I am not advocating for raw milk, I think it is not a wise decision but I also don’t believe it to be poison.
- christophilus 1y ago
  It’s the way humans consumed milk forever, though? Every infant consumes raw milk. Every milk-consuming culture on the planet did it until Pasteur. So… I’m not advocating raw milk consumption, but to call it poison is pure ignorance.
  - Bender 1y ago
    Every infant consumes raw milk From their mother. Human breast milk is very bitter and I'm sure protein wise very different than cow milk. I doubt scientists have really studied this. Humans are not supposed to be drinking bovine milk. As a visitor to this planet I find it strange. Milk has a lot of lactose and will have interesting affects on adults including but not limited to insulin resistance whereas babies are developing very fast and need simple quick energy.
    - graemep 1y ago
      > Humans are not supposed to be drinking bovine milk. Humans are not "supposed" to eat and drink most of what we do (maybe fruits are an exception). However, we have evolved to consume a lot of things - including, if we have the right genes, milk.
      - Bender 1y ago
        Yeah, no. It's not normal just because people have been doing this for a long time. It has sugar which makes people addicted to it and will argue until they are blue in the face to defend it just like drug addicts will defend their behavior until their last breath. Milk can cause just as much a fatter liver as beer. People can get all their calcium from green leafy vegetables. Raw milk will also contain IGG, IGB, IGA that humans can create on their own. Adding animal immunoglobulins is not well studied. Humans can create their own.
        Earw0rm 1y ago
        If you're drinking milk in the quantities many guys drink beer, it's going to fatten a lot more than just your liver.
        Bender 1y ago
        If you're drinking milk in the quantities many guys drink beer, it's going to fatten a lot more than just your liver. As many people do and get a fatty liver and ultimately Cirrhosis.
- Spooky23 1y ago
  The issue with raw milk is that over time it’s much more likely to grow bacteria if there is any interruption in the cold chain. Drinking it on the farm or close to when it’s very fresh isn’t super high risk. My family was in dairy and did it all of the time. Once it’s off the farm, all bets are off.
  - graemep 1y ago
    Its very tasty. I used to be able to buy raw milk from a local farm but its largely been killed off by regulation (in the UK). It is highly unlikely to be dangerous enough to have a significant, or even measurable, effect on life expectancies.
    - bluGill 1y ago
      > It is highly unlikely to be dangerous enough to have a significant, or even measurable, effect on life expectancies. Assuming you are a normal healthy adult who gets plenty of nutrition - like someone in the modern world. If you are eating near starvation your immune system won't be as strong. If you are otherwise unhealthy the potential bacteria can overwhelm you...
      - Spooky23 1y ago
        So, do you leave your burritos out for 3 hours so the listeria can grow? Online arguments about anything like this since COVID boil down to “if you don’t die, it’s ok”. An old or sick person can easily die from food poisoning. If you are hearty and hale, you’re going to feel like crap and get stuff like violent diarrhea.
        bluGill 1y ago
        most milk doesn't even have anything growing in it. If you take care in storage - refrigeration, clean containers, and use it fast you are probably safe. Probably is of course odds and so if everyone did it there would be deaths - but most people would never be sick
- xkbarkar 1y ago
  One of the few times I have used the downvote button in Hn for a comment. Its not a huge effort to at least try to add some source with such a claim, besides the comment does not even bring anything of value to the discussion.
TimorousBestie 1y ago
I don’t think any Amish group has a prohibition on smoking, though of course some communities probably frown on it.
- 9cb14c1ec0 1y ago
  It varies from community to community. There are some communities that don't care, and others that do definitely prohibit it.
  - mothballed 1y ago
    I bet that's about as effective as banning vaping in school. It's also quite common to hear of Amish coming to work on an Englishman's property, and they are very happy to take beer as payment, to be consumed on site...
    - 9cb14c1ec0 1y ago
      Again, that varies from community to community. There are some communities where there is less religious fervor, and more just following tradition, and there are other communities that see their religious experience as the most important part of their identity. The stories you are referencing tend to come more from the communities that emphasize tradition over religious experience. Many people make the mistake of thinking of Amish as a single uniform blob, whereas in fact there are many very distinct subgroupings that don't have much to do with each other. In the state where I live, for example, there are at least 3 different distinct Amish groups (each with multiple communities, expanding at a very rapid rate), each of which does not necessarily consider the others to be true Amish, with the dividing lines primarily being this difference on or not tradition is prioritized over religious experience.
      - mothballed 1y ago
        I'm referring to communities that have banned smoking, specifically. I'm betting that's about as effective as banning vaping in school, mind you to kids who don't even have a job or a car and have mostly been educated from the beginning not to do it.
nucleardog 1y ago
A while back I got curious and tried to do a bit of digging on this. I looked into the Hutterites in Canada as a group that lives a somewhat similar lifestyle, but don't entirely eschew modern technology and have free access to healthcare (where-as the Amish largely self-fund as a community, and I'm not sure how much pressure that would put on _not_ using healthcare services). In that case, the only real causes of death that showed a substantial difference from the surrounding population were the rates of cancer, and mostly the lung cancer for men and cervical cancer for women. The study didn't directly attribute it, but that would be pretty directly explained by lower rates of smoking and a lower rate of STDs (since we now know that a huge driver of cervical cancer is HPV).
Brendinooo 1y ago
Given the date ranges, air pollution could have factored in as well, though I'm not sure "processed food" would have been as prevalent, especially for the earliest cohort (which had the most disparate outcome)
steviedotboston 1y ago
the amish diet is pretty unhealthy. lots of carbs, fats, pies, bacon, etc. if you had an amish diet with an "english" lifestyle you would definitely have health issues.
- IAmBroom 1y ago
  Compared to the standard surrounding American diet of highly processed carbs, fats, pies, bacon, etc. Diet obviously needs to be limited in throughput. I wouldn't recommend surviving on 10 pounds of nutraloaf, either.
hulitu 1y ago
And by working. Exercise, in moderation, is good for your heart.

cynicalsecurity 1y ago

Monks also probably live a longer live. I'm not sure it's worth it.

k__ 1y ago
No alcohol or nicotine and sleeping for the same period every day can go a long way. Might also avoid direct sun exposure, for good measure.
- graemep 1y ago
  Are we talking about the same monks? Christian monks? The people developed champagne, chartreuse and many other alcoholic drinks? Some also work outdoors.
  - k__ 1y ago
    Fair. Yet, many nuns look at least 10 years younger than their age.
- Bender 1y ago
  Also disciplined breathing techniques, Om chanting strengthens the lungs and regulates O2 flows. FWIW they do get sunlight. People need some sunlight. More specifically Mitochondria need sunlight or artificial sunlight from 600nm -> 1200nm.
gadders 1y ago
See also Eunuchs: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19699266 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19699266 "Castration had a huge effect on the lifespans of Korean men, according to an analysis of hundreds of years of eunuch "family" records. They lived up to 19 years longer than uncastrated men from the same social class and even outlived members of the royal family."
- bluGill 1y ago
  Same family is likely not a useful comparison because lifestyle would be different. Eunuchs would be expected to serve the royal family, which implies plenty of food - not as good as the royals, but still plenty of it unlike their families back on the farm who lived closer to starvation at best and a bad year would cause a lot of deaths. At least that is what I'd expect, but I'm trying to extrapolate what I know of European history (acoup) to Korea. Anyone have better expertise able to talk about the experience of the different groups?

antirez 1y ago

Notably, still less than in any country in the European Union: given the lifestyle, is this a matter of the health care system, I guess? Anyway given that random EU folks live longer without switching to 1800 lifestyle, looks like there are better options.

boomskats 1y ago
I don't disagree, but could you provide some references/links to the datasets you're basing this on?
apwell23 1y ago
> , is this a matter of the health care system EUs have lower chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension than USA. Those are not diseases that have any answers in medical system so it wouldn't matter how advanced and available the system is. For example, 40% of ppl in usa are obese vs 12% Switzerland. 50% of ppl in usa have hypertension vs 20% Swiss. So what exactly is a medical system supposed to do if half your population is sickly and obese ? I see this 'medical system' stuff even from very educated ppl but I feel like i am missing something. Do ppl think having access to a doctor is going prevent one from being obese ? whats the logic.
- alistairSH 1y ago
  I suppose if you extend the definition of "medical system" to include education and intervention, it makes sense. There's also medications in there - hypertension can be controlled with drugs, no? But, yes, I agree with your main point - obesity in the US is widespread and a massive influence on both longevity and health care costs.
- deanmen 1y ago
  Nowadays maybe they could get Ozempic?
  - saintfire 1y ago
    Not sure that will make you live longer.

thelastgallon 1y ago

Amish men have very limited to no screen time at work and at home. The modern lifestyle is very rough on men, sedentary work, rest of the time on app/game/content screens.

mothballed 1y ago
They also don't get their income garnished by social security, so that basically frees up 12% (employee + employer) that can be used by the community directly for health rather than a scamfest by the government.
bluGill 1y ago
The study was of time periods mostly before screens though.
smt88 1y ago
Amish life expectancy is now 71 compared to 84ish. OP's data is 100+ years old and wqs analyzed in the 60s during a notable peak for medical quackery (cigarettes recommended for pregnant women, etc.)

Brendinooo 1y ago

If you didn't read the article - > These calculations were completed for cohorts of men born during 1895–1904, 1905–1914, 1915–1924, and 1925–1934 and the gap gradually closed with time. There was an 10-year difference in the first cohort which closed by about two years per cohort. So, a four-year gap in the most recent cohort is notable, but the narrative's probably a little different than you might guess when looking at the headline alone.

moralestapia 1y ago
>the narrative's probably a little different than you might guess when looking at the headline alone Stop talking mysteries. What's A and what's B?
- Brendinooo 1y ago
  A and B are the first two letters of the Latin alphabet, though I don't see the relevance.
  - moralestapia 1y ago
    Sorry, I didn't know about your capabilities in particular. Please forget this interaction ever happened.
    - Brendinooo 1y ago
      I appreciate the ambiguity in this comment and choose to interpret it to mean that you underestimated me. (fwiw I didn't appreciate your demand that I comment in a particular way - if you'd asked nicely I would have answered differently, or at least not at all!)
robwwilliams 1y ago
Small sample size of about 1500 Amish men divided across 4 cohorts, all exposed to the great depression. Entry age minimum of 25 years. Sorry, but this is really marginal science. There are much stronger demographic and statistical studies of aging and mortality in humans. Here are some alternative examples of stronger studies to explore from PubMed. I keyed my search using the surnames of two well respected longevity demographers (Vaupel and Christensen): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=%20vaupel%20christensen&sort=date&page=2 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=%20vaupel%20christense...

pclmulqdq 1y ago

Balanced diet of fresh and unprocessed foods, extremely active lifestyle, no drugs/drinking. Of course they live a long time.

Projectiboga 1y ago
More sunlight too.
- Rendello 1y ago
  I wonder if the opposite is a factor: like most traditional clothing, Amish clothing blocks most sunlight.
  - tjwebbnorfolk 1y ago
    You'd have to be outside to get that "benefit". Sedentary people have sunlight blocked by their roof. Sunlight kills bacteria and viruses, stimulates vitamin D production, and has a number of emotional/cognitive benefits. Being inside 24/7 is not good for you. For most of our history we spent every daylight hour outside hunting or farming, we're adapted to this situation.
Balgair 1y ago
The Amish do eat a lot of unpasteurized stuff, at least the ones near me did. But they also have the benefits of modern medicine when things get really dicey, as far as I know. I'd ask for an Amish voice here to chime in, but, you know... It's like the raw milk people but for everything. If you ever tried milking a cow, with the udders machine that close to its' rear, then you'd never drink the stuff raw when you have another option. Cross contamination? Wy I hardly know her! Years ago when I used to live near them, I'd go to the markets and get their deserts. Best cheesecake I've ever had. Totally unpasteurized stuff, tastes amazing. I'd never let my kids go near it now though. E. Coli is very nasty on the littles.

curtisszmania 1y ago

[dead]

miltonlost 1y ago

HackerNews claims to be scientific and logical, but this paper comes out from old old data (1965!), and the ant-science, pro-RFK Jr come out of the woodwork to say how it's valuable for today.

rml 1y ago

see also: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1695733/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1695733/

giardini 1y ago

Can't help but think of Weird Al Yankovic's "Amish Paradise" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOfZLb33uCg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOfZLb33uCg

johntfella 1y ago
when I was a less kind uncle I convinced my nephew who had no knowledge of Weird Al nor Coolio that an amish farmer really wrote the song. This would come back to haunt him in junior high music class when he got talking about it to his teacher who in turned got a good laugh.