| Green098 said: Probably couldn't agree more. The oldest person to live "Jeanne Calment" just ate what tasted good to her, no tricks, no actively including or avoiding certain foods, she ate what she liked. Here's a fact file on her life if you want to know more in depth about her life; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Calment Whether you are an omnivore, vegetarian or vegan, just eat what you like and tastes good to you. Of course aim for a good healthy diet but you don't to go overboard about it and worrying about every little possible thing. Anyways I think I'm better off avoiding cancer by practicing good sun protection throughout my life rather than not eating my bowl of cereal in the morning. |
Interestingly, as an omnivore (and later as a pescetarian), I avoided the sun as much as I could. I think it worked against me living life to the fullest.
Then I learned how all of us are exposed to cancer on a regular basis, but that the body has natural anti-cancer abilities. Our cells even have self-destruct mechanisms when they get damaged, so that they don't replicate in a damaged state. One of the ways that cancer defeats the body is by turning off this self-destruct mechanism, but it turns out there are plant-based foods (such as the spice turmeric) that can actually turn it back on: https://nutritionfacts.org/video/turmeric-curcumin-reprogramming-cancer-cell-death/ And phytate rich foods such as beans and flaxseed have tremendous cancer-fighting ability: https://nutritionfacts.org/video/phytates-for-rehabilitating-cancer-cells/
I don't find Jeanne Calment's story very compelling. Anyone can get lucky. What I do find compelling are population studies, where they show thousands of people having a shared experience for one reason or another. Jeanne Calment may be the oldest known living person, but the Adventist vegetarians are now the longest-living human population ever studied, and many of them grew up in vegetarian (or vegan) households and have never eaten tasted meat in their lives: https://publichealth.llu.edu/adventist-health-studies
I agree with you that it's important not to become orthorexic. And I agree with you that there are health and longevity advantages to living a low-stress life. But to your example of how you avoid the sun, now that I'm on an anti-oxidant rich diet full of cancer fighting phytonutrients I now feel that I can live life much more fully, and with much less stress. Far more so than when I was an omnivore not worrying very much about what I ate. So that's an alternate perspective that builds on your points, for your interest.
