Gen X and Y Health

[voltronforce]

Serious Talk

Experts say that we won't live as long as the Boomers and WW2 Generation because of what they did to our food industry and habits. So please take care of your personal health. Don't eat out often, don't drink sugary drinks etc.

 

[Peloso]

Serious Talk

Experts say that we won't live as long as the Boomers and WW2 Generation because of what they did to our food industry and habits.

Who is 'they'?

Surely you don't mean the boomers?

 

[Vannie]

Serious Talk

Don't eat out often.

I have a dirty mind.

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

You forgot to mention allowing the price of medical care to skyrocket. We literally can't afford to be healthy.

 

[unloadonme]

I don't think it's a question of not eating out as much, it's more a matter of eating a sensible, balanced diet and remaining active. If you must eat shit such as McDonald's, eat it sparingly.

 

[metta]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1703502395911618591

.

 

[backagain]

Genes play a huge role in living a long life, quality is what counts.

 

[rareboy]

Perfect health is just the slowest way to die.

But let's re-visit the 'They'. I agree. Boomers aided and abetted the food industry by buying up all the garbage produced for 'convenience' and serving it up to their children.

But from the age of let's say, 14 years on...people start to become responsible for much of their own nutrition. It certainly was the age when I could make decisions, both good and bad about what went into my mouth.

 

[PalacePaul]

I have a dirty mind.

It certainly was the age when I could make decisions, both good and bad about what went into my mouth.

No more comments.

 

[metta]

Perfect health is just the slowest way to die.

I would think that would be ideal. To go through life with less health issues. Much better than dying as an infant or child. To be able to experience life longer. To see the advances. To use that time to help make things better: Go Jane Fonda! I think that helps to make a life worth living.

 

[Peloso]

I would think that would be ideal. To go through life with less health issues. Much better than dying as an infant or child. To be able to experience life longer. To see the advances. To use that time to help make things better: Go Jane Fonda! I think that helps to make a life worth living.

The "advances" are what's killing us.

 

[metta]

^
It is greed that is killing us. We should never of allowed corporations to control the government. The government should be used to keep corporations in line and protect its citizens. Corporate greed is one of the things we must fight against.

 

[fredroy]

Eat real food. Like butter instead of margarine. Butter melts when you want to fry an egg, Shedd's Spread does not melt. Use meat grease, like from bacon, instead of vegetable oil. A pint jar in the fridge is enough to save.

Avoid the processed stuff with HFCS and the various sugars. Which is pretty much all of the Oscar Mayer product line except for the hard salami. If it makes your teeth feel slimy, eh, pass.

Sure, you can chow down on a big bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos. But just once in a while.
Drink water instead of Gatorade or soda pops or the sweetened tea that comes in gallon jugs.

I was eating crap at work for lunch if I didn't bring leftovers. Usually room temp left overs because it always seemed some dummy just put a little Stouffer's lasagna in the nuker.... and when you have a half hour for lunch, yeah.
A bag of Fritos and a can of bean dip a day was easy. And I sorta suddenly weighed 175 and oh, hell no, I ain't buying new jeans. Have you priced Levi's lately? Never mind driving to Austin to buy them?

Anyway. I cut the carbs. No sugar in my coffee. Half and half, not Coffee Mate. No sodas or other sweet drinks. Lunch would be, because I had a fridge, a couple of cut up jewish hotdogs (we have two brands here, I forget the one I like) with a bit of mustard or ketchup as a dip and a chunk of cheese cut into cubes. Cheddar, swiss, whatever. Eat it with a tooth pick because money is filthy between resetting tills and dealing with customers. I mean, when you have to wash your hands before taking a piss...

I dropped to 155 in three or four months. I'm up to 160 but I'm 10 years older and I like my beer.

Anyway. Cut the sugar. You can still have pasta and rice and re-fried beans and potatoes as side dishes.

 

[rareboy]

I am totally an 'Eat Real Food' follower.

Eat less. Move more.

It is that fucking simple.

But don't be too surprised when the genes from the Neanderthals come back to fuck you up big.

Why do you think they died out?

 

[Peloso]

^

Except I would argue that processed meats are worse than sugar.

Lard or butter is fine for cooking. Saturated fats are not as evil as sugar industry would like us to believe.

A plant based diet has worked well for me.

 

[fredroy]

I fry a can of spam once in a while and make mac and cheese from scratch. Good eats. I eat a can of vienna sausage once in a while, I like them and it brings to mind the fun of teaching the kid to walk. Heh.

Hot dogs? What's in there? Any brand? If I eat real fast I can eat three. If I take time to enjoy and not gobble, I'm good for one before my stomach starts hurting. A lot of the sausage links at the grocery store are the same.

It's not the saltpeter. I made a corned beef which is a pain in the ass because getting a 5 gallon bucket in the spare fridge is a PITA but it was great. Looked perfect and tasted better.

A filling lunch while I was at work was a can of oil packed tuna with a big squirt of plastic lemon and a hand full of Triscuits. Oh yeah, and a chunk of cheese on the side.

 

[me203]

Food quality is a big problem in my view. I read some book that had some quoted deterioration of nutrtiional content (quotes were vitamin/mineral) from 1950-somethng to today. It was a bit sobering. (Although part of me did wonder how one could calculate accurately how vitamin-loaded a carrot might have been more than half a century ago. But it does seem very logical that changes in agriculture have had an impact on nutritional content).

That same book also made the argument (although maybe not backed with any numbers, but it seems logical) that factory farming practices create nutritionally inferior meat. A sickly animal, fed nothing but crap (possibly literally) from day one is probably going to create inferior product vs. what Great Grandma knew.

And there is all that over processed crap food. There is a lot to be said for eating food that comes off a plant or is a plant. Not stuff made in a plant.

I, myself, am pretty much plant based eater these days, with only minor traces of egg or dairy. I'm also trying for low fat, although my recent heavy use of almond butter doesn't really fit that model well.

I've been interested in the Blue Zones (where people live longer, healthier lives than people in the US). Interestingly, their diets are carbohydrate heavy. But it's not the processed crap we have. And I do wonder if one factor that might help is that I'd guess these places are eating pretty much entirely locally grown, using traditional agriculture.

I think genetics got mentioned above. I've said this before, but I might as well say it again: there is the argument that genetics loads the gun, and lifestyle (incluidng diet choices) pulls the trigger.

 

[me203]

You forgot to mention allowing the price of medical care to skyrocket. We literally can't afford to be healthy.

Cost of medical care is a problem.

But a big problem in my eyes is that our system is not a health care system--it's a disease management system. Easier to just write a prescription for a drug that controls a problem than tell a patient to stop eating a terrible diet and try to get more exercise. Making health care more affordable with our system would probably mean pouring more money into this existing system somehow. And, while people could get tests/drugs/procedures with less direct impact on their wallet--and might have better managed health issues--they won't actually be healthier.

 

[fredroy]

The last time I went to the Doc's their attitude was "why are you here?" with the subtext of why are you wasting our time. Why was I there? Well, been paying for the BCBS shit and have never used any of it, about to turn 55, so maybe getting some base numbers would be a good thing. Ya think?

Yeah. Waste of time. Although they had a really cool fish tank to look at. I can stick my arm in the BP machine at the grocery store and not deal with their BS. And yeah, the BP machine at the grocery store may not be exactly accurate. But it reads pretty close to what my BP has been for 30 years.... tho the pictures have changed and now I'm bumped into the yellow "borderline high BP" scale. My blood work was good, so that's a good thing to know.
I take a couple of aspirin a couple of times a year. A couple of tums once in a while when supper doesn't sit well. That's it.

My profile picture is several years old. Other than a few pounds (like maybe 5 pounds all over me) of insulation over my six-pak, I still look like the same. Ok, ok, getting a few extra blonde hairs in the pubes....