Category Archives: Longevity

If you’re under 60 this may not mean anything to you but it brought a tear to my eye. Coldplay fans may be interested.

Steve Parker, M. D.

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Not according to this analysis. For more info on the Blue Zones, see my review of Buettner’s book.

Steve Parker, M.D.

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We’ve heard or suspected for years that whole foods are healthier for us than processed and ultra-processed foods. But is it true?

The British Medical Journal earlier this year published a study concluding that:

…a higher intake of ultra-processed foods was associated with slightly higher all cause mortality, driven by causes other than cancer and cardiovascular diseases. The associations varied across subgroups of ultra-processed foods, with meat/poultry/seafood based ready-to-eat products showing particularly strong associations with mortality.

You can read the study for yourself free online. Did Big Food (e.g., Archer Daniels Midland, Con-Agra, Monsanto) exert any pressure on the researchers. I dunno.

From the Intro:

Ultra-processed foods are ready-to-eat/heat industrial formulations made mostly or entirely from substances derived from foods, including flavors, colors, texturizers, and other additives, with little if any intact whole food.1Ultra-processed foods, which are typically of low nutritional quality and high energy density, have been dominating the food supply of high income countries, and their consumption is markedly increasing in middle income countries.2 Ultra-processed food consumption accounts for 57% of daily energy intake among adults and 67% among youths in the US according to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).34

Ultra-processed foods usually disproportionately contribute added sugars, sodium, saturated fats and trans fats, and refined carbohydrates to the diet together with low fiber.56 As well as having low nutritional quality, ultra-processed foods may contain harmful substances, such as additives and contaminants formed during the processing.

Neurologist Steven Novella wrote a brief post about this study over at Science-Based Medicine. You may also find the comment section there enlightening.

Steve Parker, M.D.

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Julie has a YouTube channel about hospice nursing, death, and dying.

But if you want to live as long and healthy as possible, consider the Mediterranean diet!

Steve Parker, M.D.

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Jim Goad is one of my favorite living cultural commentators. On par with a young P. J. O’Rourke, who died in 2022 at age 74. Last year Goad wrote a thoughtful and thought-provoking article on why women outlive men. A sample:

This disparity is not exclusive to the United States. In fact, it’s worse elsewhere. Worldwide, women outlive men by an average of seven years. According to a 2001 report, the only five countries on Earth where men outlived women were the flea-bitten open-air latrines we call Afghanistan, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. But a report from 2017 says there’s no longer any country on the planet where men outlive women.

It wasn’t always this way.

According to data from developed countries, men lived longer than women throughout most of the 1800s, only for the longevity stats to tip in favor of females during the 1890s — an advantage that women have held ever since. Women are supposedly more vulnerable than men to infectious diseases, but once male scientists got a grip on the microbes and brought those pesky critters to heel, women started living longer than men.

As far as I know, women have never thanked men for it.

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For another example of Goad’s work, check out his valentine, Why I Never Gave Up On Women.

  Steve Parker, M.D.

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