What to say when friends ask me this?

[NanaLove]

Hey guys,

Recently a few people have been asking me something that I had no reply to, pertaining the raw food diet. The question is...


Why do people live so much longer now than in the past when the age expectancy was around 30?

Sorry if it's a dumb question...maybe I just don't have enough information, but I would really like to have a good response for this,

thanks!

[RawKnitster]

I'm just guessing.... Maybe better hygiene, food and water safety standards, and medicine.

[January Noir]

Hey guys,

Recently a few people have been asking me something that I had no reply to, pertaining the raw food diet. The question is...


Why do people live so much longer now than in the past when the age expectancy was around 30?

Sorry if it's a dumb question...maybe I just don't have enough information, but I would really like to have a good response for this,

thanks!

There are so many reasons! LOL! Modern medicine and technology has been able to diagnose and treat many diseases which in the past were undetectable or treatable. Preservatives and bacteria-fighting additives in the foods we eat not only preserve the food, but preserve those that ingest it. We know more about health and diet and with so many trying to live longer we take better care of ourselves. We know more about what we eat and how it affects us (that's why we're here on this forum!), and the list goes on!

[peachblueberry]

I think the OP meant why do people live longer today than before in SPITE of their terrible eating habits. I've often wondered the same thing.

One thing I know is it always seems silly to me when people say that meat is what made our brains grow to the size they are today...they say that such intelligence allowed us to create tools and hunt, etc...but that requires a lot of hunting done WITHOUT tools in time for the larger brain to evolve? Strange? I think so.

[Inca_faerie]

There are so many reasons! LOL! Modern medicine and technology has been able to diagnose and treat many diseases which in the past were undetectable or treatable. Preservatives and bacteria-fighting additives in the foods we eat not only preserve the food, but preserve those that ingest it. We know more about health and diet and with so many trying to live longer we take better care of ourselves. We know more about what we eat and how it affects us (that's why we're here on this forum!), and the list goes on!

Man made chemical preservatives are a double edged knife. While they can in a roundabout way increase life expectancy by largely eliminating the chance of processed foods being contaminated by viral/bacterial infestation, they also contribute to life shortening preventable diseases such as cancer and birth defects.

Why do we live past 30? Evolution, the fact that starvation is no longer an issue (with the exception of poverty ridden countries) and like others have said, modern medicine and better hygiene, without which we'd still have to deal with diseases that nearly wiped out entire countries (the plague, leprosy).

Considering these implications, you could say that the main reason we live past 30 is because we've figured out (for the most part) how to prevent death through the avoidance of non-nutritionally impacted diseases, the real question is; how much higher would the average life expectancy be if preventable diseases (heart disease, obesity related diseases, cancer) were practically eradicated due to people simply eating whole, vegan, unprocessed, organic food? I'm guessing we'd be kickin' a lot longer. ;)

[DawnD]

People may be living longer but the quality of life is diminished for many. People are on so many prescriptions drugs etc. I vote to live like Bernando the 109 year old man and still be walking well, driving, and writing books at that age...Oh yea, and open up a raw food restaurant!

[sport]

I think perhaps that that trend is changing. The younger generation now will not live as long.

[GlimR]

I've read reports recently that life expectancy is actually declining...it increased as time went on...my Mother grew up on a farm in Alabama..she is 90 now and doing fine. All the food they grew, including livestock was grown organically, that's all there was until the dawn of the chemical age. People lived a healthier life 60 years ago then they do now, both in physical activity and in food quality...easy to see why it extended and why it is now in decline.

[blizzardfrisbee]

I agree--they may be living longer but the quality of life has diminished! I know so many people are so unhealthy and on medicines of all sorts! To me-living on medicine isn't what I want. That is why I've gone raw! I could see myself heading in that direction.

[BlackKat]

Back in "cave man days" people didn't have as strong buildings and shelter from harsh weather, or other predators. Epidemics broke out and people did not know how to control them, nor keep themselves healthy enough to fight off diseases. We have a lot more knowledge today, and a lot of the people who think they are going to live till 120 becuase of medicine and technology might be sorely mistaken once their bodies go down hill after a certain time. My grandfather lived till he was 96. He ate salads and fresh fruit every day. He ate meat, but not so often and didn't ever eat junk food. He never had health issues, rarely ever had a cold that I can remember. He was climbing ladders, walking miles, and driving up until the day he died. He actually had a small heart attack, and was able to walk himself into a hospital where he fell asleep and never woke up. It was just time for his body to be ended.

So many other family members in my life may have been able to prolong their lives with medicine and hospitals, silly diets. But ultimately the difference between them and my grandfather is they ate high cholesterol, high sodium, sugar diets full of junk food, mayonaise, white bread and pasta, fast food, potato chips, etc...... ultimately leading to high blood pressure, bad cholesterol, cancers, liver problems, skin diseases, etc. Smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol also had a negative outcome for a lot of these people.

[GlimR]

BlackKat-
My Mom sounds a lot like your Grandfather. She takes no meds (which always surprises people), lives alone, drives her little Rav4 all over the place, eats well, swims, walks.........yup.......I should be so lucky at 90.

[JennaHoneyBear]

I think perhaps that that trend is changing. The younger generation now will not live as long.

this is very true, my generation, Gen Y, will die younger than our parents due to the food they feed/fed us !!

my dad's mom is turning 99 this year, she never ate anything processed. i remember her saying that eggo waffles tasted like cardboard! still, she ate corn fritters she fried herself in bacon grease :eek:, but i suppose the fact that she ate only whole foods has contributed to her long life

[lynnc72]

People are NOT living longer now.
The infant mortality in the past was higher, therefore bringing the average down. If you get rid of this number, then life expectancy is comparable. People in the past lived healthier lives than those in modern times.

[love4life]

I don't even think this question is related to raw foods. I feel like my friends do this to me too. They will ask a question or make a statement as to show why SAD is good or at least better than raw, and most of the time the fact is that it has nothing to do with raw.

I agree with the all the previous post. The number 1 reason life expectancy has gone up from 30 has nothing to do with diet, it is because of the advances in science. We now have clean water available, proper pluming, better medicine. Over all we have a better understand of things that hindered our longevity before and we have found solutions for them.

Although it seems like life expectancy has gone up, the quality of life has surely declined. It is real sad to see that although the knowledge is available and despite all the advances we have made we choose to doom ourselves to poor health and life in front of the t.v.

[Cottonball McFluffy]

I agree with Love4life; life expectancy has little to do with raw food diet per se. The question is wrongly phrased, but it's a convenient way for people to belittle something they don't know the mechanics of.
Living conditions were harsher with no permanent housing, little to no understanding of agriculture or cultivating food to store it for off-harvest seasons, there were predators a-plenty, tribal wars particularly during times when fruit and game was hard to find, no safety measures for collecting food and nomadic tribes would wander outside their known terrain where weather and natural disasters would take them by surprise.
Life expectancy didn't start to go up until agriculture was invented and permanent settlements were set up where the environmental conditions seemed the most stable. It's also worth it to remember that life expectancy is not the same in all countries, or even in all western countries, for both sexes or even all generations. For example, the average life expectancy of a russian male is/was in 2008 59, where as his japanese counterpart is expected to live to about 79.

And to top it all, when studying ancient bones to determine the age at which the person died, there is no magic trick or a chemical test to give exact results. The age of a person is determined through the condition, size and development stage of the bones. After turning 30, a person's age is determined by the amount of deterioration and injuries in their bones. If the person was largely injury free and had little to no bone loss, they would be presumed to be closer to 30 than 60. So if you have a particularly healthy dead cave man, he could easily be thought to have died around his 30s or 40s because we just can't know exactly without checking his driver's license. :)