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  #1   ^
Old Mon, Mar-23-09, 13:11
Mrs. Skip's Avatar
Mrs. Skip Mrs. Skip is offline
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Plan: Primal/Paleo/MyOwn
Stats: 187.5/168/132 Female 5' 5"
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Progress: 35%
Default Longest-lived person who has followed paleo/lowcarb?

I'm asking this because so many people diss Atkin's diet (and low carb) simply because Dr. Atkins had head trauma and died. It seems many people still believe he died of a heart attack from "all that meat and bacon."

So then I was looking into Richard MacKarness...thinking that maybe he'd be a good example....but his wife died of cancer while only in her 60's, and he only made it to 79 himself.

Then I went on to Walter Voegtlin, author of the 1975 "Stone Age Diet." I remember reading that he died of cancer in his 70's.

V.Stefansson died of a stroke at 82.

Okay, I know that some of these are "decent" ages....but nonetheless these are incredibly average ages for the general population, who are usually eating the SAD and guzzling sodas and smoking cigarettes every day. I'd really like to be able to point to at least one outstanding example of someone who is strong and healthy and long-lived, by eating the paleo way.

(And don't tell me about Jack LaLanne....he now claims to be vegetarian--even though he previously ate meat--so the average person won't accept him as an example.)

I'm sure there are a number of long-lived, healthy paleo-eating people out there. Anyone able to think of some?
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  #2   ^
Old Mon, Mar-23-09, 13:30
Hairballz's Avatar
Hairballz Hairballz is offline
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Posts: 601
 
Plan: Atkins / M&E
Stats: 000/000/000 Female 5'6"
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dunno. I guess I don't know of that many public personas beyond the people who write the LC books who will ADMIT to being a devout LC follower. I guess most just keep it to themselves?
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  #3   ^
Old Mon, Mar-23-09, 13:51
lil' annie lil' annie is offline
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Plan: quasi paleo + starch
Stats: 153/148/118 Female 5'4"
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I read recently that they've discovered that all people over 100 years old share the same "longevity" gene -- whereas only very few people who die in their 90s have that gene.
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  #4   ^
Old Mon, Mar-23-09, 15:43
Nancy LC's Avatar
Nancy LC Nancy LC is offline
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Plan: DDF
Stats: 202/185.4/179 Female 67
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Progress: 72%
Location: San Diego, CA
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Well, how many people eat a paleo diet? A few thousand perhaps? How many do you know of yourself? Maybe a handful.

How many people eat a SAD? Many, many millions. So there are going to be some anomalous standouts just due to genetic variations.

The only thing that would be meaningful would be to track 100's or thousands of people on paleo for 80 years and then publish about it. Just finding an exceptional case is hard when the sample size is so small.

I might not live to be 120 but I'm hoping that my elder years are not spent in a walker wearing a diaper, and that's probably where I'd end up on the SAD.
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  #5   ^
Old Mon, Mar-23-09, 15:53
lil' annie lil' annie is offline
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Plan: quasi paleo + starch
Stats: 153/148/118 Female 5'4"
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Progress: 14%
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Anybody happen to know what was the average life expectancy of the Inuit, back when they were consuming their original diet?
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  #6   ^
Old Mon, Mar-23-09, 16:02
frankly's Avatar
frankly frankly is offline
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Plan: VLC
Stats: 295/220/160 Male 5'10"
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Blackjacks' "Has anyone been paleo for more than 20 years" basically was asking the same; you might want to (re)read that one as well: http://forums.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=377094
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  #7   ^
Old Mon, Mar-23-09, 16:03
Nancy LC's Avatar
Nancy LC Nancy LC is offline
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Plan: DDF
Stats: 202/185.4/179 Female 67
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It wasn't great but then, how long would you live in that hostile environment without modern medical care, electricity, sanitation, spearing whales and having polar bears for neighbors.
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  #8   ^
Old Mon, Mar-23-09, 16:37
karlin's Avatar
karlin karlin is offline
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Plan: paleo
Stats: 185/139/150 Female 66 inches
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Interesting question. I guess the real point of paleo though is to be the healthiest we can for however long we have. I don't want to live to 100 with diabetes and heart disease on 20 meds a day.
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  #9   ^
Old Mon, Mar-23-09, 16:38
frankly's Avatar
frankly frankly is offline
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Plan: VLC
Stats: 295/220/160 Male 5'10"
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mrs. Skip
I'm asking this because so many people diss Atkin's diet (and low carb) simply because Dr. Atkins had head trauma and died. It seems many people still believe he died of a heart attack from "all that meat and bacon."...


It's funny, I was re-reading an argument between Rosebud and theBear about that matter. I think theBear is the first person I've read put that argument on it's head and suggest that Atkins dying from head trauma was a result of all of the carbs he allows in his diet and was actually a stroke from insulin induced arterial damage. Still it's a interesting way to counter that... "Actually Dr. Atkins didn't eat enough meat and bacon."

P.S.: I have to vent a sympathetic audience, Global news here in Canada just ran a health segment about the DANGER of eating red meat. Notable aggravating comments; "part of the problem is people think this steak is a single serving, in reality it's four", "you should base your meals around beans, grains and vegetables, and use your meat as a garnish.", the lead in was great: "...of course we all know that eating too much red meat is bad for you."

"Meat as a garnish"... I almost like that, I should garnish my next steak with a meatball."
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  #10   ^
Old Mon, Mar-23-09, 17:29
Bat Spit Bat Spit is offline
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Plan: paleo-ish
Stats: 482/400/240 Female 68 inches
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Progress: 34%
Location: DC Area
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Steak as garnish? That's silly. Everyone knows that bacon is the perfect garnish and goes with everything.

Quote:
I guess the real point of paleo though is to be the healthiest we can for however long we have.


That's where I stand. My mom is in horrible health at 58. I'm not concerned about the number of years nearly as much as I am about the quality.

I've never really understood the appeal of outliving everyone you've ever known.
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  #11   ^
Old Mon, Mar-23-09, 18:19
Mrs. Skip's Avatar
Mrs. Skip Mrs. Skip is offline
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Posts: 1,073
 
Plan: Primal/Paleo/MyOwn
Stats: 187.5/168/132 Female 5' 5"
BF:
Progress: 35%
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by frankly
Blackjacks' "Has anyone been paleo for more than 20 years" basically was asking the same; you might want to (re)read that one as well: http://forums.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=377094


Thanks, Frankly, for the link to that thread. I must have missed that thread when it was being replied to on the first page, back in the summertime. I rarely look past the first page, and I can't do a search anymore because there's an advertising box on this forum that blocks the search box, and I can't get rid of it no matter what I do. (Yeah, I'm pretty computer illiterate. )

So through that thread, I learned that Dr. Wolfgang Lutz is alive and well, at the age of 95! (He's the author of Life without Bread.) Yay! That made me really, really happy.....at least there is one person who I can point to as an example of living to a ripe old healthy age while eating low carb!

However, Dr. Steven Byrnes, who wrote the introduction to the Life without Bread book, died suddenly of a stroke at age 41. Um, yeah, pretty scarey, and the exact opposite of what I need when I try to explain low-carb to close friends or family.

Also, Blake Donaldson and Alfred Pennington, both low-carb advocates and doctors, both died pretty young, too....

So even though I'm happy about Wolfgang Lutz, I'd have to say that for all the healthy eating most of these famous low-carb advocates are doing, they actually seem to have a shorter lifespan than the average person......
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  #12   ^
Old Mon, Mar-23-09, 18:25
Mrs. Skip's Avatar
Mrs. Skip Mrs. Skip is offline
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Posts: 1,073
 
Plan: Primal/Paleo/MyOwn
Stats: 187.5/168/132 Female 5' 5"
BF:
Progress: 35%
Default

Oh, and just for the record, it's not that I necessarily am trying to make it to 100 or so myself...it's just that when people tell me I am going to drop dead of a heart attack for eating meat and eggs etc., like many of these well-known low-carb doctors, I previously have had no one that I can use as an example. (Now I have Dr. Lutz. )

Although, I am really hoping to learn of more of these low carb doctors who are living long and healthy lives.....one just isn't quite enough......
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  #13   ^
Old Mon, Mar-23-09, 18:29
lil' annie lil' annie is offline
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Posts: 1,276
 
Plan: quasi paleo + starch
Stats: 153/148/118 Female 5'4"
BF:
Progress: 14%
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IMO, doctors are not the group to examine - most doctors live a very stressful life. Aren't medical doctors reputed to be the profession with the greatest number of suicides?
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  #14   ^
Old Mon, Mar-23-09, 19:31
capmikee's Avatar
capmikee capmikee is offline
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Plan: Weston A. Price, GFCF
Stats: 165/133/132 Male 5' 5"
BF:?/12.7%/?
Progress: 97%
Location: Philadelphia
Default

Another bit of bad news, Tom Brewer, co-author of "What Every Pregnant Woman Should Know: The Truth about Diet and Drugs in Pregnancy" died at in 2005 at age 80 of "white matter disease," a "degenerative brain disorder."

Dr. Brewer and is wife Gail ran a clinic for pregnant women and advocated a high-protein diet without salt restrictions for women suffering from preeclampsia. They were not terribly low-carb by our standards, but their book introduced us to a lot of low-carb concepts. Their "high-protein pancake" recipe was a low-carb breakfast compared to what we were eating at the time.

I wouldn't be surprised if doctors are subject to a lot of health risks that "ordinary" people aren't - not just stress.
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  #15   ^
Old Mon, Mar-23-09, 19:31
Nancy LC's Avatar
Nancy LC Nancy LC is offline
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Posts: 25,843
 
Plan: DDF
Stats: 202/185.4/179 Female 67
BF:
Progress: 72%
Location: San Diego, CA
Default

Bacon is not a garnish when it is the main course!

We also don't know if these doctors actually stuck to their own diets or not. My parents changed their diet habits drastically once they got to their 70's and I think it really hurt them.
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