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?

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?

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.

Yeah, longevity in the end comes down to an indivudual's DNA telomerase.

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.

Anybody happen to know what was the average life expectancy of the Inuit, back when they were consuming their original diet?

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......

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......

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?

Wouldn't worry about that:

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituar...0,3824201.story

Not necessarily low carb/paleo, but definitely meat focused and high fat (which is a good start )

What a pistol! Thanks for the article, Tarlach.

Stephen Byrnes had AIDS - the stroke was related to that. http://blog.plantpoisonsandrottenst...stephen-byrnes/

So I wouldn't use him as a reason to get too nervous.

ETA: I just looked him up and Dr. Jan Kwasniewski, the Optimal Diet guy, is 72 and still kicking.

[QUOTE=Mrs. Skip]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. )

I had that problem too but I found that if you go to your user CP page the ad is gone and you can use the search feature.

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.