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July 13, 2005
Broccoli Would Be Better If It Were Meat
and slathered with barbeque sauce.
This is the uplifting message that a billboard I passed on my way to a hospital this afternoon trumpeted to the very depressed neighborhood I was passing through. Great way to send health-destroying messages to our nation's poor.
Made me think I should devote today's blog entry to statements that are so patently absurd as to be amusing. For instance, the oft-heard shriek of the uninitiated upon hearing the height/weight stats of some of our hardcore CR'd brothers: "That can't be healthy!"
The people who say this are usually overweight, totally uneducated about CR, and eating a cheesesteak. At least, that has been my experience.
CR works because it makes you healthy. As Dan once said, long, long ago: "Dying is not healthy."
How about, "Oil is bad for you," when declared by someone holding a copy of John McDougall's latest work. No, that's just silly. Now I don't recommend that you suck down peanut oil, but olive, hazelnut, flax? Just today I considered writing a love poem to flax oil as I spread it on my warm and waiting eggwhites. Then I got worried that my Orange One might be jealous if I started writing love poetry to oils. Then I remembered that my Orange One doesn't believe in jealousy, so he wouldn't be jealous, but he might well think it was really, really weird. My point being: flax oil is just fabulous. Pick some up today! But put it in the freezer... it oxidizes faster than you can say "Tastes buttery -- serve it on steamed vegetables!"
Back to absurd and false statements. How about:
"I'm not worried about aging because I have good genes."
Okay, is anyone in your family dead? If even one of your ancestors has died, then your genes are not good enough to protect you from age-related disease and disability indefinitely. CR won't do it either... though we hope it will put off the currently-inevitable long enough for us to catch that bus to SENS-style reversal of aging. That's why we need to donate to the Mprize... so we can get there faster! Your genes are not that good. Don't be silly.
Here's another of my favorites:
"I don't need to do CR because I'm already skinny."
I hate to say it, but one of my favorite people has said this in public. CR is not about weight! Life-extension benefits are not a result of being thin, they're a result of eating fewer calories without compromising nutrition! Like, hello! I know you've seen the rodent studies. I saw you look at them. Don't say stuff like this. It makes you seem like you're on drugs, and people are weird about that.
Aha, here we come to what may be my all time favorite:
"I think that exercise is more important than CR."
Well, yes, if you are a professional basketball player, then exercise is more important to you than CR because the millions of dollars you make depends on your ability to do exercise-related program activities. But for LIFESPAN EXTENSION CR is the only method proven to work in mammals! You can spend all the time you want at the gym, and that's just fab for obesity avoidance and putting off some kinds of disease and making you look sexy to people who like that type, but it will not equal actual extension of maximum lifespan. Sure, it's better to be fit than to be a couch potato eating fried potatoes. But that's not we're talking about. CR'd mammals actually see an increase in maximum lifespan, not just hanging out around the high end of normal. Will it work for humans? Well, stick around and see. But if you're going to be around to find out, I suggest you start CR. Or donate A WHOLE LOT to the Mprize.
How about this:
"I wouldn't want to live that long."
What, precisely, would you prefer to be doing?
The people who say this usually have the completely nonsensical notion that life-extension means extension of the period of elderly frailty. That makes no sense. Extension of youth and health is the whole point.
You find me someone who is healthy in both body and brain and not suicidally depressed, and give him or her the choice between living another day or dropping dead. Life can be good and life can be bad, but most people choose to keep on doing it.
Posted by april at July 13, 2005 5:57 PM
Comments
Hi April!
Did I really say "Dying is not healthy?" Or did you mean a different Dan?
Regarding the expression, "I wouldn't want to live that long." You're right, people usually say that because they just imagine being really old for a really long time.
In fact, I pretty much like all your examples and responses. There's a quote I actually remember saying that is a little bit different:
"I'm not afraid of death, I'm afraid of getting old."
That's probably the one thing that makes me different from you and all the other people who read this blog. At this point in my life at least, living a really long time just doesn't feel like a priority to me. What is a priority is not losing the ability to do the things I like to do.
If I were whisked off this earth right now, I just don't believe I'd be aware of the fact that I had died--I just wouldn't be around any more. I wouldn't regret all the things I didn't get to do, nor would I celebrate the things I had achieved. The entire impact of my demise would be with those who are still here.
Maybe you guys who are into life extension can help me out with this question: How can you dedicate so much of your energy to living as long as possible without developing a debilitating fear of death? Usually, when you put a lot of energy into something, to have it completely not work would be pretty devestating.
If you raise your expectations of living a long time to such a high level, make it such a priority in your life, become impassioned about it, how would you deal with it if you found out you only had a month left to live because you, say, contracted some rare disease?
Please don't think of these questions as in any way judgmental or disapproving. I'm just guessing my way through this whole life thing like anyone else. I'm just curious what it's like to have this burning desire to live really long and what repercussions that may have.
Thanks,
-Dan
Posted by: Dan at July 13, 2005 2:32 PM
o "I'm not worried about aging because I have good genes."
This is one of Aubrey de Grey's so-called excuses for his incredibly poor eating habits. What a maroon.
o "I think that exercise is more important than CR."
It's not more important, but it is vitally important. Muscles are your body's motors, and they need constant maintenance and rebuilding, otherwise they are prone to fail, or they become inadequate in older age. Look at all the older people who can barely get around -- they've failed to maintain their motors.
I'm highly impressed by your fellow CRONer Elizabeth, who seems to properly strength train, too. She is perhaps the best complete-package CRONer I've seen (from a food AND exercise perspective), and will likely enjoy the most healthy lifespan.
Posted by: Scott Miller at July 13, 2005 3:44 PM
But Scott, how can you say that, I eat so much DAIRY! ;-)
I do think well-developed muscles are more important than a lot of CR people give them credit for though, and not just for being incredibly sexy. Unlike fruit flies, yeasts, worms, and even cute furry little mice, humans are bipeds and we have this awkward upright spinal architecture to maintain. I'm already seeing friends my age who're active and fit--but runners & cardio freaks, not weight lifters--whose posture is starting to go to hellina handbasket, because they don't have the core strength to support themselves. And it makes them look OLD. We humans also have rather more complex cardiovascular issues than the lower organisms, thus we may benefit more from exercise than, say, a sedentary yeast which has otherwise excelled with its CR practice.
Also, I'm with Dan: I didn't come to CR in order to live a long time, I kind of stumbled on it by accident in the process of trying to cure my asthma. And it worked so well, I was converted. Long life would be a really nice side effect, sure, but my primary goal has always been just to be able to breathe, today, tonight, tomorrow. Excellent health, one day at a time.
Anyway, great post today April. (Secretly, I've always thought broccoli would be better if it was blueberries, but it never occurred to me to say so on a billboard.)
-Liz
Posted by: Elizabeth at July 13, 2005 6:42 PM
Excellent post, April. You have a delightful sense of humor. :)
Posted by: Kip Werking at July 14, 2005 9:46 AM