Me and Freddie Mercury!
I do so luvvit when my little fondly-held prejudices and pet theories get supporting evidence. ‘Course when evidence goes against me I huff n puff, duck n dive.
Remember when drinking red wine made you live longer? And when just a little occasional mild exercise was best, and any more you did was a waste of time, maybe harmful? Those were the good old daze! That was good research!
Now, Good News! Fuck trying to live to a ripe old age! Read this and relax, and – as a bonus – save time n money!
Yay!
Summary for the lazy:
All that crap about special diets? Horseshit
Special areas where people live longer, like the Med or a Japanese island (“blue zones”)? Perdekak
110yr-old people who hit the news (“super-centenarians”)? – Most – 82% of them! – are dead, vrek, deceased, frot, mummified, buried. What IS happening is their families are still collecting their pensions. Never forget to factor in our human fondness of fibbing. Others still living, were born in the 1930s or 40s, not the 1900s or even “19th century – they have lived in three millenia!” as they and their relatives tell the journalist eager / desperate for a story that will get more clicks than their last story about the village fete.
So instead of following devious Dan who built a lucrative brand around the trademarked term Blue Zones selling books, diets and lifestyles that promise the nine “secrets” of longevity; Or the fake China Study; Or tech-bro biohacking bullshitter Bryan who aims to defy death by infusing himself with his son’s plasma, injecting his penis with Botox and publicly tracking his bowel movements; Rather listen (as I do cos it suits me) to Jack London who said, I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them…
Also – and ignore this if you believe as Oscar Wilde did, that advice is only good in the giving: Do follow reproducible basic research by reputable institutions. Do value the scientific method. Spoiler: Both of these are usually boring, and sorry, but they will change over time (that’s science for you!). In the meantime, don’t smoke, eat more plants and less meat, move more if you’re as lazy as me, move less if you’re an exercise bunny.
Or don’t.
Yay!
~~oo0oo~~
Perdekak – horseshit
vrek – dead; still collecting pension though