Steve, “I have a philosophy eat healthy die anyway.

We all will die eventually, but I am concerned of how I am living today. I eat healthy and get lot’s of exercise, why rush the I am leaving process.

John C.

For me, every day's a good day - just some days better than others!

Gary

Along with Toto and Dorothy ??? ...

Two weeks ago, my wife and I drove down to Williamsburg VA to see our grandson at William and Mary College. He was appearing in a production of "Smokin' Joe's Cafe" and was singing lead in a number of songs, including "Jailhouse Rock" ... On the drive home that Friday, we hit some BAD storms and an alert came on my phone that there was a tornado watch for Snow Hill MD and I saw that we were driving through Snow Hill at that very moment ... fortunately I saw no signs of a twister, but a couple of times I had to get off the road because I could barely see 50 feet in front of me ... during one of the worst thunderstorms I happened to be driving across a bridge ! ... We drove all the way through Delaware under Tornado watch conditions ...
That's as close I ever want to get ...

John to a degree some of that comment was tongue in cheek. I love big meals and if I ate and drank like I used to 35 years ago I’d probably be dead today. I watch my food intake, and exercise regularly I do not deprive myself all the time especially on special occasions. Tony and I only live about a 20 minute ride apart, life gets busy so when we can manage to meet “we’re gonna have a feast.”

I always get a big chuckle out of the term "Eating Healthy." All food is healthy! Keep in mind that the folks on the planet, according to a massive study conducted by the World Health Organization, who live the longest are those that consume the most fat and have the highest cholesterol levels. The only people that consume more fat than the French is the Aleutian Eskimos, yet both races have an extremely low incidence of cardiovascular disease. The race that consumes what we refer to as heart healthy foods is the Australian Aborigines, a diet consisting of fruits, nuts and very little red meat. They have the lowest cholesterol levels on the planet, yet they also have the highest incidence of cardiovascular disease.

When I worked in field of cardio-pulmonary medicine, more than 70 percent of my patients that underwent bypass surgery had normal and low cholesterol levels and were at or below ideal weight. Most, however, had a sedentary lifestyle, which I believe was a big contributor to heart disease.

I sincerely believe that the medical community have bought into a bill of goods when it comes to cholesterol. Cholesterol lowering drugs, statins, etc... are a multi-billion dollar industry in the US, which is where most of the statins are consumed worldwide. Most other nations do not have high consumption rates of statin drugs. It's hard to watch TV without a cholesterol lowering drug not being advertised. Gotta be some big bucks being made on them in order to pay for this much advertising.

My advice, stay away from the carbs (within reason), exercise as much as possible and within age limits (sometimes we old farts get lazy), and enjoy all that high fat, high cholesterol food. If the WHO studies are correct, and I sincerely believe they are, you will live just as long, but happier, if you wolf down a big fillet mignon, lobster slathered in butter, crab cakes, cheeses, ribs, and all the other stuff folks claim are not heart healthy. Ironically, the guy in the restaurant that is nibbling on the rabbit food will likely die of cardiovascular disease long before the guy dipping his lobster in butter sauce.

Today's breakfast was Jimmy Dean Breakfast Sausage Patty, Egg Beater Blue Cheese Omlett topped with a slab of cheddar cheese, OJ and coffee. Down 20 pounds in 15 days as of this morning. OH YEAH!

Enjoy what little time we have on the planet,

Gary