many numbers used in the Bible or more representative than factual, but that doesn't mean they didn't live to be way more than 100.

I think a lot of it does relate to genetics. Ever seen identical twins? Ever seen identical twins that don't look alike? If one's overweight, chances are the other one is. If one is thin, athletic, and tall... chances are the other one is. I can't remember ever seeing identical twins that weren't close to each other in weight, or did not have an identical frame. They share the same genes.

 

I had a big BBQ on Saturday (charcoal FTW) with several kinds of brats, lemon pepper steaks, and hamburgers. This reaffirmed that I would not be able to make it as a vegetarian.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(majikTib @ Apr 14 2008, 08:39 AM) </div><div class='quotemain'>I can't remember ever seeing identical twins that weren't close to each other in weight, or did not have an identical frame.</div>

 

Supposedly doctors have found a way for people to live up to 200 years now. And they also have people paying $75,000 to freeze their bodies when they have a disease or ailment, for when doctors find a cure for what ever is wrong with them. Screw that! I dont want to live hundreds of years. The world is too screwed up as it is, and it'll probably only get worst. tongue.gif laugh.gif


I know, I know....Im so optimistic sometimes....haha

 

If I could choose to I would live forever. I always want to see what happens next.

 

Make sure you put a conditional statement with that. After you hit 110 years, you won't be able to walk, see, hear, or breathe without pain. I wouldn't mind living 200 years if I could keep the health of a 20-25 year old.

 

I think what I am trying to say is that peoples health back than was a lot better than it is now our DNA back than didn't have all these diseases and illnesses that we do now so gradually human beings dna has gradually gotten worse and worse due to pollution, drugs (medical and not) as well as food, they for sure didnt have pesticides back than!! LOL!! Everything was organic which probably helped their health and for them to live longer!!

I still would not be able to be a vegetarian but eating healthy is good, portion control people!! LOL!!

 

IF you're looking at it from a point of view taking every piece of evidence into account except for the Bible (because that's either right or not but not an easy subject to debate) people are living far longer now than ever before. Prior to the advent of modern medicine the life expectancy was between 25-30 years old. That included infant mortality deaths so if you made it as far as adulthood you would generally live well beyond 30 but you probably would die before modern retirement age.

It's a misconception that most diseases are more rampant today than in the past. Cancer and cardiopulmonary diseases for example were more than likely leading causes of death then, only most of those deaths were simply unexplained at that time. There are diseases that have become resistant to antibiotics due to insanely stupid overuse of antibiotics in people and livestock and soap and everything but the diseases themselves are no worse than the diseases were before antibiotics, that's how every staph infection went back in those days. You either lived through it or you didn't. I personally have had a full dozen infections that any one of them would have been likely to kill me without modern medicine.

Throughout the pioneer days in the USA (because I remember watching a show on this particular time period in regards to nutrition) it was assumed that the people ate pretty well and had a good balanced nutrition based on their farming, ALL foods they were eating were "organically grown" etc. They did some research and found that the average pioneer ate 7,500-10,000 calories per day with almost 50% of those calories coming from fat. They also ate many many times (seems like 20 times, but I don't remember for sure) the amount of salt that is recommended for people today.

There are a lot of things that impact our health negatively today but we're still lightyears ahead of even just a century ago.

But yeah, if I could have immortality it would come with conditions of maintaining decent health forever and that I would be able to kill myself if I so chose.

 

My opinion slightly differs:

Gastrointestinal and Immunodeficiency diseases are much much higher than ever. There has been a VERY sharp increase since the mid-60's and 70's. My wife has Crohn's Disease. I had never heard of it before she was diagnosed, but since then, everybody I talk to seems to know somebody who has it.

From the doctors I've talked with, GI related illnesses (IBS, IBD, Crohn's, etc.) can be traced back to the 60's and 70's. During this time period we started sanitizing all crops with herbicides and pesticides, to kill the bad bacteria and insects. This also killed the good bacteria. Because we weren't getting the good AND bad bacteria we always have, our bodies didn't build up a tolerance to the bad bacterias and ended up lacking in the good bacteria. Many in the medical profession believe that this has led to the heavy increase in GI and immunodeficiency illnesses/diseases.

I typed this, then went to Wiki and found corroborating remarks:

About 1 in 500 people is born with a primary immunodeficiency. - Wiki link

A recent hypothesis posits that some IBD cases are caused by an overactive immune system attacking various tissues of the digestive tract because of the lack of traditional targets such as parasites and worms. The number of people being diagnosed with IBD has increased as the number of infections by parasites, such as roundworm, hookworm and human whipworms, has fallen, and the condition is still rare in countries where parasitic infections are common. - Wiki Link

Thus, my conclusion, is that eating more vegetables can possibly harm you more than help, and in some cases it could cause diseases.

By the way... if you want to debate the Bible, I'm more than willing! Start a topic anytime and I'll join in. horsey.gif

 

I'll wait until either I'm in a different mood or someone else starts the Bible/religion debate. lol. I think this place would be different but oh man has that ended ugly other places when it's come up...so many strong opinions coming from every direction it's hard to talk about in a civilized manner. It is impossible to come to an agreement when people have different opinions on any subject involving faith.

I agree 100% that oversanitizing our lives had been harmful. You can also see this (similarly to what you posted) in rich vs. poor families in developed countries. Poor families get sick less often. It's been suggested (and I agree) like in your post above that this is due to the decrease in the effectiveness of our immune system and decrease of beneficial bacteria in our systems. Poor kids play in the dirt, eat less sanitized food, etc. on average than rich kids. The rich kids have weaker immune systems and more allergies than poor kids on average.

We're still living longer lives than at any point within well documented history however. I think it could be improved by changing our behaviors somewhat and changing our agricultural industry significantly so that we would have the best of both worlds, natural immunities and modern medicine.