[NYCFarmboy]

wasting your time/money eating "healthy" foods?

Man lived to 112 on sausage-and-waffles diet

‘We often find it is in the genes rather than lifestyle,’ says expert

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13119227/

Updated: 11:34 a.m. ET Sept 2, 2006
LOS ANGELES - George Johnson, considered California’s oldest living person at 112 and the state’s last surviving World War I veteran, had experts shaking their heads over his junk food diet.

“He had terrible bad habits. He had a diet largely of sausages and waffles,” Dr. L. Stephen Coles, founder of the Gerontology Research Group at the University of California, Los Angeles, said Friday.

The 5-foot-7, 140-pound Johnson died of pneumonia Wednesday at his Richmond home in Northern California.


“A lot of people think or imagine that your good habits and bad habits contribute to your longevity,” Coles said. “But we often find it is in the genes rather than lifestyle.”

Johnson, who was blind and living alone until his 110th birthday when a caregiver began helping him, built the Richmond house by hand in 1935. He got around using a walker in recent years.

Johnson was the only living Californian considered a “supercentenarian,” a designation for those ages 110 or older, Coles said. His group is now in the process of validating a Los Angeles candidate who claims to be 112 years old.

Coles participated in an autopsy Thursday that was designed to study Johnson’s health.

“All of his organs were extremely youthful. They could have been the organs of someone who was 50 or 60, not 112. Clearly his genes had some secrets,” Coles said.

‘A mysterious case’
“Everything in his body that we looked at was clean as a whistle, except for his lungs with the pneumonia,” Coles said. “He had no heart disease, he had no cancer, no diabetes and no Alzheimer’s.

“This is a mysterious case that someone could be so healthy from a pathology point of view and that there is no obvious cause of death.”

The family was in favor of an autopsy. Relatives said Johnson wanted them to allow it if it would help science.

Born May 1, 1894, Johnson’s father managed the Baltimore and Ohio Railway station in Philadelphia.

Johnson was working in 1917 as a mail sorter for the U.S. Post Office when he was drafted into the Army. The war ended a year later, and he never served in combat.

Two years later, he and his wife moved to Northern California.

“It was a great adventure in those days. We were young and wanted the experience,” Johnson said in a March interview with the Contra Costa Times.

The couple settled in Fresno and remained there until 1935, when they bought property in Richmond. They used lumber salvaged from dismantled buildings to build their house.

During World War II, Johnson worked at the Kaiser shipyard in Richmond and later managed the heating plant at Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in Oakland.

He remained in good health and continued driving until he was 102, when his vision began to fail.

Johnson’s wife died in 1992 at the age of 92. The couple had no children.

[hyteckit]

There are smokers who live pass 90. The thing is smoking doesn't effect everyone the same way. For some people, they get cancer in less than 10 years. For some it has little effect.

Same thing with junk food. Some can eat junk food and never get fat. Some get fat very easily.

[GSixZero]

Yeah, there are people who are exceptionally well put together from the start. They've got what it takes to last.

Love the title of the thread though... next I see "Driver safely makes it home after 6 martinis. Myth of alcohol impairing driving"

[NYCFarmboy]

well continue to believe the myth while you enjoy your organic pine combs or whatever it is that is left on the world that is considered "healthy".

[Chuckit]

People have been shot in the head and survived as well. I guess getting shot in the head isn't dangerous either.

It's one thing to say there are other factors than diet that have an effect on our health. It's another to say that our diet has no appreciable affect on our health.

[NYCFarmboy]

Originally Posted by Chuckit

People have been shot in the head and survived as well. I guess getting shot in the head isn't dangerous either.

It's one thing to say there are other factors than diet that have an effect on our health. It's another to say that our diet has no appreciable affect on our health.

diet doesn't have a appreciable affect on your health except in quantity of food consumed..not type. a calorie is a calorie is a calorie. too many and you get fat..doesn't matter what they come from.

as the article notes.. your health is preprogrammed in your genes...not in the type of foods you eat.

I realized this posting would bring out the food nazi's who seek to impose their own views on others.

Eat anything you want in moderation, excercize & you'll be fine.

[SpaceMonkey]

Originally Posted by NYCFarmboy

diet doesn't have a appreciable affect on your health except in quantity of food consumed..not type. a calorie is a calorie is a calorie. too many and you get fat..doesn't matter what they come from.

as the article notes.. your health is preprogrammed in your genes...not in the type of foods you eat.

I realized this posting would bring out the food nazi's who seek to impose their own views on others.

Eat anything you want in moderation, excercize & you'll be fine.

A good New York Times article on the subject: Live Long? Die Young? Answer Isn't Just in Genes

Synopsis: Science is great at predicting life expectancies for large populations, but not great at all at predicting life expectancy on an individual scale. We don't know what the hell causes one person to live to be 90+, and their identical twin to die at 70 from multiple health problems.

[turtle777]

Well, who knows how old he'd get if he had a healthy diet ?






Maybe 60 !

-t

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by NYCFarmboy

diet doesn't have a appreciable affect on your health except in quantity of food consumed..not type. a calorie is a calorie is a calorie. too many and you get fat..doesn't matter what they come from.

Food is more than just calories. And there's also the fact that the body processes different foods differently, some of them better than others.

[Mastrap]

Originally Posted by NYCFarmboy

diet doesn't have a appreciable affect on your health except in quantity of food consumed..not type. a calorie is a calorie is a calorie. too many and you get fat..doesn't matter what they come from.

as the article notes.. your health is preprogrammed in your genes...not in the type of foods you eat.

I realized this posting would bring out the food nazi's who seek to impose their own views on others.

1. You have no idea about nutrition. None. At. All.
2. You have no idea about correct apostrophe usage.

I don't know what is worst.

[TailsToo]

Cell Phones and WiFi will kill us all!

[Eriamjh]

Sausages and Waffles are not junk food. Cheetos and fried food are.

[Velocity211]

well my great grandfather just died 3 weeks ago at the age of 102....wow, how random is that

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Velocity211

well my great grandfather just died 3 weeks ago at the age of 102....wow, how random is that

-t

[vmarks]

I find humor in entertaining the notion that people who live long and are practioners of a healthy diet and large amounts of exercise live long lives IN SPITE of their jogging.

It's the 'whatever doesn't kill me, makes me stronger' mindset- right up until it does kill them, of course.

With all the chemicals we ingest daily and the stresses we put on our bodies in today's society will make living to an old age a thing of the past. Genes, what we eat and how we exercise aren't going to play much into a life expectancy equation anymore.

I also think that nature has it's own ways of dealing with overpopulation.

[Chuckit]

So, because we ingest chemicals, what we ingest doesn't matter? Not sure I'm following.

Post a thread when 50% of the population lives to be 112 from eating waffles and sausages. Until then, it's just a mechanism for people to rationalize eating too much bad food.

[turtle777]

Heck, I have posted this before:

Statistically, death is not even certain. From the beginnings of time until now, only about 50% of all people have died. The other 50% are still alive. So statistically, we don't know if everyone will die !

-t

[NYCFarmboy]

Originally Posted by hayesk

Post a thread when 50% of the population lives to be 112 from eating waffles and sausages. Until then, it's just a mechanism for people to rationalize eating too much bad food.

I expect this of course. I just find it interesting that over the last 20 years as foods began to be demonized for political reasons the rate of obesity suddwnly skyrocketed to where its now a epidemic.

why is this? I think largley because the food police have demonized eating overall to the point where many now just give it all up and eat tons of crap because they are so mentally #ucked by all that they have heard... I mean seriously what food group has not been attacked in the media at some point as being patently evil/dangerous?

American's werent' fat in the 1950's when what they ate would now drive "nutritionists" up the wall..... it is refreshing to see a report like this one to at least show the light on the stupidity of the food police and at least discuss the root causes of what is causing the obesity epidemic which has resulted from the demonization of food.

[SpaceMonkey]

He also apparently didn't have any kids. I imagine that probably added another 20-30 years to his life.

[SpaceMonkey]

Look, first of all, all we know about this guy's diet is this:

“He had terrible bad habits. He had a diet largely of sausages and waffles,” Dr. L. Stephen Coles, founder of the Gerontology Research Group at the University of California, Los Angeles, said Friday.

Hardly enough to draw many conclusions about his overall eating habits.

Second, one reason there was less obesity in the 1950s (although I'm not sure when we started measuring obesity on a national scale, so who knows) was not because everyone gorged themselves on sausage and waffles, but because people generally ate three meals a day and that was that. There wasn't as much prepackaged junk food within arms reach 24/7.

[jamil5454]

He lived to 112 on sausage and waffles, but probably could have lived to 120+ if he ate a little "healthier".

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by jamil5454

He lived to 112 on sausage and waffles, but probably could have lived to 120+ if he ate a little "healthier".

Thanks for re-stating my comment, just not funny

-t

[hyteckit]

Originally Posted by SpaceMonkey

He also apparently didn't have any kids. I imagine that probably added another 20-30 years to his life.

Haha... nah. Maybe just 10-20 years.

[jamil5454]

Originally Posted by what_the_heck

Thanks for re-stating my comment, just not funny

-t

All I did was restate your comment, but in a non-humorous fashion.







oops

[hyteckit]

It's call a balance diet. Nothing wrong with eating sausages and waffles. But I'm sure it was healthy portions and ate other things besides sausages and waffles. I doubt he eats nothing buy sausages and waffles for breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday for 100 years. I love having 2 sausage and 2 waffles every morning for breakfast. Hell, throw in some eggs and hash browns too. Good eating. Eating nothing buy fruits and vegetables ain't good for you either.

[SpaceMonkey]

Now I can't get the Kids In The Hall short out of my mind:
Sausages!

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by NYCFarmboy

I expect this of course. I just find it interesting that over the last 20 years as foods began to be demonized for political reasons the rate of obesity suddwnly skyrocketed to where its now a epidemic.

why is this?

Clearly it's only because our genes changed drastically, because diet doesn't have any significant effect on our health. Right?

[NYCFarmboy]

diet normally wouldn't have any effect, as it did for centuries up until the 1970's/80's when food began to be demonized.

The psycholocigal traumitization of food by the food police and diet industries has led to the bizarre food phobias/eating disorders which are leading to chronic obesity.

That someone can reach this old age "despite" a unhealthy diet coupled with how most Americans are now overweight being fed the drivel of the diet police just gives one pause to think about things.

[turtle777]

^^^ In other words: it's all in your head !

-t

[- - e r i k - -]

Originally Posted by Chuckit

Clearly it's only because our genes changed drastically, because diet doesn't have any significant effect on our health. Right?

OMG! Evolution in progress!

[Mastrap]

Originally Posted by NYCFarmboy

diet normally wouldn't have any effect, as it did for centuries up until the 1970's/80's when food began to be demonized.

The psycholocigal traumitization of food by the food police and diet industries has led to the bizarre food phobias/eating disorders which are leading to chronic obesity.

That someone can reach this old age "despite" a unhealthy diet coupled with how most Americans are now overweight being fed the drivel of the diet police just gives one pause to think about things.

That is wrong on so many levels I don't even know where to start. You're letting your love of conspiracy theories cloud your judgement to such a degree that you're in danger of leaving reality behind. You also taking anecdotal evidence - one guy reached old age on a diet of junk - and you're trying to change it into empirical proof - junk food isn't bad for you. I honestly fail to understand how anybody can try to make that connection and not see how ludicrous that attempt is.

Before the 1960's processed food was as good as unknown. Because women generally were home makers most food was prepared from scratch, at home, from fresh ingredients sourced locally. Families used to eat together, at least twice a day and not in front of the TV. Because air travel was still expensive food didn't get flown in from the other side of the globe, so seasonal eating was normal, not the exception. So while the diet was far simpler, it was also far healthier that what many families eat today.

Kids cycled or walked to school, if they didn't catch the bus, they did not get driven in mum's SUV. TV and the internet were either unknown or much less prevalent that today, so there was more time for physical activity.

All of the above lead to low obesity rates. There is no demonization of food, there is no food police that is responsible for today's fat epidemic. It's people eating too much garbage that leads to obesity, nothing else.

[Velocity211]

Originally Posted by what_the_heck

-t

I really don't know why I said that either.

[NYCFarmboy]

Originally Posted by Mastrap

That is wrong on so many levels I don't even know where to start. You're letting your love of conspiracy theories cloud your judgement to such a degree that you're in danger of leaving reality behind. You also taking anecdotal evidence - one guy reached old age on a diet of junk - and you're trying to change it into empirical proof - junk food isn't bad for you. I honestly fail to understand how anybody can try to make that connection and not see how ludicrous that attempt is.

Before the 1960's processed food was as good as unknown. Because women generally were home makers most food was prepared from scratch, at home, from fresh ingredients sourced locally. Families used to eat together, at least twice a day and not in front of the TV. Because air travel was still expensive food didn't get flown in from the other side of the globe, so seasonal eating was normal, not the exception. So while the diet was far simpler, it was also far healthier that what many families eat today.

Kids cycled or walked to school, if they didn't catch the bus, they did not get driven in mum's SUV. TV and the internet were either unknown or much less prevalent that today, so there was more time for physical activity.

All of the above lead to low obesity rates. There is no demonization of food, there is no food police that is responsible for today's fat epidemic. It's people eating too much garbage that leads to obesity, nothing else.

eating sausages & waffles was known to the average 1950's diet

[SpaceMonkey]

Originally Posted by NYCFarmboy

eating sausages & waffles was known to the average 1950's diet

So?

[NYCFarmboy]

Originally Posted by SpaceMonkey

So?

oh its ok with me..I like sausages & waffles.