One of my favorite lines from the movie “Conan the Barbarian” was “do you want to live forever?” I always wanted to say back to Sandahl Bergman, “Yeah, babe, I do!” Of course I would sound silly if I said that in a theater. Thank god some other guy geekier than me said it for me. The audience had a great laugh!
On a more serious note, while I realize it may not (yet) be possible to live forever, or even a really long time, we have done well in extending the human life expectancy. Unfortunately the last 25-40 years of western civilization has worked to undo all that.
When you consider that our scientists don’t have many tips for living a longer life, it would be well for us to follow the few tips they do offer. I don’t smoke and my family and I avoid second-hand cigarette smoke as much as possible. Thankfully public health regulations make that much easier than it used to be. Can’t say I am a big fan of vaping, though.
It’s a sad thing to say but we don’t have a lot of information about how to live longer. Well, I say that but what I mean is that we don’t have a lot of reliable information on the topic. I found a few articles that offer great tips for living longer. But it seems like life expectancy advice is the new snake oil in town. And maybe the fight against aging is not exactly the same thing as trying to live longer. But I feel that if you can stay young your chances of living longer improve.
Almost every article offering advice on the topic agrees that we should manage our weight. As Americans grow fatter every year I worry that we may be shortening our lives. You don’t have any trouble finding stories about people who have lost weight. But is that enough? Will it change things sufficiently so that we live longer?
Living longer, staying younger, being more physically fit: these things all depend on only a few similar points:
- Lose weight
- Don’t smoke
- Get more physical activity
- Eat good foods
Where is it written that we can’t do any of these things? Why do we have to build entire industries that are designed to make us fatter, lead us to smoke, keep us sitting on our butts all day, and filling us up with unhealthy foods? Who are these people who want to kill us all, and why do they hate us so much?
If I were one of these multibillionaire investors who owned stocks in these companies I would be asking myself how much sense it makes to market these unhealthy lifestyle choices. Yes, there is demand for these kinds of products but who created that demand? Why can’t they create demand for healthier products?
If you want to grow your wealth doesn’t it make more sense to help your customers stay healthy, live longer, more productive lives, and make more money?
I’m being a little unfair, I guess. There are some pretty big industries that cater to our desires to live longer and healthier lives. I mean, look at how many low carb meals and meal plans you can buy in the grocery stores. We have tons of Websites that teach us how to cut carbs out of our diets. Low carb food is a huge, multibillion dollar industry. I guess the super investors are following the money. I just feel like they are not leading the way.
The mentality seems to be that “we already built this market for unhealthy foods, we’ll stick to that” because it’s easier than building a market for healthier foods.
Maybe the tide will change now that Amazon has bought Whole Foods. I’m not saying that everything at Whole Foods is really that good for you. I don’t believe in all this “GMO free” stuff. And raw, organic milk? Sorry. That’s not healthy. Drinking that stuff is asking for indigestion and frequent trips to the toilet. Not that I think Amazon would sell unhealthy foods intentionally. I think they’ll test the market and see what people want to buy.
But when you create an atmosphere that encourages people to think about living longer, staying younger and fit, and eating healthier foods they’ll probably do more of that and less of the bad stuff.
If the big businesses of American industry just move a little faster in this direction we’ll all live longer, happier lives and put more money into their investors’ pockets.
Surely that’s a win-win situation for most people?
