Sunday, January 17, 2010

Liver and onions at 100 after Keep Fit

Just tripped over this one while checking emails:

"But for Miss Easter, who was born when Edward VII was still king and the Titanic was only being built, the keep-fit classes are just a bit of fun. She said: "What's my secret? Keep away from junk food. I also do a bit of gardening, I cook every day and I am going to have liver and onions ... when I get home."

Well, I can think of worse things to have for supper!

Peter

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

There's also Ruth Frith the 100-year old World Masters Game competitor. She likes to weight train and doesn't eat vegetables.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvJPxGqYzqw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjkD21WxVEs

Peter said...

Hi Mari, I enjoyed that! I loved her comment about the elderly along the lines of "some of them don't even train" and "even just three days a week". Cracked me up.

Reminded me of the playboating video PlayDaze. Something along the lines of "For some people the massive rapids of Ontario are of no interest. For the rest of us they are a fantastic white water playground".

I like the sentiments.

Peter

zach said...

I suspected the lipid hypothesis before I knew the first thing about the scientific literature. The reason was a friend's great grandfather who lived to be 108 in west virginia. Breakfast was eggs and bacon fried in butter, with a glass of raw whole milk. Every morning. Lunch, more whole milk. Dinner, usually pork or beef, sometimes chicken, and the liberal use of lard and tallow to cook with.

Unknown said...

The world's oldest man also likes liver and onions.

Here: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-09-24-oldest-man-diet_N.htm

gunther gatherer said...

Hi Peter. I was wondering what you thought about this paper which has an alternative argument with regards to vitamin D and its benefits.

It claims vit D supplementation may help symptoms in the short term but actually worsens mortality...

http://autoimmunityresearch.org/transcripts/AR-Albert-VitD.pdf

eltesoMm said...

I LOVE this blog. I just have to waste some space here letting you know I think you are a genius. I found this blog PT (post-Taubes). You and Taubes (and Groves, Yudkin, Price, Lierre Keith, Dufty, Eades etc etc) have changed my life and that of my family- for the better. I'm a biochemist and BT (before Taubes) I hadn't heard or known 0.5 of what was contained in his masterpiece GCBC. So as to stop wasting space, what would you estimate the % of the population who are 'true' vegetarians.?

Nigel Kinbrum said...

Regarding Vitamin D: the alternative hypothesis, I'd rather live a shorter life with better health over most of it than a longer life with poorer health over most of it. For me, Vitamin D3 For The Win!

Nige.

Peter said...

Gunther,

I really struggled with Trevor Marshall. This discussion seems more reasoned and supported. I'm working at getting some of the more critical references he cites and so far he hasn't ticked me off, though several of the refs are open to interpretation and the authors of the refs specify this. It's like oxyglobin infusion. This seems like the kiss of death to auto immune haemolytic anaemia patients. But it is so expensive it only gets given to the ones who look like dying. They don't usually disappoint!

I am quite happy that a very large proportion of auto immune diseases are triggered by bacterial peptides. I'm not sure "all" is quite the correct term but, well maybe... One thing which does ring true is the diminishing returns from corticosteroids in auto immune diseases. IBD comes to mind. The initial spectacular response to prednisolone is quite often not maintained and it has always worried me that we were suppressing the immune system in a condition with a grossly abnormal gut bacterial microbiota.

I've also still got a great deal of reading to do of papers from Ted on vitamin D and there are several other posts on the go in the background. But I don't think vitamin D will be going away any time soon. Too controversial!

BTW, I've lost the thread on hormesis (and a few other subjects, sorry folks!) but a couple of thoughts: The radiation doses in Hiroshima might have been rather higher than hormetic doses. You could perhaps say the same thing about plants in WHEL and PPT. Any putative benefits of the thiotoxins in broccoli etc is a clear cut induction of defense mechanism in the liver. It's a pity WHEL and PPT came out so badly for plants!

Nige, I'm still thinking. For me there is not enough information and I'm not sure my initial thoughts were correct. Time to keep reading.

EltesoMm, zero? Hee hee! Oh, or do you mean practicing vegetarians?

Peter

Peter said...

Kaw, just got chance to follow the link. Is that an 18 ish hour fast every day? Helps ameliorate the fruit!

Peter

eltesoMm said...

HI, Yes, very sorry. My question should have read, what % of people do you think are 'practicing' vegetarians?

blogblog said...

I'llbe having chicken livers and bacon for dinner tonight. I eat 500g of liver once a week.

Ned Kock said...

It is a good idea for people to look at their background, because they may have inherited genes that predispose them to function better with certain types of diets.

A nutrition-related genetic mutation can spread to an entire population in as little as 396 years, or even less depending on the circumstances. I posted about this here:

http://healthcorrelator.blogspot.com/2010/01/how-long-does-it-take-for-food-related.html

Elizabeth said...

Hello Peter,

I wondered if you could comment once again on why you keep levels of protein low in your diet. I never can fully understand this- is it because it is turned to energy which you do not require, is it because of the strain on kidneys/liver? please do respond. I am eating lots of protein from fish and beef/lamb and I am interested in your thoughts on
this if possible.

Do you aim for the 1g/ per kilo body weight approach? As a 40kilo woman who is not currently sprinting or lifiting heavy things - fairly sedentary I guess that means only 40grams daily protein- I eat alot more than this.
Thanks as always

Peter said...

Hi Elizabeth,

I have a Nature paper discussing the alternatives of glucose or protein restriction for life extension form a friend. The suggestion is that carbohydrate restriction ameliorates protein excess if I remember correctly. It's only talking about DROSOPHILA, so caution.

JK suggests if you are going to lapse then carbs are better than protein, but I always lapse to excess protein myself. Carbs have no big hook in the way cheese has! I'm on other things at the moment but discussing this paper is on the agenda...

Peter

Peter said...

Hi Ned, yes, people/animals do adapt and there is a massive drive to evolve in to grain eating animals at the moment. I think that evolution speed is related to the size of the change in environment, which is huge. So I can see logic to this. The problem is that people must suffer in the process. Because we are all genetically starvation-adapted then starvation mode provides a baseline that the vast majority of people, grain or animal adapted, can fall back on. This is what the OD mimics, as far as I can see, but without the weight loss... The Naturopaths use therapeutic fasting, also quite effective but not quite as sustainable over the years as the OD....

Peter