I’m in my early 40s, i’m a vegetarian, i run about 25-30 miles a week, and i go to the gym 4-6 times a week.
While i enjoy feeling healthy, i am under no illusion that any of this guarantees me a longer life. Hell, a longer life doesn’t even factor in to why i do it. To the extent that i maintain a decent diet and exercise, i do it more for how i feel (and, yes, how i look) now, than for any perceived benefits in terms of longevity.
My work involves spending hours a week in front of a computer or reading, and about the only real movement involved in my day-to-day work routine is during the hours i spend teaching, when i am standing and sometimes walking back and forth at the front of the classroom. I also enjoy sweet snacks like chocolate and candy. If i didn’t exercise, i’d weigh more, i wouldn’t fit into all my clothes, and i would feel crappy. Exercise is worth the effort for me, even if it doesn’t add a single day to my overall life expectancy.
I am fully aware that i could have a heart attack this afternoon while on my run, or i could develop some form of malignant cancer, or i could suffer a brain aneurysm, or any one of dozens of other afflictions that could possibly kill me in my 60s or my 50s or even my 40s. The OP is a running, vegetarian straw man.
ETA:
Also, there are a number of recent studies suggesting that, for modern people with largely sedentary lifestyles, even daily exercise doesn’t offset all the long-term health problems that can arise simply from spending hours every day sitting down.
Yep. We can improve our chances of living into our 80’s, but there are no guarantees. The example that really struck me was a guy who worked in my wife’s office.
“Larry” was a fitness freak. He didn’t preach, but didn’t hide the fact either. Healthy diet and exercise. He’d been a competitive swimmer since he was a teenager, had the trophies to show for it. He was proud of his physique, definitely a little vain-- kept a recent photo of himself in swimsuit (at a meet) on his cubicle wall. He was in his 60’s, but from the neck down he looked like a 20 year old. Small, trim, probably not an ounce of fat.
So one weekend, Larry was competing in yet another a seniors’ swim meet. Finished a race, got out of the pool, picked up a towel, and dropped dead. He was 61.
What a way to go- doing what he loved most. But what a reminder for the rest of us- no guarantees.
.
This is hardly evidence to support it, but I’ve believed for a long time that lots 'o cardio and being a vegetarian are taxing to your general health and longevity.
On the other hand, people who care enough about their bodies to do things like run a lot and eat vegetarian, among other lifestyle factors, are going to do better than the average slobs, on average.
That goes against everything that I have heard about the benefits of exercise, such as this study showing that sedentary men who don’t exercise have a much higher risk of death; even if you are overweight (but not obese), there are benefits from regular exercise. Sure, maybe you can get too much exercise (if you are hurting yourself, you are overdoing it) but regular exercise certainly has benefits.
Myself, I am near the middle of the normal BMI range (muscular, if not abs-stand-out type) and eat some meat just about every day, while also getting exercise every day. I have never had any problems with weight either (including when I didn’t exercise as much as I do now), being about the same for the past 10 years or so (my parents are overweight, but they never exercise, I have a sister who is normal and if anything was too thin as a teenager).
I lost my uncle last year-he was 92.
Since age 18, he smoked-probably a pack of Luckys a day.
he drank- whiskey and sodas, plus beers-never touched wine, though.
His exercise was mostly house repairs and yard work.
By trade, he was a plumber and barkeeper (exposure to lead solder, and lotsa second hand smoke in the bar).
Life is strange.
I walk about 15 miles a week. It’s something I enjoy doing, and it gives me a better chance of retaining my health into later life. Likewise, that’s far more important to me than the prospect of living longer.
Yep. He stayed at the hotel I worked at back in the early-mid 90s and he was a complete prick to every member of the staff he came in contact with, including myself.
I’ve read a lot of the research and here’s what I’ve taken away:
Being sedentary is bad; but pushing your body to the limits of endurance on a regular basis is also pretty bad (risks include injuries and chronic pain, hormonal disturbances, elevated CRP and other signs of inflammation, scarring to the heart in the case of marathoners, and of course dropping dead of a heart attack mid-run). There are no proven health advantages to running 20 miles per week vs 5.
Living an active life filled with frequent lower-level exertion is the absolute best - no running miles or lifting hundreds of pounds necessary to have a hugely positive impact on your weight, health markers, and longevity. Living a sedentary lifestyle but exercising hardcore a couple times per week at the gym does not work nearly so well.
As for vegetarianism: done well, it’s not going to hurt you. Veganism is another story, but people aren’t usually vegan because they want to be the healthiest they can be.
I haven’t been convinced by what evidence we have that saturated fat or ‘red meat’ are bad for the human body in any quantity; and meat, seafood and other animal products are a rich and nearly completely digested source of essential macro- and micro-nutrients. If you want to give your body the raw materials to be the healthiest it can be, avoiding animal products is going to require compensation. Also, most vegetarians I know eat a diet very high in grain products and low-ish in total protein, which I, with my many fringe opinions, think is bad for you.
It’s very hard to determine long-term outcomes for any one factor of course, because people in America who want to be healthy and commit to living a healthy lifestyle in many ways, are often runners and vegetarians (as well as non-smokers, not drug addicts, living a generally active lifestyle, etc).
My sister went to school with a guy. She ran her first competitive race with him and he was one of the people who got her into marathons. He was a cadet at the Air Force Academy and a distance runner, ate only small amounts of lean meat, no junk food, exercised all the time, etc. One day they found him dead on the side of the road - his heart had stopped when he was out running, at the age of 20.
My grandmother started smoking sometime in her early 20’s and didn’t quit until she was in her 80’s. She was a meat-and-potatoes type of woman, and you’d better believe she put plenty of butter in anything that called for it, and drank with cheerful abandon for most of her life. She was mildly overweight most of her adult life. She shrugged off cancer and heart disease in her seventies, and a whole host of other health issues in her 80’s. She lived to see 90.
You can certainly try and alter your odds - but in the end your body is a fantastically complex machine made of a million pieces which all need to work just right to keep you on this side of the grave; all it takes is some teeny-tiny chemical imbalance and there you go.
Maybe he just had a lower genetic life expectancy than average. You can do everything to reduce your risk of a heart attack, but if you have a weak heart, it’s going to go even if you eat tofu and exercise all the time. Think of it this way: perhaps if he didn’t live such a healthy life, he would have died 10 years ago.
No, it’s not that strange. It is genetics, that is the major factor that determines how long each individual will probably live, unless they are an accident victim.
How long did your grandparents live, or are they still alive? How old were your parents when they died, or are they still alive?
If the answer to these questions are ‘they lived a long time’ then you might too. Genetics beats lifestyle almost everytime, unless you are extremely abusing your body.
Exercise and eat a good diet, but there is nothing quite as effective as having long lived relatives.
