# Stop telling me my food will kill me! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 18, 2002, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-telling-me-my-food-will-kill-me/109722 "2002-05-18T18:41:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2002, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-telling-me-my-food-will-kill-me/109722/41 "2002-07-27T20:16:02Z")
The irony, of course, is that not smoking, always buckling your seatbelt and always washing your hands after using the bathroom will have a greater statistical impact on your lifespan than 95% of the food warnings one hears. Meantime, I’ll get a slice of meat-lovers pizza later today. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2002, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-telling-me-my-food-will-kill-me/109722/42 "2002-07-27T20:17:40Z")
The irony, of course, is that not smoking, always buckling your seatbelt and always washing your hands after using the bathroom will have a greater statistical impact on your lifespan than 95% of the food warnings one hears. Trouble is, none of the above three items will get your name in the medical journals or on the nightly news. In the meantime, I’ve got bacon frying in the kitchen. ---
**Author:** ![LolaCocaCola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@LolaCocaCola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaCocaCola)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2002, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-telling-me-my-food-will-kill-me/109722/43 "2002-07-27T20:45:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jk1245 \* > \*\*It’s all genetics baby > > My grandfather just passed away at age 98. He had chewed Copenhagen since he was 10, drank a 12 pack of Old Style per week (sometimes more), ate real butter on _everything_, ate red meat at almost every meal, and drank whole milk all the time. He did have a heart attack, though, and the doctor told him he would never work again and would be lucky to live another 5 years. That was in 1952. > My grandmother (his wife) is also 98 and has similar dietary habits (minus the Copenhagen and Old Style) and is in good health. Her favorite snack is beef fat fried in melted butter, and she cooks only with lard. None of that sissy vegetable oil crap for her. > I feel sorry for you mere mortals who have not inherited my superior bloodlines and must watch what you eat. > > Moderation and variety is the key. Too much of just about anything is bad for you. \*\* The ol’ “Every day my grandaddy smoked 5 packs of Pall Malls , drank a gallon of whiskey, ate butter-smeared steak for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and lived to be 112 years old” never ceases to amuse me. What they fail to mention is that for every _one_ who makes it to 112, there are hundreds of thousands of others who don’t see the end of their 60’s. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2002, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-telling-me-my-food-will-kill-me/109722/44 "2002-07-28T10:03:29Z")
Yes, but the point s/he was making was “You never can tell what’ll get you in the end. Life is short, do whatever you want, the warnings don’t really make a heck of a lot of difference in the end.” I’d rather live a short enjoyable life, than a longer unenjoyable one. I’ll eat what I like, thank you very much. If it kills me, it’s my own fault. If it takes till I’m forty before it starts to affect me, that’s 40 good years I spent eating the crap I love. ---
**Author:** ![LolaCocaCola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@LolaCocaCola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaCocaCola)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2002, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-telling-me-my-food-will-kill-me/109722/45 "2002-07-28T11:29:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by GuanoLad \* > \*\*Yes, but the point s/he was making was “You never can tell what’ll get you in the end. Life is short, do whatever you want, the warnings don’t really make a heck of a lot of difference in the end.” > > I’d rather live a short enjoyable life, than a longer unenjoyable one. I’ll eat what I like, thank you very much. If it kills me, it’s my own fault. If it takes till I’m forty before it starts to affect me, that’s 40 good years I spent eating the crap I love. \*\* And yet another fallacy. Why does everyone assume they’ll die (prematurely) neatly and suddenly? You will if you’re lucky. If your arteries are sludge filled, there’s a very good chance you will have a stroke, or many other debilitating diseases before you leave this earth, ensuring many years of indignity and suffering while putting your family through hell. Like someone bathing you and changing yer Depends? Have another cheeseburger, sucker. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2002, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-telling-me-my-food-will-kill-me/109722/46 "2002-07-28T15:15:51Z")
Did Paul McCartney’s first wife die of cancer after being a strict vegetarian? Fact is, what was bad for you yesterday is good for you today. I read recently where the food pyramid, with its high concentration of carbohydrates and starches, may be the reason of America’s obesity problem. Then, according to (NIH? CPSI?) Mel Gibson and Shaquille O’Neal are fat. According to their Body Mass Index, which apparently does not differentiate between fat mass and muscle mass. I enjoy pizza…just not every day. I enjoy a glass of wine…just not every day. I’m currently on the Atkins diet, so I do enjoy bacon every day…😃 Maybe it’s no wonder that guy is suing the McDonald’s for making him fat… ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2002, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-telling-me-my-food-will-kill-me/109722/47 "2002-07-29T12:33:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by LolaCocaCola \* > \*\* > > And yet another fallacy. > > Why does everyone assume they’ll die (prematurely) neatly and suddenly?\*\* I never said that. I think you’re assuming a few things about people that aren’t necessarily so. If I die a slow painful death, then it’s my own damn fault. Or maybe it won’t be my fault, maybe it’s just the way things go sometimes. I personally don’t give a shit. Others do. To each their own, so leave us be. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2002, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-telling-me-my-food-will-kill-me/109722/48 "2002-07-29T12:53:16Z")
Your food is plotting against you! It’s lying in ambush for you! On your plate! **Look! Its got a knife! Right next to the plate! Near the _spoon_!** Your food **is** going to kill you, **Lobley** … Unless you kill it first! Start eating. That’ll show 'em. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![jab1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2002, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-telling-me-my-food-will-kill-me/109722/49 "2002-07-29T22:36:09Z")
This reminds me of one of the funniest things I ever saw on the CBS Evening News: Connie Chung reporting that American-Chinese food was bad for you. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-telling-me-my-food-will-kill-me/109722.md?page=2)