Does anyone actually know of anyone who had an unhealthy lifestyle but lived to a ripe old age?

According to modern food advice, my mum would fit into the title category. By the time she died, just short of her 90th birthday, she hadn't eaten anything green – save for, very occasionally, a peeled seedless grape (and I do mean one!), for fifty-five years. And as for beans and lentils or wholemeal grains...... well...... perish the thought! Most of her adult life she weighed about seven and a half stone.

That said, she had never smoked except passively even though she was the only one among her university friends who didn't. Many of them gave it up later but my dad didn't and it was lung cancer that killed him a week after his 65th birthday.

Mum had five kids within eight years, always walked plenty, did some gentle gardening (I never saw her mow a lawn or dig) and the housework associated with a biggish family. She went back to teaching part-time once we were all well into school but retired early.

Makes you think, dunnit?

Kate1949

Oh and just to add, I rarely put salt on my food (apart from in cooking) as we are told it is bad for us. Last month I had thorough blood tests and everything was fine except that my sodium levels were a bit low!

My MiL who I mentioned in an earlier post had more salt in a day than I do in six months, she even put it on bread and butter. She said her mum (who also lived until late 80s) had told her salt is good for you. Mil fell down a flight of steps in town when she was 82. Ambulance called taken to hospital x-ray for broken bones. Not a fracture they said her bones must be made of steel she said no just salt.

Interesting kissngate. Certainly makes you think as Baggs said.

My friend was at her 88 year old aunt’s funeral last week. She had been an alcoholic ever since my friend could remember, a heavy smoker, and had never exercised in her life. We decided once again that what’s ‘in the book’ for you is how you’ll go!

More in the genes than in the book.

My FIL. Ate sweets, fried foods, processed meats (loved a full English breakfast) and plenty of cakes and biscuits and lived to nearly 96. But he had never smoked or drank and was very active, always moving, shopping nearly every day.

Yes, my mum. Smoked heavily until she was 35. Was very overweight from her middle years. Didn’t eat a terribly healthy diet, although she didn’t live on McDonalds and pizza. Never exercised after we got our first car when she was 38.
She lived to be nearly 95.
I miss her.

Kate1949

Oh really Allira? The doctor didn't flag it up. I just noticed it when reading my results on my NHS app. It was very marginal.

It's probably not significant, I didn't mean you to worry
Kate1949

I agree with Fleurpepper. A healthy lifestyle may help you to enjoy your life to the max, but the best predictor of your lifespan is the longevity of your forebears.
There are exceptions, of course, but one of the first questions on any medical is often- of what did your parents die, and how old were they?

No it's fine Allira. My blood tests said 'No further action required' in all my results.

My grandmother chained smoked Capstan Full Strength (unfiltered) and lived to be 87.

I didn't know him, of course, but Winston Churchill lived into his 90s having smoked and drunk heavily most of his life. I expect his diet was not very healthy either as he was clearly overweight.

The trouble is, of course, that it is sensible to live as healthily as possible to lessen the odds of dying young.

Winston Churchill.

Well, this has been an interesting read.
Somewhere in the back of the cupboard there’s salt and the bottle of sherry for the Christmas trifle, both at least five years old. Must get them out and also ask sister to teach me how to smoke.
I really must try to give up vegetables and take to fatty meat.
Sorry Dog but no more walkies.
Now I can look forward to another twenty years, thanks to all your hints.

Relatives grandma lives on custard creams & cigs, still going strong at 96

Mum lived to 97. Smoked heavily till she was 75. Ate cream and butter every day. Hardly touched fruit or veg. Did no exercise. But-and I wonder if this has any bearing on anything-nothing fazed her and she didn’t know what stress was.

I have a close friend of 83.
She smoked heavily until a few years ago and I think it was cost more than anything which caused her to give up.
I like a drink myself but she can drink me under the table.
I think she drinks every day and not just a few.
She eats unhealthy and also infrequently and often doesn’t eat until the evening, after a couple of glasses of wine.
She alone out of all her and our mutual friends takes no regular medication, when she asked the practice nurse why she has never been called in for a review like the rest of us, the nurse admitted that she slipped under the radar precisely because she didn’t have regular prescriptions.

My English isn’t so bad , read unhealthily.

watermeadow

Well, this has been an interesting read.
Somewhere in the back of the cupboard there’s salt and the bottle of sherry for the Christmas trifle, both at least five years old. Must get them out and also ask sister to teach me how to smoke.
I really must try to give up vegetables and take to fatty meat.
Sorry Dog but no more walkies.
Now I can look forward to another twenty years, thanks to all your hints.

Watermeadow- you also need to find your chip pan which MiL used at least three times a week. Also buy some beef dripping and spread thickly on white bread and butter. As an alternative buy ready salted crisps add lots more salt then put between two slices thick white buttered bread. Follow this with a large cream cake and tea with four sugars.

My dad lived to be nearly 90, smoked woodbines (a very strong cig) from 14 years old, drank whisky, ate a fried breakfast most days, basically did what he wanted. Never even caught a bad cold, in spite of not having any flu jab, and died in his sleep. Having said all that I don't advocate that lifestyle he was very lucky, I try to take better care of myself.

My father smoked between 40 and 60 cigarettes a day most of his adult life, and had started smoking at the age of five! He also smoked a pipe when I was little and cigars at Christmas and New Year.

He died age 89 of pneumonia, having had no serious illnesses or smoking related issues.

My sister was an alcoholic for years and died at 60 of a cancer that had no relation to her misuse of alcohol.

My MiL died aged 99 after years of chain smoking and drinking whisky every evening . She boasted that her attendance allowance paid for her Scotch and fags. She put her longevity down to having been starved as a child and living through rationing.

An old friend of mine died earlier this year, aged 90.
He was divorced in his forties and smoked quite heavily until his seventies and drank quite a lot aswell.
His wouldn't learn to cook and his diet when I first knew him (then in his late forties) consisted of a lot of pies!
He never bought a vegetable unless it came in a can and would combine odd mixtures of food to make a meal, for example sliced Pek canned meat, maybe a can of ravioli and potato waffles or instant mash. He loved cakes ice cream and sweet desserts in little cartons and rarely ate fruit.
He ate proper meals at my house or if we ate out, but never ever gave up his weird combinations except to have microwaved ready meals. He survived the removal of a brain tumour in his sixties, making a total recovery enjoying foreign holidays and short breaks.
However, life caught up with him and sadly he developed several tumours and died, mercifully (for him) fairly quickly.
He was a on off!

My Uncle who smoked a pipe until the day he died, ate red meat every day, never ate vegetables, drank full cream milk and had a sweet tooth. He died suddenly at 89 never having even been "frail".

My grandad died aged 87 in 1961. It was considered a ripe old age then. He smoked Woodbines from.the age of 12, covered his food in salt., and ate a lot of suet puddings.
He was healthy all his life till a few weeks before he died of pneumonia.
On the plus side he was not fat and spent time working on his allotment.

I agree that genetics probably play the biggest part, but those of us with a history of ancestors not making old bones can probably help ourselves by diet etc etc.

I’m always interested when I see so many very long livers in documentaries who came out of the concentration camps, emaciated, sometimes living to over a hundred?🤔