Have you considered the KETO diet? The brain and heart work much better on ketones than they do on glucose.Gary Childress wrote: ↑Tue Jan 03, 2023 11:13 amLongevity is something I doubt I will have. Already at the age of 55 my brain is deteriorating, possibly with early onset Alzheimer's or dementia. I kind of wonder if I'll make it past my 60s. But that's just as well. Mental illness, sleep apnea, and other conditions have destroyed any love I might have had for life. If anyone needs to perish young, then I suppose it best be me.Ferdi wrote: ↑Tue Jan 03, 2023 10:24 am Several of you have asked how I managed to get to this very old age of 95.
I am the middle one of 5 children and, may be the foundation to my good health was laid in 1938 when, at my age 11, our father purchased a single rowing Scull. He did not row but we lived along one of those canals in the Industrial area of Amsterdam North. Sometimes we played in the water. We could not swim but used a piece of wood to keep our head above water. A scull is better and safer. One of the neighbour’s kids was found drowned, but not while playing with us. May be that made father get that Scull. It was an unusual craft, had a rudder and a fixed seat wide enough for a passenger, and ropes to the rudder for steering. It had also a holder for a short mast and a small sail, for sailing in light winds. I rowed it a lot. By 1947 I had rowed through all the canals of Amsterdam. That rowing may well have laid a good foundation for my health. I am of average height and over more recent decades I have maintained my weight at 68 Kg by weighing myself regularly and by adjusting my daily food-intake accordingly.
Relevant also may be that I spent the whole of 1948 in the Dutch Army for Compulsory Military Training to be shipped to the then Dutch Colony of Indonesia which had declared to want its Independence. That created much street fighting in Indonesia. During the most recent ages many Dutch people had gone to live and work there. The Dutch Government decided to send some of its Soldiers to assist keeping order. However, Indonesia being many times larger than Holland, it required a very large number of troops, which had to be recruited, were trained, given an Tropical Anti Viral injection and then shipped to the other side of the globe for PEACE keeping there. I did successively 6 months of brutal Infantry training, followed by 3 months training to become a Sergeant, and was then ordered to go to the Officers training Camp for another 3 months of training and brainwashing about leading troops. At the end of those 12 months only my name only was called out to stand aside. I was then instructed to present myself at the Camp Commander’s Office. He told me that the Ministry of War had decided that I would serve the Nation even better by becoming a Civil Engineer. The Commander handed me a written Honourable Discharge and he said that the Ministry of War would call me if my service would be required in the future. I am pleased to have missed out on Indonesia because I heard much later that my best-friend at High-schoool had lost his life there in some event.
My longevity may well be due to the very intense Infantry training in 1948.
At age 62 I have found this year my mental acuity has increased by banning carbohydrates and processed foods from my diet. This has also allowed me to control hunger to such a degree that I have managed to reduce the number of meals to one or two a day, and I have lost 45 lbs in the process.
I have been a serial dieter all my life and followed the guidelines dutifully avoiding fat. But all that happened was that each time I got hungry and tired; tired of counting calories too. And as time passed my "normal" weight increased, despite annual lost of up to 20lbs.
With intermittent fasting and carb avoidance I no longer have trouble sleeping; I think more clearly; I have reversed my pre-diabetes; reversed my fatty liver; reduced my asthma and sinusitis.
I now enjoy fish, meat, eggs, butter without guilt; but I eat more brassicas, and salad foods than before, and do not miss the bread, pasta, rice, chips, and sweet things to which I was previously addicted.
There are really good metabolic reasons why this has all worked and I am now healthier than I have been for 30 years.
I only wish someone had told me about all this 10 or more years ago. And that is why I wanted to share my experience with you.