In a recent New Yorker there is an article about aging (Read it here) in which the author suggests that you will live longer if you “try to be hungry and out of breath” once every day. Exercise and don’t over eat. Although more to the point, he is actually suggesting is that you will live longer if you deliberately make sure that you are hungry and do some heartbeat-accelerating activity once a day.
I get it. But when I think about the people in my life this doesn’t really pan out. My father, non-drinking, nonsmoking, hungry and active: 73. My aunt Florence, overweight, never met a manhattan she didn’t consume, smoked: 84. My uncle Jerry (middle name Sedentary), overweight: Still alive at 85. My mother never hungry, sedentary: Turned 90 this week.
I realize that this merely anecdotal evidence not the hard cold facts of medical research (as if medical research proves anything anyway) but I’m going with what I know. Of course when I think about it I’m suggesting I need to stop running which hopefully isn’t going to happen, and get fat. The mind reels.
The article is worth reading. FYI.