Both my parents were skinny. Both died fairly young, certainly younger than their fatter parent. Does this mean that I might survive like my grandparents? I have no idea, but I like the contradiction, and I seem to be running with it.
Other lifestyle factors that will affect me:
- I don’t take enough exercise, although I’m not a couch potato.
I walk about a half a kilometre a day, on average, and this involves hills.
I don’t dawdle. In other words,
I take moderate exercise.
That gives me
an extra
two years over fellow fatties who don’t exercise at all, knocking off most of the impact
of being a fatty.
-
a
genuine positive one: I’ve been vegetarian all my adult life (British definition: no meat, no fish,
no seafood).
American research suggests an increase of
five years;
- a small negative: I enjoy booze: I drink a couple of pints and a couple of shots a week, it’s not heavy—well, but … blow me down with a feather duster, I’m in the best place, it’s a small increase.
There are some other factors which effect life but not life expectancy, or are, frankly, confusing. These include:
- I enjoy coffee: some research says
that’s positive,
some says negative—so I’ve no clue;
- another positive reduces the chances of Alzheimer’s:
I speak more than one language;
- similarly, I have purpose, although whether my purpose is the type that was studied is another question, so I’ll ignore than one;
- there’s a 25-year difference between life expectancy for rich and poor in the UK, although Luxembourg, being more civilised, has much less of an inequality problem. Anyway, I’m middle class, on a middle class income, so those factors (beyond those I’ve mentioned above) probably leave me without a negative or positive impact.
Now, I’m very sure there are going to be other factors I’ve not considered, because I don’t know to consider them. All the same, these results are better than I expected when I started writing this article. Judging by all of these, and with a fair wind, I have the chance of reaching my grandad’s resounding 89. He was a man who was huge for most of his life (to quote my mum).
But, really, all these figures represent are the odds. I could be wellied by a bus tomorrow. Hopefully, being fat, I’d dent the bloody thing, but that’d be no compensation for fate deciding my grave would be a nice place to dance.