If processed foods are so much worse for us than organic and natural foods,?

Question

why is the life expectances increased so much now that we eat such a huge amount of processed, junk food?

if you die at 68 of a heart attack, people try to blame your diet and weight, but if you died at 62, 100 years ago they would have said you lived a full life. do you really think that if you stop eating all processed and junk food , you get to live forever?

Answer 1

A few reasons:

Medical procedures are safer
We have access to preventative medicine
Safety regulations in the work place are more stringent

Answer 2

To add to Clare's response, yes, medicine, our access to it and general preventative measures like public sanitation, etc. are leaps and bounds better than it has been years and years ago. Life expectancy then, at our time is much higher because of this--DESPITE all the horrible food being consumed in mass quantities by the general public.

So making the argument that "if you die at 68 of a heart attack, people try to blame your diet and weight, but if you died at 62, 100 years ago they would have said you lived a full life" is a ridiculous argument since there were so many other factors that go into the low life expectancy back then other than diet, as mentioned above. And you're comparing on two completely different scales--yes, 62 years of being alive a hundred years ago is great considering the circumstances but these days, 62 and dying from poor diet and a heart attack, though still relatively old, could be way, way better considering our access to things that can help us live full, long lives (of course this also depends where in the world you live, economic status, etc.). If anything, at least in the first world, the life expectancy is driven down by easily preventable diseases caused by excessive consumption of things.

With that said, if you look at the healthiest countries out there like Japan, Iceland, etc., the diet is generally devoid of processed foods, low in fat, and often grown locally and organically which does help with their higher life expectancy. This coupled with a healthy active lifestyle generally devoid of too much stress helps as well.

Answer 3

The world of medicine has made giant leaps in the last 100 year, both for diagnosing and treating ailments. In the last 30 years, in fact. That's why life expectancy is much longer now, not because people eat junk food. Many diseases that were usually fatal 100 years ago are completely curable now. And what about transplants?

Of course you woudn't live "forever" no matter what you eat, but if you don't think being obese is unhealthy, then you're living in a vacuum.

Answer 4

Even in my youth the "C" word cancer was usually seen as a death sentence.

Now you can win the Tour de France seven times!