Is it Fatism?

Huw said

Squash….    One of the biggest killers of 50 year old A type males who don’t like to lose to younger men!

Probably safe enough if you make it to your 60s. ;)

How is tennis?  I'm 64 and playing 6 hours a week.  These youngens are fast but I am wiley.

Theta Aeterna said

I remember from the 70s and 80s. We ate more "basic" food which had less ingredients and more nutrients per calorie. We also moved waaay more. We were less polluted ( from personal hygiene to pesticides) and the world population was around 3,6 Billion compared todays 8.1. We depleted the soil massively in the 90s and 2000s. Our food has less nutrients per calorie, almost only 1/10 compared to 80s. I have to analyse ingredients all the time and the nutrient density compared to USDA or other Nutrient analysis data from the 90s is frighteningly low. I was in contact with a Dutch expert and scholar (R.I.P JAAP) who was an expert in soil quality and degradation, had hours long discussions with him about this topic. The data he could demonstrate was alarming.

There was an interesting TV show that took a family and immersed them into the habitat, lifestyle and diet of previous decades.  It was surprising how what we consider to be unhealthy now, resulted in weight loss and healthier people in the show.

GDSandy Photography said

Huw said

Squash….    One of the biggest killers of 50 year old A type males who don’t like to lose to younger men!

Probably safe enough if you make it to your 60s. ;)

How is tennis?  I'm 64 and playing 6 hours a week.  These youngens are fast but I am wiley.

Seems to be Squash in particular.
Very short periods of explosive activity.

Six hours of squash per week would kill younger men!

Tennis would appear to be OK I think.

Unfocussed Mike said

Mark671 said

People say, Oh, modern life doesn't give you the time for that, and yet people still spend on average over two hours per day watching television (statistic doesn't include time spent on line).

Modern life may not give you the *framework* to do that.

Do you know how many people in the UK live in houses where the only proper kitchen is shared by multiple different families?

The number of licensed HMOs (houses in multiple occupation) is falling but there are still half a million of them. That means at least 2.5 million people and at least 1 million family units, sharing kitchens with people they are not related to. (These figures do not, AFAIK, include shared-house student tenancies and student acommodation).

There's thought to be another 150,000 or so unlicensed HMOs.

So these are places where multiple families are crammed into accommodation not unlike bedsits, where the bathroom is shared, the room may have a hotplate and a tiny fridge, but one large and inadequate kitchen is shared by everyone (and often is part of an open plan space).

(HMO rules even allowed landlords not to count children as "residents" until seven years ago.)

Millions of people in the UK do not have the facilities, full stop, to cook from scratch safely and healthily for their families. Many of these tenants will risk being evicted by unscrupulous landlords if they tried to cook properly in their rooms. 

This explains the popularity of mini fridges and air fryers, which are replacing the crappy little hotplates that bedsit tenants used to use.

Food is politics. Telling people to cook from scratch is an irrelevance to so many until they actually have the ability and the right to.

Edited by Unfocussed Mike

I'm not going to argue with that, just add a few observations.

There is also a psychological framework, which people are encouraged to adopt, that promotes the idea that it is all too much effort. Take 'just eat', which boils down to 'fuck that shit, throw away the saucepan and order in'.

Many of us are old enough to remember the Smash adverts, which encouraged people to laugh at those who peeled a potato instead of open a packet of delicious creamy Smash. They were aliens, so - the subliminal messaging goes - more advanced. So it's not a new thing. If it were a new thing the effects of a processed food diet would not yet be so evident. 

You don't need a hob to eat an apple, or an orange, or a banana. Or a pineapple. Or good bread. You can buy a bag of carrots and eat them raw. You can eat muesli without a single additive in it. 

It's a question of cultural conditioning. We've been conditioned to think it is easy, cool and convenient to eat bad food - food that is actually, demonstrably bad for us. Food that is engineered to turn off the neural switch that tells us we are full - so that we can get more of the product into us. 

The manipulation is every bit as cynical, I believe, as that which promoted smoking. As one film said, a cigarette is simply a nicotine delivery system. So when public resistance to smoking rises, the delivery system is switched from the cigarette to the vape. You are being sold addiction. Same with processed food. 

I'm not a foodie. I have to keep things very simple or i won't be arsed to look anything. Even if you go half healthy it is going to help.

Edited by Mark671

Edited by Mark671

Mark671 said

You don't need a hob to eat an apple, or an orange, or a banana. Or a pineapple. Or good bread. You can buy a bag of carrots and eat them raw. You can eat muesli without a single additive in it. 

And yet if Jack Monroe talks about cooking on a budget and the reality of what food poverty actually looks like, the internet calls it left wing and finds a way to brutalise her. Older people want the poor to just eat better because it's a mindset thing, a morality question, but not to ever let it be a social policy message because that's inappropriate.

Edited by Unfocussed Mike

Huw said

GDSandy Photography said

Huw said

Squash….    One of the biggest killers of 50 year old A type males who don’t like to lose to younger men!

Probably safe enough if you make it to your 60s. ;)

How is tennis?  I'm 64 and playing 6 hours a week.  These youngens are fast but I am wiley.

Seems to be Squash in particular.
Very short periods of explosive activity.

Six hours of squash per week would kill younger men!

Tennis would appear to be OK I think.

If I die, my widow will sue :-)

Huw said

GDSandy Photography said

Huw said

Squash….    One of the biggest killers of 50 year old A type males who don’t like to lose to younger men!

Probably safe enough if you make it to your 60s. ;)

How is tennis?  I'm 64 and playing 6 hours a week.  These youngens are fast but I am wiley.

Seems to be Squash in particular.
Very short periods of explosive activity.

Someone medical -- I forget exactly what discipline -- once told me in casual conversation he reckons the biggest risk is some impact on blood pressure of sudden changes of direction at speed, like an analogue of orthostatic hypotension, because it turns out HIIT doesn't really have the risk profile squash seems to have. Basically he thinks the risk moments to the heart are the ones where you are trying not to hit a literal wall.

(This was in the context of men giving up squash on reaching certain significant ages, mind you, which might be folkloric data territory anyway)

Edited by Unfocussed Mike

Waitrose Mashed Potato 450g £2.60 (£5.78/kg)

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/waitrose-mashed-potato/063194-32091-32092

Waitrose Essential Large White Potatoes  85p/kg.
OK, need to add milk and butter.

Or do jacked potatoes in the microwave if you don't have a hob, and add butter and cheese.

I noticed this, because my always broke young (mid 30s) have a take-away and convenience food habit, and brought the mash home this week.

Squash...

"Sudden death and vigorous exercise--a study of 60 deaths associated with squash."

(59 men, one woman) There were only two deaths from non-cardiac causes. Average age 46, range 22-66 years.

https://heart.bmj.com/content/55/2/198

and:

"Heart rate and metabolic response to competitive squash in veteran players: identification of risk factors for sudden cardiac death"

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2591394/

Orson Carter said

Huw - coincidentally, about a year ago there was a TV documentary about Woodstock; when watching it, the almost complete absence of 'fuller figured' people was very conspicuous.  That was 1969 - less than a generation ago. 

[EDIT - I, too, was slim in those days. Not any more, though. :(]

In 1969 I was much lighter and slim too, much like most other 12yr olds. ;)

GDSandy Photography said

Huw said

Squash….    One of the biggest killers of 50 year old A type males who don’t like to lose to younger men!

Probably safe enough if you make it to your 60s. ;)

How is tennis?  I'm 64 and playing 6 hours a week.  These youngens are fast but I am wiley.

The only way to lose weight and stay healthy with squash is by eating it!

The biologically acceptable time for high stress/blood pressure time under adrenalin is max 3 minutes. Every sport that exceeds this time without resetting the heart rate in between will harm your cardiovascular, adrenal and central nervous system function over time.

Edited by Theta Aeterna

Edited by Theta Aeterna

Unfocussed Mike said

GDSandy Photography said

Huw said

Squash….    One of the biggest killers of 50 year old A type males who don’t like to lose to younger men!

Probably safe enough if you make it to your 60s. ;)

How is tennis?  I'm 64 and playing 6 hours a week.  These youngens are fast but I am wiley.

 

Awesome!

Note that I am not telling anyone what they should or should not do.  I am just describing me and what I do.  

Male.  66 years old.  1.79m. 72kg.  BMI 22.5, slightly above the middle of the healthy zone.  Blood pressure in the healthy range; no history of heart problems in my mother's or father's families.  Still working part time which means sitting at a desk.  Father was physically very similar to me.  He died at 82 of oesophageal cancer.  I hope that I will dodge that because I have never smoked nor worked as a chemist (I don't mean pharmacist).  My mother died at 94 of lung issues, she also used to smoke.  

Minimum exercise in a typical week

2 x 1h of badminton.   This is not just tapping a shuttle about but serious, intense play.  I am the second oldest of the regular members of the club; the oldest is over 80.  The younger ones are less than half my age.  

1h squash.  Two usual opponents: a man 10 years younger and a woman 25 years younger who is a fitness instructor.  

Typical week  

Add a 2h singles badminton session.  This is non-stop play against a well matched opponent.  

Occasionally

Add one or two 1h squash sessions.  

Plenty of walking.  I don't think of that as exercise; just getting places.  

Prior to getting Covid in 2022, I did at least 1h of intense exercise at least 6 days a week.  On Friday, though shalt rest.  If none of the above were happening then I would go out on the bicycle.  However, more than 2 years later, I don't feel that I am back to my pre-Covid fitness.  Or, maybe I am just getting old.  It is very hard to bring myself to going out in the cold and wet to cycle.  Occasionally, I still manage and, after a few minutes, I am glad that I did.  Despite this, it is hard to drive myself out the next time.  

Here is one health tip: always wear good eye protection when playing squash. I was hit in the eye by the ball last week.  It did not hurt or cause an injury due to my good goggles.  Without them, it could have been very bad.  I have known some squash related eye injuries.  This is my biggest concern, not a heart attack.  

Playing tip: take the film of a new pair of goggles before playing.  I gave a spare set to a friend.  After a couple of games, he complained how blurry they were.  

Unfocussed Mike said

...

...

Millions of people in the UK do not have the facilities, full stop, to cook from scratch safely and healthily for their families. Many of these tenants will risk being evicted by unscrupulous landlords if they tried to cook properly in their rooms. 

This explains the popularity of mini fridges and air fryers, which are replacing the crappy little hotplates that bedsit tenants used to use.

Food is politics. Telling people to cook from scratch is an irrelevance to so many until they actually have the ability and the right to.

Edited by Unfocussed Mike

In late Republican and Imperial Rome, about which I know not very much, fire was a worry. Not so much in the larger houses of the senatorial class, but in the taller more crowded streets I gather fire tended to be in a location to which residents brought their dinners. That may have owed as much to fuel economy.

When I went off to university, somewhat more recently, my mother provided a copy of "Cooking in a bedsitter" by Katherine Whitehorne. Aimed at one gas ring, or for luxury, two.

Nowadays the IKEA induction "hot" plate is rather better but you do need a socket.