How I Became Healthy Part 2 - Race vs. Life Expectancy

It has been about a month since I decided to PERMANENTLY overhaul my eating habits following the Seemingly Useless Diet and I have decided to provide another update (first update and Seemingly Useless Diet FAQ can be found here).

I have lost about 10 pounds (7% of my body weight) and I am definitely beginning to look leaner. So far, I have had no problems staying away from deep fried foods, junk foods, pork and candy. The psychological approach of the Seemingly Useless Diet has definitely helped to staunch my cravings for the unhealthy foods I use to love.

Since the last update, I have added more healthy alternatives to some of my favorite foods on the side bar of the blog.

Effects after changing my eating habits for about a month have been:

• Higher energy still without the hunger pains described in the first update.

• Still haven't had a food coma since I began this diet.

• Strengthening of the immune system (although the evaluation period may be too short to prove conclusive).

Since I started eating healthier, I observed some unintentional yet interesting statistics concerning the senior citizen (65 years or older) population in my area. Living in an urban melting pot, I am exposed to a plethora of different ethnicities but among the senior citizens, the ethnicities were less diverse. I noticed a lot more seniors of Jewish and Asian descent than any other ethnicity. I also observed that there were significantly less African Americans, Italian Americans and Hispanic-Latino among the senior citizen population. Although there are many factors that can attribute to this disparity, I believe diet is one of the main causes.

Asians, especially the Japanese, eat fish on a daily basis. It is an essential part of their diet mainly because that's what they grew up eating and it is cheaper to buy than beef and other meats. Asian cuisine, with the exception of Americanized Chinese cuisine (here is an article on the difference between Chinese cuisine and Americanized Chinese cuisine), is cooked with only moderate use of oil/butter and hardly ever deep fried. Jews have strict dietary laws called Kashrut (also known as kosher), which forbids many unhealthy foods such as pork and shellfish. These rules for food and food preparation were implemented to ensure that foods eaten were clean and would not cause sickness. It is no surprise that these two ethnicities with their healthy diet cultures tend to have longer life expectancy (assuming a strong presence of senior citizens correlates with longer life expectancy).

On the other hand, the diet of Italian Americans center around pasta, cheese, sausage and usually prepared in large portion sizes using lots of oil and butter. African Americans are usually known for their Southern comfort and soul foods consisting of foods such as fried chicken and catfish, bbq ribs, corn bread, grits and butter biscuits. Hispanic/Latino foods refer to Mexican, Cuban, Latin American and Spanish cuisine. They consist of foods such as fried pork chops, fried plantains, chorizo (sausage) and other meats. Brazilian cuisine has a heavy emphasis on meat. I am sure that my list is incomplete and perhaps even skewed but I am only stating what I see when I frequent the restaurants of these diverse cuisines. It is no coincidence that my observations match this interesting correlation between diet and senior citizenship presence. Although this is by no means a controlled experiment, I will still boldly conclude that the diet of one's race and culture definitely has a noticeable impact on life expectancy.

Socioeconomic status also affects diets because most cheap foods are also the unhealthiest. Fast food restaurants, junk foods, candy and soda are all cheaply priced but extremely detrimental for the body. As a child, I was raised in a poor low-income family and was consistently exposed to "bang for the buck" foods such as spam and instant noodles. When I received an allowance, I could only afford snacks such as potato chips, 25 cent artificial juice drinks, candy, Twinkies and other extremely unhealthy foods. Even when I thought I was spending money on "real food" it would be at McDonalds or some other fast food restaurant. Without the proper education on nutrition, I was not aware of the damage I was doing to my body and the lasting effects my diet was going to have in the future. Wealthy individuals have the luxury of dining at "nice" restaurants where foods are generally fresher and health consciously prepared. The main difference between an expensive restaurant and a cheap one, commonly portrayed in pop culture, is portion size of each dish. Contrary to reason, expensive restaurants actually serve more moderate to smaller portions whereas the inexpensive restaurants serve much larger portion sizes despite costing less. This makes the inexpensive restaurants even more appealing because not only do they prepare foods that are tasty (deep fried and lots of sugar, oil and fat) but you get so much "bang for the buck". In addition to eating smaller portions, it is probably safe to say that those who are rich can also afford other factors such as gym memberships, nutrition experts, and doctor's visits which lead to longer life expectancy.

Seemingly Useless Commentary: Although it may seem more expensive to buy healthier foods now, in the long run, staying out of the hospital will save you a small fortune. People who complain about the cost of healthy foods are penny-wise and dollar foolish. For some insight into the cost of health care, both financially and emotionally, visit the cardiac disease wing of any hospital and survey its residents. Director Michael Moore has made a very good documentary (Sicko, 2007) concerning the increasing inaffordability of health care.

Useful Websites:

National Center for Health Statistics: Life Expectancy