Your thoughts on this and the next generation

As it has gone a bit quiet I thought I would start off a conversation about 'age'.

It is loosely connected to the plastic bottle thread. (glad to hear everything is okay BTW Hellon)

My thoughts are this;

Do you think my generation and my children's generation will reverse the trend of living longer?

At the moment the life expectancy is well into the 70's and 80's. Yet if I take my nan for example, for most of her life she has cooked her own food from scratch bought fresh from the market. Whereas my generation eat take-away's once or twice a week and eat far more microwave meals and processed foods.
We also drink more (I haven't for over a year now) and smoke heavily (probably a higher statistic of smoking whilst pregnant than there has ever been)

surely our lifestyles will have an adverse affect on what the average life expectancy could be?

I have been lazy and none of the above is researched just my thoughts and observations.

what do you guys think?

I also believe that the amount of E numbers and additives in food and drink is directly related to the rise in ADHD and autism, does anybody know what research has been done into what these chemicals do to our systems?

I am interested in any opinions, feel free;

I absolutely think the food we eat has a ton to do with our health (and will ultimately affect our longevity).

That being said, I eat crappy, processed foods all the time out of ease and convenience. I keep telling myself I'll do better tomorrow, but never do.

My Dad is a drinker and a smoker, all his life, did hard drugs earlier on and he's healthy as can be. He's only 51, but his physicals are always on a positive note. He's fit, healthy and just good to go. He doesn't eat fast food hardly ever, always home cooked meals, and walks a huge majority of his day for work. He's rarely sick. Me? I don't drink or smoke but I'm constantly sick. Half his age. I don't walk half as much as he does and I eat processed meals.

I have to, every once in a while, do food allergy tests. When I take out wheat products, I feel AMAZING. It's really incredible the difference in my joints I feel, really.

I also started taking probiotics and it's reversed some health issues for me, and I feel amazing. The foods I eat are killing the good bacteria in my gut, so I have to take it.

Okay, this is just making me realize it's really time to turn stuff around before I'm suddenly 70 and on my death bed.

Then, too.. do we really want to live til we're 100?

I'm torn about the ADHD/autism. Based on today's guidelines, I would have been SEVERE adhd. I was just a hyper kid, and the foods I ate had a huge impact. I was finally challenged in school and put on a specific diet, and wa-lah. I calmed down. Not saying it's the case for everyone of course, but I think a lot of the times we're over diagnosing people and kids, and putting them on medication 1. to make the "problem" 'go away', and 2. To pad the pockets of doctors and pharmacies.

Really interesting thoughts Darren, thanks for bringing this up! It truly spans a wide range of opinions too... personally, I haven't done any research at all on this but would be willing to. Here are some very quickly written thoughts:

All I know is that it's always been encouraged in my family to buy fresh. If the future gets so dismal that it's too expensive to do so or that the quality of food bought can't always be determined, I would someday love to plant my own garden. I don't know any statistics but what you said about drinking and smoking... I think that will always stand in generations no matter if it becomes outlawed, just like with drugs, there are people constantly mixing combinations, housing their own plants even when people get caught over and over.

Don't know about too many additives either. I've heard rumors about links to autism, but can that be proven?

I think for the age, it will stay moderately the same or increase, because of research. If research is looked down upon and not encouraged for the best health, depending on what's down and whether it's ethical, I'm sure it will stay in the 70's or 80's. I believe the further we grow and age, the more self-awareness we have of what our body needs, what tests we should do, check-ups etc. I think we have all the tools to be healthy - it's just a choice whether or not to stay informed, in my opinion.

Speaking of autism I just googled "Chemical Balance Through Spirituality" and got 59,9000,000 results, but if I remember correctly my sister helped me coin that phrase over ten years ago. I even thought of applying it to the self harm fads of cutting, but the cyber bullies fought me every step of the way because spirituality is said to be a myth by the extremely objective, whether you are inspired by the Holy Spirit or the yin yang you will need a patent on your pill to administer it.

I see a HUGE downfall in lifespan. ...

I think it starts with parents. It starts with how one is raised. That starts their habit.

I see parents feed their kids take out all the time, I see schools not offer healthy lunch choices, I see moms smoke and drink (only half the cig or half the bottle) like thats ok..I see parents who have no idea theyre underage child just went into a liquor store and didnt get caught (I was one of them)...which leads to bad choices (possible pregnancy?)....When no one teaches their children the importance of nutrition, the importance of smart choices, kids will get in the habit of drinking and eating anything they want.....

Energy drinks...hell yeah that plays a role in teenage deaths and adhd.....I heard that they get the heart pumping so fast that it eventually overworks itself and stops (or something similar, don't remember the facts sorry) That too was on the news and they were testing it....I totally believe that.

I know not everyone is Christian, and I would never ever force my religion onto someone else, but if you ever broke down how to eat according to the bible, its amazing!! My church did it for 6 months, only ate biblical food, and people were dropping weight, getting better sleep, feeling energetic, wanting to hit the gym. Its amazing.

I think natural grown food is important...Here's what's scary now.....They want to put chemicals in crops! And they want to spray fruit trees with all this disgusting hazardous poison that we pay no mind too and that eventually, IMO, leads to diseases. .

Like I was telling Hellon, even heating up a microwave dinner in its plastic container was reported on the news to be a factor in cancer. ..nothing is safe.

I say grow your own food, treat your kids to organic food, less calorie food, and maybe a once or twice a year Mcdonalds run as a treat.

This world needs to stop being lazy and handle their responsibilites right. Raising kids is a responsibility. If you have no kids, disregard this, as an adult youre in charge of your own body, feed it what you want, but when kids come into the picture, they eat what they know. Which comes from the parents.

Thanks guys for your thoughts.

Busy lifestyles will contribute to this.

I think we could look at a general lack of organisation as parents, where we leave 20 mins to prepare meals, or we can't be bothered to take pack lunches on days out rather than buy burgers etc. It is also too easy to give in to 2 year olds who refuse to eat anything other than chicken nuggets and chips.

I am quite fortunate that Abbie eats very well. Because she plays so much competitive tennis she will only eat good stuff and actually enjoys vegetables and fruit especially.

I've been doing a lot of thinking this week...obviously the scare with my grandson made me think about plastic bottles and...although it wasn't proven that this was the cause...I no longer drink out of plastic bottles or containers. I would like to thank George for all the information he provided in regards to this and other goods this society deems as being normal..we are taking risks that we are not even aware of. I also had a talk with a member regarding the amount of time spent on here and how it can easily become addictive....very true in my case so, I'm cutting down and then, this thread! Darren...I was brought up the same way you explain how your Nan cooks...everything was fresh, I guess one of the reasons back then was that few people had a refrigerator (can you believe that folks?) so my mum went to the butcher/fish monger etc daily...we didn't have to worry about the milk souring because it was so damn cold in Scotland. So, as I said ...I've decided to try to limit my time on here...actually going to have limited electricity for a month...(see how that goes haha!!!) I need to pump my rain water up to the feeder tank once a week and I have to run my pool but everything else will be kept to the minimum ...I'm also going to try an organic garden...had one going years ago but now I'm older and have the time to spend setting it up and have more knowledge on how to make it work.....worm farm...compost and chook poo (chooks are chickens for those who don't know) bonus..eggs...that's fresh eggs peeps!...don't know how it will go but...I'm really excited about this venture. I already have some fruit trees...Lemon/lime/manderin which are quite easy to grow...also have cherries and almonds so...my garden is partly established already. Also...I'm a beekeeper so these little wonders should also be helpful..thanks to you three guys for opening up my mind a whole lot :)