101 Year Old Fred Kummerow Exercised A Lot And Eats Whole Grains, Oatmeal, And Vegetables

[Westside PUFAs]

For all of you sedentarians and anti-veg/anti-starch folk out there:

Fred Kummerow, author of "Cholesterol is Not the Culprit: A Guide to Preventing Heart Disease" and interviewee in the upcoming Peat inspired documentary "On The Back Of A Tiger," loved to exercise:

"And I also exercise every day, even though I'm going to be 100 on October 4th. I still exercise. I believe in exercise every day. And I keep my mind busy."

http://wbur.fm/1lXcQ1F

"I exercise every day. I weigh myself weekly and if I am gaining weight, I eat less for the next 3-4 days. (That is the best way to lose weight. If I am losing weight, I treat myself to a dessert of ice cream or cherry pie."

(fattening effect of ice cream noted...)

http://bit.ly/1PdYGo6

“My age has no impact. I’m still working like I did before,” he said. “I always went swimming at noon, and I still exercise today. The diet is very important. How you live is very important. All of those are very important to what causes disease.”

http://bit.ly/1lXcUyi

"I can tell you what I think: you have to have a healthy diet," he says. "You have to exercise every day. I used to go swimming at noon, have my lunch along, and eat it in my laboratory. I always went swimming at least a half hour. I bicycled, too. I bicycled to work from my house, which was a mile away from my lab, every day."

http://bit.ly/1EfWtQJ

"When he was younger, Kummerow would bike two miles to the lab and back home every day, and swim for an hour at lunchtime. He had to stop swimming after he hurt his knee at the pool — two years ago. At age 97."

http://bit.ly/1un0xvJ

By the way, besides milk and eggs, he also eats whole grains, oatmeal, vegetables and starches like potato and squash:

"His own diet attests to that. Along with fruits, vegetables and whole grains, he eats red meat several times a week and drinks whole milk daily"

http://nyti.ms/1T6y2MS

"Squash is a good source of fibers, which you need to carry your food through your intestinal tract." - Fred

http://wbur.fm/1lXcQ1F

"My typical diet: For breakfast: An egg (cooked in butter). Cooked whole wheat grains and oatmeal served with several kinds of fruit, including a banana and fruits with a coloured skin, topped with milk. A few walnuts, pecans or almonds. Yoghurt and milk.

For lunch: Meat or fish prepared under the broiler. A small piece of baked potato. Some fresh or frozen
vegetables. Lettuce salad with olive oil and vinegar dressing. Fruit. Milk.

For dinner: Smaller portions of what I ate for lunch. Meat, vegetables, fruit. Milk."

(serotonin from da banana, oh noez!)

http://bit.ly/1PdYGo6

He had heart disease at 89 years old. From page 180 of his book:

"When I was 89 years old, I told Dr. Scott Cook, the heart surgeon I had been collaborating with on research at Carle Hospital in Urbana, Illinois, that I sometimes felt a tightening around my collarbone after a hurried walk, but not during my daily quarter-mile swim. He suggested an echocardiogram, the results of which showed a lack of blood circulation in the upper left chamber of my heart. A cardiac catheterization indicated major blockage in the left coronary artery; old age had caught up with me. Even though I never had a heart attack, Dr. Cook recommended coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery, which I had on March 23, 2004. Now I'm back exercising without that tightening feeling in my collarbone and back working at my research on diet and heart disease with even more interest."

People who are anti-starch, anti-vegetables, and anti-exerscie will blame his heart disease on those. People like me who are are anti-fat in all forms, including saturated if too much, and anti-whole milk and too much eggs, will blame it on those. It could simply just be that plaque builds up in old age even with a good diet.

 

[Such_Saturation]

try this supplement

 

[Matt1951]

My wife had seven aunts and one uncle who all lived to be 100-102. Their favorite food seemed to be ham and deviled eggs. As best as I can tell, while they grew up on a farm, as adults they did not exercise. Sometimes genes win out, whatever the diet.

 

[Westside PUFAs]

post 115273 My wife had seven aunts and one uncle who all lived to be 100-102. Their favorite food seemed to be ham and deviled eggs. As best as I can tell, while they grew up on a farm, as adults they did not exercise. Sometimes genes win out, whatever the diet.

Probably a lot of low stress in the rural area, and low inhalation of industrial toxins.

 

[narouz]

My wife had seven aunts and one uncle who all lived to be 100-102. Their favorite food seemed to be ham and deviled eggs. As best as I can tell, while they grew up on a farm, as adults they did not exercise. Sometimes genes win out, whatever the diet.

Also possible the ham they ate came, at that time/place, from hogs not fed a lot of PUFA,
thus their meat not so much PUFA.

If that was the case, a lot of protein.
As with the eggs.
So maybe they had a good sources of protein without too much PUFA.

 

[chispas]

I'm always surprised how people on this forum quote the Ray Peat they want to believe. They forget the bit where he says, "There isn't anything wrong with a high carbohydrate diet, and even a high starch diet isn't necessarily incompatible with good health, but when better foods are available they should be used instead of starches."

I think when Peat says "starch" he is most probably referring to foods like "cooked whole wheat grains and oatmeal", and not actually referring to potatoes that have been cut up and cooked in such a way as to substantially reduce the starch content. And what about the different types of starch? What about the water content of potatoes - isn't that more nutritious than dry old whole wheat? I think Peat could be a lot clearer about what he defines as starch in terms of actual food products, but that would limit the degree to which we should all think for ourselves.

Not entirely related, but years ago, I used to eat four eggs a day without fail for breakfast with butter and a cup of rice. I was testing the Heart Foundation's claim that people would acquire high cholesterol if they ate more than 1 egg per day. After about six months of this behaviour, my cholesterol dropped so low that the doctor said to me it was lower than what statins could maximally hope to achieve for people with high cholesterol. I'm not really an egg eater anymore, because I doubt the value of consuming high amounts of choline, limited quantities of vitamin A, and a not insubstantial dose of PUFA of about 4 - 6 grams with every serve (these are Australian eggs I'm speaking of).

In recent days I am amused to see my diet beginning to resemble that of a middle-eastern cuisine: potatoes, dates, strained yoghurt, honey, small amounts of lamb/chicken (strictly once a day or less), coffee, spiced vegetables (including squash), whole milk, limited quantities of OJ (only 1 cup), limited added fats, and no supplements! I think Ray has been quoted speaking about the longevity of people from Azerbaijan, so maybe there's something in it. I've attached my current cronometer output for reference.

 

[Greg says]

Some people are just built to last longer than others despite diet.

 

[PeatThemAll]

Some people are just built to last longer than others despite diet.

Indeed. Funny how the media always focuses on these anecdotal cases, and not the hundreds who led similar lifestyles and died much, much earlier along the way. If the formula is so great, how come hundreds of others (out of 300+million Americans, statistically, you should have some) *don't* reap the same benefits? Bottom line: you might borrow some of these people's habits and see if they help you, but you can't escape your (epi)genetics that much either.

 

[Amazoniac]

Regardless if exercise appears to be a waste of energy for some, the interesting thing from this is that it's actually hard to find people that live that long in a sedentary way..
Having a strong digestion and active lifestyle seems common in supercentenarians stories.
Hope that I don't sound arrogant but I find common, especially in health forums, having a sensitive digestion being reframed as unaccustomed to impurities, deep down we all know what it means..

 

[DaveFoster]

More likely, he exercises because he's healthy. He's not healthy because he exercises.

 

[Amazoniac]

More likely, he exercises because he's healthy. He's not healthy because he exercises.

Nice perspective!

 

[postman]

How can oatmeal ever possibly be on a ray peat inspired diet? I mean commercial eggs are already pushing it but oatmeal? You might as well start eating maoynaise

 

[tara]

How can oatmeal ever possibly be on a ray peat inspired diet? I mean commercial eggs are already pushing it but oatmeal? You might as well start eating mayonaise

Hardly in the same category. There are a lot of worse things to eat than well cooked porridge.
There might be some downsides to well cooked oats, but they are non-the-less low fat fairly easy to digest carbs with fibre that probably helps carry out some estrogen.
As opposed to mayonaise, which is very high fat and often high PUFA.

 

[Pointless]

He sure drinks a lot of milk, guys lol. It all depends on your perspective.

 

[damngoodcoffee]

Oatmeal makes me feel like my balls dropped and left the building.

 

[DaveFoster]

I can't stand oatmeal. I'm more sensitive to it than any other food. Forget egg whites, bread, pasta, carrageenan, or peanut butter. Pretty sure mayonaise is the closest thing to cancer we have in our diets.

 

[bobbybobbob]

More likely, he exercises because he's healthy. He's not healthy because he exercises.

There is a tricky entanglement of non-linear factors between the two. It's like how happy people get even happier by getting married, but unhappy people get even more unhappy by getting married.

Exercise is a profoundly powerful tool. More-so than aspirin and caffeine, etc., if you are in a position to use it.

I think "exercise" is a loaded term these days because people think of florescent lit gyms and machines on platsic mats. Get a bicycle and a kayak and cover some ground in interesting places. It's not just about the exertion from a physiological aspect. From my kayak two days ago I watched nesting eagles have a conversation and add to the nest structure for the eaglets.

 

[tyw]

- BMC Genomics
- Decreased Reactive Oxygen Species Production in Cells with Mitochondrial Haplogroups Associated with Longevity

TL;DR -- Centenarians have insanely efficient mitochondria that produce a lot of metabolic end products (CO2!!!) and produce very little Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS).

You are given your mitochondria by your Mother; How "good" your mitochondria are a direct result of how good your Mum's mitochondria are.
What factors affect this? No clue

This "more efficient mitochondria => longer and more healthy lifespans" is observed right through all eukaryotic life. Witness birds and their insane metabolic rates, and much longer lives (anywhere from 20% to even 100+% longer) compared to mammals of the same body mass. Bats have similar advantages, which led to speculations on "insanely efficient mitochondria as a response to evolving flight".

For details, see Nick Lane's books:
- The Vital Question: Why is Life the Way it is?: 9781781250365: Amazon.com: Books
- Power, Sex, Suicide - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And yes, I know one of the exceptions to this rule are naked mole rats, which produce a ton of ROS, and yet live long and are highly highly resistant to cancer -- The naked mole-rat response to oxidative stress: just deal with it. - PubMed - NCBI

This indicates that there is both the "Efficient Energy Production" side of the equation, and the counter-balancing "Really Good Clean-up Mechanisms" side of the equation. Birds do the former, and Naked Mole Rats do the latter. Either way, you get mitochondria that hum along nicely producing energy.


And while you really can't control the mitochondria you inherit, what the Peat perspective does promote is maximising whatever mitochondrial capacity you do have, and in that sense, I view it as a very good approach.

.....

 

[sladerunner69]

More likely, he exercises because he's healthy. He's not healthy because he exercises.

he's not old because he's healthy. he's healthy because he's jamber doodle.

 

[Makrosky]

An anecdotal evidence is just... an anecdote!