The morning news and websites were hot on the trail Monday morning of a new report implicating processed meats and red meat in cancer cases.
It never seems to occur to anyone that cancer, heart disease and other ailments generally associated with old age seem prevalent now because there is a very large population of very old people. Each new report on pollution, food, coffee, alcoholic beverages and the sun causing various illnesses needs to be placed in this context, but it never is.
Here’s a reliable measure of the trajectory of life expectancy in the United States. In 1900, it was 46.3 years for men and 48.3 years for women. Today, it’s 81.2 years and 76.4 years, respectively. For women, that’s a 68 percent increase. Think about that. How’d you like to be 68 percent stronger, 68 percent smarter, or have 68 percent greater endurance on the track or in the bedroom, than people who lived 115 years ago had? Sounds like a great thing, right? Yet all we do is gripe about hazards like red meat and emissions from nearly squeaky-clean power plants.
Let’s face it. People who are lucky enough to grow old eventually will die, and they have to die of something. As one gets older, the likelihood of suffering from cancer, heart or lung disease, or brain dysfunction inevitably increases. As people grow older, the cumulative effect of living puts them at ascending risk of the diseases cited by the anti-meat folks.
Seems to me a 68 percent increase in average lifespans is a magnificent achievement, not grounds to grumble about this or that environmental or food-borne hazard. Something to celebrate.
In my lifetime, one man and four women in my family have broken the 90 barrier. Several male relatives and most of the women have made it into their mid to late 80s. Many Americans can say the same or more. Editing “Your Page” at the Republican-American, I’ve processed many stories about people celebrating their 100th birthdays. (No one in my family has hit the century mark yet, but we’re hoping.) I celebrate the fact some of my family members have been with us for so long, and recognize that I could not have said as much 100 years ago.