veganrob said:
a friend of mine had a stroke when he was 45. absolutely no warning at all. He had been a Navy Seal, completed several IM's including Kona, ultra swims, climbed Mt Everest. He was very fit. Was not healthy.
You have hit the nail on the head. Fit does not = healthy. I also don't believe you can mitigate health against bad lifestyle choices e.g. I had 10 cigarettes yesterday and ate a load of junk but I am doing 100ks on the bike tomorrow.
My tuppence worth - my old man passed away last year at 70. A lifelong cyclist, he smoked a bit, drunk no more than anyone else and consistently went on 4-5 hr rides. He was on blood pressure tabs but no other medication. Good diet what I would describe as French/Mediterranean. He got a bad chest infection and then had a stroke. (3 of my 4 grandparents succumbed to strokes)
This came as a shock as I had always thought it the kind of thing that happens to fat/unfit people.
Anyhow I had a check up a few months later and all was okay save for my cholesterol which at 5.2 was considered high (I too have what I would call a good diet but could be more active). Doc said to look at my diet. Cut a long story short I realised that there are two schools of thought on cholesterol (a) the low fat mediteranean diet camp (b) the refined carbs and sugar camp.
The 2nd camp made more sense to me and I found the following website -
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/ at about that time. In a nutshell this guy was an endurance athlete who realised that years of what he calls "chronic cardio" was wrecking him and that this combined with a high sugar and refined carb diet was wrecking us all with "chronic inflammation".
He advocates on diet - sticking to a largely paleo diet of veg, meat and fat and laying off sugar and carbs like rice and pasta.
On fitness - mainly fat burning below 75% max hr,3-5 hrs a week (easy cycling, walking etc), 2-3 bodyweight sessions and 1 sprint session a week (on foot or bike).
I can only say that I feel great on the regime, maybe not riding at 19mph any more but not constantly tired with aching legs. I had a conversation with a vegan mate of mine on the merits of our regimes and we concluded we will only know who was "right" when we are both 6 ft under!!