Animal Based Life

What is the key to maintaining quality of life?

Is it eating right?  Exercising?

Doing what we want when we want just so we don’t reach a ripe old age?  Because surely you’ll be miserable!  Or so they say…

But does it have to be this way?

BBQ Sauce

We all know the deal with BBQ sauce.  By default, it’s a combination of tangy and sweet.  Seemingly it’s always sweet on some level.

A guy I talk to occasionally posted a photo on social media.  It was a picture of the BBQ sauce rack at the grocery store.  Row after row of different blends and brands of BBQ sauce.  The particular brands were kept together.

There was a caption under the photo, paraphrasing: “My wife took this picture at the grocery store and asked me which one I should get.  I replied ‘all of them’.”

There must have been a hundred different bottles in the picture.  Of course, I chuckled at his response to her.  It was witty.

Then I sent a reply of my own.  It was his picture, but I added a red circle around four particular bottles of sauce.  Those four bottles were four different blends of G. Hughes’ sugar-free sauces.

His response back was that was the expensive stuff for diabetics.

My reply, “Or those wanting to prevent diabetes.  Prevention is better than a cure.”

The quality of life dichotomy

Then came the rebuttal.  I’ve heard this many times before, so I wasn’t blown away.  Again, I chuckled, but for a different reason.

Again, paraphrasing: “You don’t live as long, but those are years you don’t want.”

From what I’ve seen, very few people get to die on good terms.  In order words, you don’t get to choose to die gracefully at a younger age just because you ate sugar, or smoked cigarettes, or drank in excess, or engaged in other high-risk activities.

“We’re all going to die anyway.”

My father passed away at age 86 suddenly and unexpectedly.  He had enormous quality of life until his last few hours.  Quality of life some people 30 years younger would have given anything to have.

A result of smoking cigarettes can be dying of COPD, emphysema, or lung cancer.  You’ll likely end up living a shorter life, yes, but the “years you don’t want” will be in your 60s and 70s instead of your 80s and 90s.  For a lot of people, 60s and 70s are very productive years.

Without drinking in excess, you could have avoided liver failure.  We get the idea…

Maintaining quality of life…how do we do it?  Will we ultimately succeed?

What is ‘quality of life?’

Quality of life can mean many different things.  Quality of life falls under six basic domains: physical health, psychological health, independence, social relations, environment, and spirituality.  In this article, we cover health–the first two domains.

Is eating meat the key?

A 2014 study from Austria revealed that vegetarians have less quality of life than meat-eaters.   The survey included over 14,000 people with various eating habits.  Vegetable-heavy people had lower BMI, but also had higher instances of cancer, allergies, and mental illness.  Vegetable-heavy people consulted doctors more and were less likely to be vaccinated.

In the end, the study really made no definitive conclusions, but just urged everyone to eat carb-laden fruits and vegetables in mass quantities, but little in fats, sugars, and salts.  Old-school Food Pyramid recommendations, basically.  The very Food Pyramid that’s overseen our overall decline in health.

Meat is rich in vitamins.

Vitamin B12 is rich in many animal products.  Among other things, it can help with mental function, combat anemia, supports bone health, helps eye health, and is good for heart health.  Eating meat can be especially good for older people who find getting enough B12 in their diet to be a challenge.

Meat is also rich in essential amino acids.

An animal-based diet has helped many people.  It’s helped me.

It’s not just the meat

Centering your diet around animal products is something any person should try looking to improve their health or looking to simply preserve it.

Maintaining quality of life is a balance.  No one disputes that.

Mix in cruciferous vegetables as sides to your meals.  Stay away from stress.  Get in more walking.  Get in more exercise.  If you’re overweight, strive for a BMI of 24.

“We’re all going to die anyway,” is no way to look at life.  Choose the terms on how you’ll die the best you can.

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