After I made my previous post, I thought about it and I have someone in my own family that would be on the list, now that I think about it. My mother-in-law, who is now very tiny, was pretty heavy her entire life. I wouldn’t call her obese but she was pretty close - she’s 84 now and has pretty terrible dementia. She is also the closest thing to a saint on earth I’ve ever met.
I do believe that a person’s attitude and gratitude can go a long way towards longevity and she was the happiest, most optimistic person I’ve ever met.
I will grant you that many factors go into long life, but let’s face it, we have some control over our fate and being heavy is normally not a route to longevity.
Thanks for sharing your experiences.
I actually agree. Obesity is hard on the body.
I think the biggest hurdle for people trying to lose weight (and/or just stay healthy) is that we don't really know how to eat well anymore. A lot of the products on the shelf are little more than processed junk and that includes some or even most of what's being passed off as health food. Also, people tend to forget that not all calories are the same. There's something to be said for the nutritional content, or lack thereof, in any given product. But I think good nutrition is far more complicated than what gets printed on the side of a box.
Ironically, the processed food industry was born (at least partly) out of a concern for healthy eating. Working women needed a way to feed their kids something decent. Obviously, they didn't have a lot of time left to spend in the kitchen. Processed food was the solution. This has become a very large industry. But somewhere along the way it's become more about money and less about health, as evidenced by all the trash being marketed as food.