Eating will kill you

The World Health Organization has determined that meat causes cancer and processed meat is the worst culprit. They define processed meat as any meat that has been smoked, salted, cured or changed by another process to enhance its flavor or make it last longer. This kind of meat includes hot dogs, packaged turkey, sausage, corned beef, pepperoni, beef jerky, canned meat, chicken nuggets and bologna. But ALL meat is bad for us they say. They also calculated how much meat raises cancer risks and they set the bar at 50 grams per day. That amounts to one hot dog, 2 slices of ham or Canadian bacon, 5 slices of hard salami or 6 slices of bacon (Time, 11-9-15).

So the food many people around the world and most Americans love is bad for us and it joins the list with a lot of other things that are bad for us. Sugar is bad, salt is bad, fat is bad, smoking is bad, alcohol is bad, etc. In fact, if we didn't do or didn't eat ANYTHING that was bad for us, we would lead pretty boring lives.

That's the point of this column. There is no magic bullet that will keep you alive and healthy. There's no formula and there's no recipe. There are some general guidelines that supposedly work for the average person but I don't know an average person and you probably don't either.

There are people who have lived long productive lives who have broken all the rules of good health and people who have died young trying their best not to break any of them. I see people like that every day: People working out, getting the right amount of sleep, eating right and abiding by the health standards hoping to extend their lives for as long as they can. It will work for some but it won't work for others. Sometimes at the college when we have in-service days, they'll serve us muffins instead of doughnuts because muffins are 'healthier' for us. Jim Fixx, the man who pioneered running to keep people healthy collapsed and died while out running one day.

No matter how fearful we are of death, nobody's getting out alive. Like it or not, we're all going to die so we have to decide how we're going to live our lives while we have time left. Are we going to do everything we can to stay healthy and, in the process, deny ourselves of pleasures we've enjoyed or are we going to throw caution to the win and live every day as if it was our last?

What's the value of life if you're not having fun? What joy is there to carrying around a calorie counter or wearing a device that tells you how many steps you've taken today? I know I'm not going to live forever and I also know that my lifestyle may not allow me to live as long as I would have otherwise but, to me, that's a moot point. I've never denied myself pleasure wherever I could find it and I'm not going to start now. Pleasure is the thing that gets you up in the morning, puts a smile on your face and prepares you to live another day. And I mean live, not just exist. If anything happened to me that would dictate that I had to drastically change my lifestyle, I wouldn't do it because that would mean giving up the things that are the definitions of life to begin with.

I don't want to get to the end dressed up and looking good because I've never taken a chance or risked anything in my life. I want to arrive cluttered, tattered, messed up, and happy because I've lived my life on my terms rather than always doing what somebody said was best for me.

It's the most liberating experience in the world to live life like that and I intend to keep on doing it until I die and I WILL die, that's for sure. It may be because of my lifestyle or it may be from something I could not have prevented REGARDLESS of my lifestyle but there's one thing I know beyond a shadow of a doubt. It won't be because I gave up the things I love.

I'll have a double bacon cheeseburger, a large order of fries and a coke please!