Stephen Byrnes had AIDS - the stroke was related to that. http://blog.plantpoisonsandrottenst...stephen-byrnes/

So I wouldn't use him as a reason to get too nervous.

ETA: I just looked him up and Dr. Jan Kwasniewski, the Optimal Diet guy, is 72 and still kicking.

Yeah, longevity in the end comes down to an indivudual's DNA telomerase.

I watched a cooking show a couple weeks ago where the guy was making a pork roast. He said, "... and the best garnish for pork is more pork." He cut the roast at 3/4 inch intervals, about two-thirds of the way through, and inserted pancetta slices (and maybe a few sage leaves?). Then he tied it up and roasted it. You could tell it was going to be very good. Sort of like larding the meat. Mechanically adding more pork fat to compensate for the extra lean breeding is a good idea.

Wrapping beef tenderloin filets with bacon or putting a slice of foie gras on top are also great traditional ways of garnishing meat with meat.

This is a very hard topic to pin down. So many control conditions that would have to be taken into account.

You would have to almost do a study of a group of people that ate one way, that as an average had a life expectancy of X, then have the majority of them switch to a new way of eating, without them cheating and going back to eating what they are used to. Wait for multiple generations to occur to see if there is a marked improvement in life expectancy.
Note: In this time, there cannot be any other factors changed, such as style/condition of living or medical advancements.

It would be a very hard study to perform without outside influences that would screw up the data.

One other point I would like to make.
In general we always assume that an author of a book, and a self proclaimed person of something, always practices what they preach.

Just some thoughts.

Interesting post in another thread, about some Oprah show on extreme life extension and a billionaire who plans to live to 125 [ after which he'll be put into one of those head-in-a-jar devices a'la Futurama ]

http://forums.lowcarber.org/showpos...6&postcount=137

Ray Kurzweil is like that. He lives on vitamin supplements (I think he's vegetarian) and his goal is to survive until the Singularity, when everyone's consciousness will be absorbed into the Machine and we'll all live forever.

Can anyone point me to records of famous low-fatter deaths? I seem to remember that J. I. Rodale died on the Dick Cavett show, and I think it may have been right after he claimed he was in great health and would live until a ripe old age. The film "The Road to Wellville" shows John Harvey Kellogg boasting that he'll live forever right before a fatal heart attack (in the middle of a dive). I couldn't any record of that claim or of the circumstances of his death.

Jim Fixx, the running guru, was a proponent of low fat carbo-loading and died at 52.

Brian Maxwell, the founder of PowerBar (high carb, low fat), died at 51.

That's all I can think of for now.

Jane Brody is still alive, but she wrote about her new cholesterol problem a couple times last year.

Sounds like his mind has already been sucked into a machine. Maybe a vacuum cleaner?

If we're going to get to the bottom of this diet issue we need to start cloning people at birth and putting them on different diets.

Ewell Gibbons was a natural food spokesperson who was featured on Grape Nuts ads. He died in his early 60s from an ulcer.

I looked Ray Kurzweil up on Wikipedia. I assumed he was vegetarian because my vegan friend is a fan. I was wrong though - he's actually a low-carber! He sounds like a genius, although very likely an insane one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Kurzweil


And then this:

Heh, I tend to think that a genius is an insane person who applies their insanity in a way that's beneficial to (or recognized by) society.

The Hofstadter quote is great; thanks for sharing; GEB is an amazing book.

I dont think I saw anyone mention him, but Barry Groves is in his 70s... and not only still kicking, but just wrote another book.

Wouldn't worry about that:

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituar...0,3824201.story

Not necessarily low carb/paleo, but definitely meat focused and high fat (which is a good start )