I'm curious to see if go players on L19 find themselves to be a healthy bunch.

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be immersed

I just really have no clue how to weigh things against each other. I'm not a world class athlete, I don't have a severe chronic illness. But I'm in the US but it might still be pretty easy to be above average...

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Occupy Babel!

I turn 53 later this month, and I still play competitive volleyball with people in their 20s and 30s. ( Ok, I do quit after 3 or 4 hours, whereas they play longer, but I'm playing as long as or longer than everyone in their 40s. )

Too many of my peers are developing diabetes or cardiovascular problems or emphesema or rigor mortis or whatever, so it is easy to say that I am above average. And in many instances it is just due to sheer sloth.

Note to you younger guys out there:
1) Get regular excercise.
2) Eat/drink in moderation
3) Don't smoke.
Barring bad luck, those three habits will put you in the 'above average' category when you are my age.

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Help make L19 more organized. Make an index: https://lifein19x19.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=5207

I'm as healthy as an ox!

Nope. [sips from can of Full Throttle]

Probably in reasonable health and shape. My diet has suddenly become depressingly good (joint initiative with the wife) and I'm starting to get myself properly back into shape again, but definitely only average-ish at the moment.

Araban, I find it somewhat disconcerting that you self-identify as being unhealthy and joke about it. There are so many things that can be done to improve the situation.

I have a lot of opinions on the subject of health, but if I could implore everyone to do just one thing to substantially improve their health it would be to drink more water. For an average male around 175 pounds, that's about 3 liters.

Clearly not used to American's disregard for their own health.

Let me point out, almost every drink, including juices, offered in a public place, is heavily processed and suggared. Water is the one exception, but who in america drinks water with a meal? Any food you eat in a resteraunt likely contains enough sodium to make eating out with hypertension a 'hah' experience, and often things billed and packaged as 'healthy' are as bad or worse than the things they're supposed to replace. (Look at the sodium content of a wrap, and tell me that's healthy.)

The fact of the matter is, most of us American's don't prepare their own food, eat too much of everything, and exercise too little.

And it's not convenient to do otherwise. I work 12 hour days. On my days off, I prepare food sometimes, but since I live with one other person, I rarely want to spend large amounts of time preparing a meal. That means prepackaged food, and that's all terrible for you.

On days when I work, I could, yes, spend the precious few hours that I'm awake and not working preparing meals for the next day, free and take them in, but that's time that I'd, frankly, rather be spending talking to people, and 'having a life'.

If you're living in America, drinking soda and energy drinks, and eating fast food and resteraunt food, you may as well be honest with yourself.

You're not being healthy.

At least Araban isn't deluding himself.

Bogus. There's no scientific evidence that says that one needs to drink a certain amount of water. Interestingly, different cultures specify different amounts. In the US, it's generally a _gallon_ a day, which is a huge amount. In France, they say a liter and a half; just the amount in which bottled water is sold.

Drinking water is essential, but there's no minimum. Drink when you're thirsty and you'll be fine. If your urine is often very yellow, drink until it's pale yellow.

There are lots of myths about water that float around - for example, the myth that drinking coffee makes you lose more water than what you consume with the coffee...

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My blog about Macs and more: Kirkville

I left the US 26 years ago. At the time, obese people were rare. When I was in high school, for example, there were only a handful of "fat" kids, out of 4,000 students. When I left, Americans were just starting to get into the habit of always carrying around a drink, and, as you say, that drink was rarely water. My mother lives in SC, and when I've visited, I've found it quite astounding to see how many people were carrying around really, really big cups of soda.

I'm a water and tea drinker; I drink about 3 cans of soda a year. (Ok, I drink wine as well, but not during the day ). I don't understand how obese people think that drinking more sugar-water is in any way good for them.

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My blog about Macs and more: Kirkville

You can only read so much into single-line post =/.

I predict that the trickle of sanctimony will become a flood...

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Occupy Babel!

That's of course assuming that they do it because they think it's good for them

I don't think they think that. But they don't think that it's not.

Some people think that high-fructose corn syrup (introduced in the 80s) is in some way addictive. No studies have proven this, but the obesity epidemic started around the same time that HFCS was introduced.

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My blog about Macs and more: Kirkville

There's a long article in the New York Times Magazine from a few weeks ago, proving that everyone who eats sugar or HFCS dies. It claims that there's no important difference for health between the two, and links them both to metabolic syndrome.

A striking point that I first heard a few years ago is that there is one small way in which the obesity epidemic is a good thing. One partial cause of rising obesity is decreased smoking, and obesity is much less dangerous than smoking. There are other causes of obesity, but so far as we've traded one for the other, that's a good thing.

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Occupy Babel!

I think, I lived quite healthy before I changed places due to university. Fruits (mostly an apple and a banana) everyday, no carbohydrates after six pm, fast-food perhaps once in a month, no drinks with sugar (except it's only fruit sugar) and every two to three days excercizing in a gym, plus doing Tae-Kwon-Do twice a week.

Well, now (three years later). Maybe sports once a week, too many hours just sitting in front of the computer or sitting in general, drinking energy-drinks (low-carb though, I already decreased the amount), almost no fruits but a lot of smoothies and quite regularly vegetables (I cook like 70% of my meals) and fast-food every week.

Still, I lost more weight due to muscles than I gained through fat ^^ BMI is still the same, too.

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

I consider myself healthy. Just by having normal weight without diseases, you're already more healthy than half of the population. When I was in upper secondary school, I ran 3000 metres in cooper test. I used to bicycle all school trips and jog at weekends. Nowadays I've dropped most of those good practices. Summer is coming and I'm going to start exercising again.

James' Paradox (a.k.a. Summary of April):
1) realize I am not "active" enough.
2) take up a new outdoor hobby to improve the situation.
3) promptly fracture ribs...

...but, I'm fine now and it looks like the hobby might stick - so that's an overall improvement (I think).

A lot of what Taubes (the author of the article) says is interesting, and I read one of his books. He seems to extrapolate a lot, though, with the stuff he's saying about sugar. And metabolic syndrome basically affects the obese, so the link you say there is tenuous.

And, yes, everyone who eats either of them will die. Everyone who never eats them will die as well. QED.

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My blog about Macs and more: Kirkville

I am intelligent enough to not get into an argument with you, as I know how that will proceed. Needlessly, I will point out that I never suggested a minimum based on scientific evidence. If a male of 175 lbs drank about 3 liters of water a day they would virtually assure optimal hydration. It is not necessary to drink this much water; it is not necessary to be optimally hydrated to pass your existence.

Obviously, all fluids contribute towards hydration. Individuals can judge for themselves what and how much they are putting into their bodies. If you have ever been truly hydrated for a consistent period of 1-2 weeks, you would know beyond a doubt what the impact on health and function is.

Also, the guideline of monitoring your urine color is a good one, until it is clear or nearly clear. That won't happen drinking a liter and a half a day, at least not for this 175 lb male.