Remember Euell Gibbons? The nuts and berries guy who was a proponent of what we would now call a trail mix bar? A natural diet it was called. He wrote a book called 'Stalking the Wild Asparagus.' I remember seeing him on the Carson show.
Well, Euell didn't make it to the natural retirement age of 65, passing away at 64 in 1975, having been transported to the hospital, but arriving DOA. No cause mentioned in his obit. Maybe it was embarrassment.
And Dr. Robert Atkins, whose diets are still being marketed under his name, unfortunately didn't necessarily die of poor health, but rather a traumatic accident (blunt impact of head with epidural hematoma) when he slipped on an icy pavement in New York City and passed away in 2003 at the age of 72.
The bluntness of Mayor Bloomberg at the time had Hizzoner telling a group of firemen that Dr. Atkins may have hit his head, but he was "fat" at the time. Some diet, the food at a fund raiser at his Hampton place was "inedible." The mayor later issued a public apology to his widow when she took to the airwaves to draw attention to the mayor's insensitivity.
Mr. Fixx passed away at 52 in 1984, not really from from running, but from an undiagnosed heart ailment that caught up to him as he was completing a workout in bucolic Vermont. Running might be good for you, but only if the rest of you is already in good shape.
And you really have to be of a certain age (read: old) to remember Vic Tanny, the founder and owner of a chain of health gymnasiums nationwide, before Jack LaLanne dominated that scene and showed us all what 20 pounds of fat looked like if you brought it home from the butcher shop. Vic lived to a perhaps respectable 73, passing away in 1985, but hardly as long as Jack did, who passed away at 96 in 2011.
Of course this is a biased list, limited by my memory, but it can prove that even though you might think and act healthy, nothing is guaranteed. Big surprise there, right?
But with the passing of Dr. Shigeaki Hinohara we can add at least one more name to a health advocate who did live a long life.
The passing of Dr. Hinohara was noted in yesterday's NYT obituary section. Dr. Hinohara achieved the age of 105. The obit's headline read: 'Dr. Hinohara, Who Taught Japan How to Live Long, Dies at 105.'
The good doctor gets six columns. This is like a 21-gun salute, and why not? According to his life's story, Dr. Hinohara is partly responsible for the longevity of the Japanese people, where women born today can now be expected to live to 87; men to 80.
With a 7-year spread over men, men's obituaries in Japan will no doubt be filled with the statement that they are "survived by" their spouse. How do you say Alan King in Japanese?
An outquote in the obit tells us he was 'an advocate of late retirement, regular checkups and fun.'
The last part is obviously where Japanese life and American life differs by about the width of the Pacific Ocean. It is "fun" that probably does Americans in sooner than the Japanese. We probably have waaaay too much of it involving dangerous activities. Make your own list of what they might be, but I wonder how many people in Japan carry firearms, go on amusement park rides, drive like batshit on highways, or eat at McDonald's.
There were many health habits that the good doctor developed, one of which was to take more than 2,000 steps a day. Now you tell me, where is someone in this country going to be able to put that one into practice? People here step in and out of their vehicles, and loudly complain if the walk from the parking lot to the front door is too many steps.
Dr. Hinohara wrote a best-seller at 101, which was only four years ago. He wrote a health advice book in 2001, 'Living Long, Living Good.'
If Social Security is already an endangered entitlement program in this country because baby boomers are living longer, then it would not be wise to translate any of the good doctor's book into English. Our economy simply can't afford it.
Mr. Sam Roberts in his obituary provides several lines from a Robert Browning poem that Dr. Hinohara considered to be influential in the development of his outlook on life. Lines from the poem 'Abt Vogler' evoke the world encircled by a circle so big that when we look up only an arch is visible.
Hey, maybe McDonald's is good for you.
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