The elixir of life

I recently read about a study of 14,000 people that indicated people in their seventies who were overweight and drank both coffee and alcohol were the most likely to live into their nineties.

Old age can be a mindset.

After living a life of deprivation in order to be politically correct, religiously ethical, and puritanically like our forebears, many of our elderly are then shipped off to the abattoirs we euphemistically call nursing homes and hospitals.

People who have little or no say in any of life's little pleasures are unlikely to thrive.

I imagine most people who are still alive and a little overweight in their seventies are basically healthier than those who are already ill, so it makes sense they would live longer. Having the freedom to choose what they eat and drink is one of the pleasures that persists long after their ability to play football, or paint houses.

Being able to enjoy life, having the freedom to make your own choices, actually exercising free will, is the elixir of life.