>>>2. People in 40s had heart attaches very often. Heart attaches and strokes in the 50s happened even more often. I am not even talking about 60s. Few people lived till old, old age of 70s.
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>The New Zealand anecdote is different. Kiwis in WWI were big strapping lads compared to the Tommies because NZ overflowed with cheap butter and meat. But it was normal to be fit until the 1970s and we all grew up eating heaps of lamb and dairy. Today they're both expensive and eaten a lot less, and the nation now is the 4th-fattest on the planet with a serious diabetes problem. What happened?
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>>>Now in this country (USA) the food is loaded with chemicals, preservatives, additives. Fruits and vegies grow with pesticides. People eat junk food. Obesity is a huge problem. And yet the life expectancy is going up.
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>Growth in life expectancy in the US is quite slow compared to others, so last year the US was 26th in the world for life expectancy, just behind Slovenia. Switzerland was first followed by Japan, Italy and Spain. Even Mediterranean nations with diets replete with cholesterol-laden sauces like France, came in the top 10. Russia was last. People come up with various explanations: mine is that red wine gives the Swiss and Mediterraneans their health and longevity. ;-)
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>For the rest: nobody doubts that modern medicine saves lives and lets us live longer. But IMHO it doesn't pay to be complacent in healthcare or you wake up one day and discover that the Commonwealth Institute has ranked your health system last or almost last in most quality measures while you were convinced that it is the best on the planet, or that your big Pharma are milking their last patents with few new ones on the horizon, unlike the Europeans.

Some say that it is not the red wine but the alcohol in wine that is good for longevity. But then, if that were true, people in Russia would live forever :)