But now, as he waited for my mother in the cafeteria of a medical building, he\u2019d ordered a bagel with full-fat cream cheese. At home, a slice of cheesecake was waiting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m on a new diet,\u201d he said with his customary good cheer. \u201cThe \u2018What the Hell\u2019 diet.\u201d <\/p>\n
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No diet has ever sounded better. But was I old enough to start it?<\/p>\n
When you\u2019ve been a reporter for a long time and you cold-call the Society of Actuaries and ask if anyone there might be up for pondering the mortality implications of such a regimen, you don\u2019t expect much.<\/p>\n
But here was Nate Worrell, a fellow with the society.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a fun question,\u201d he began, quickly explaining that as we grow older, \u201cour chances of dying increase exponentially \u2014 sickness, cancer, aging . . .\u201d<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t sounding, technically, \u201cfun,\u201d but then things took a happy turn. \u201cWhen you get into 85-plus,\u201d he said, \u201cyour death rate stops climbing as fast. It\u2019s called the mortality plateau.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mortality plateau. Gotta love the Yelp reviews on that!<\/p>\n
\u201cYou get to a certain point,\u201d he explained, \u201cand things begin to stabilize.<\/p>\n
\u201dOne theory is that if you have the genetics for resilience \u2014 and cancer and other diseases haven\u2019t taken you out \u2014 you\u2019re going to keep going until something gets you that\u2019s not genetic.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for how all this relates to the What the Hell diet, Worrell said that diet is but one piece of longevity. (Other pieces include: social connection, physical movement, good sleep, low stress, and financial resources, he said.)<\/p>\n
At 93, you can afford to be a \u201clittle loosey-goosey,\u201d he said, before advising me not to start any time soon. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re climbing the mountain now,\u201d he said, which I took to mean the mountain of death, and I reached for a calming spoonful of plain Greek yogurt.<\/p>\n
How much longer must I wait? My next call was to Lynne Ahn, a gastroenterologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and an anti-aging regenerative medicine specialist at Ahn Point<\/a>, her wellness practice in Wellesley.<\/p>\n I wanted a date I could enter in my Google Calendar \u2014 6 p.m., March 3, 2041, French fries \u2014 but Ahn told me the answer is \u201cnuanced.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt depends less on your chronological age than your biological age,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat matters more is how much physiological reserve you have \u2014 your muscle, your cardiovascular capacity, your metabolic stability, your cognitive strength. It\u2019s all about how metabolically resilient you are.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe cheesecake isn\u2019t going to tip him into decline,\u201d she said of my dad. But for someone without such a solid, nearly century-long foundation, bad dietary habits can take a toll.<\/p>\n I couldn\u2019t score a safe-to-start-by-age from Thomas Perls, a professor of medicine and geriatrics at the Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, either.<\/p>\n And in fact, to my disappointment, Perls, who directs the New England Centenarian Study, <\/a>made an argument for keeping up good habits <\/p>\n \u201cIf a person believes \u2018the older you get, the sicker you get\u2019 . . . then I can see how that person would also embrace a diet that shortens life expectancy.\u201d <\/p>\n But, he said, studies have found that \u201cthe older you get, the healthier you\u2019ve been.<\/p>\n \u201cAchieving older age because of healthy habits means you are adding healthy, disability-free years to your life, not years of chronic illness and disability.\u201d<\/p>\n Medicine obviously has a lot to teach us in this regard, but I wondered if another industry that balances the desire to binge with the need to save for the future \u2014 namely, financial planners \u2014 might, too.<\/p>\n Indeed, they are not totally dissimilar. \u201cWe do have clients that want the last check to bounce, the \u2018what the hell\u2019 retirement plan,\u201d Gina Bolvin Bernarduci, president of Bolvin Wealth Management Group, told me in an email. <\/p>\n In a follow-up call, she clarified that this would amount to irresponsible financial planning. But, she said, some clients do ask her to figure out their spending numbers based on a shorter lifespan, 75, say, instead of 90, which is the default.<\/p>\n \u201cIt allows them to spend more,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n As far as the diet, it can strike suddenly, known as acute-onset What the Hell. Or, as Moshe Waldoks<\/a>, 76, rabbi emeritus at Brookline\u2019s Temple Beth Zion, noted, it can be progressive. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not at What the Hell yet,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m at the \u2018Are you really going to eat that?\u2019 \u201d (This diet requires a second person, typically a spouse or other invested onlooker.) <\/p>\n Waldoks is a co-editor of \u201cThe Big Book of Jewish Humor,\u201d<\/a> and talking with him made me think of a joke my dad and I like, and which seemed relevant for its, let\u2019s say, cheesecake implications. <\/p>\n A man goes to the doctor. \u201cYou have 12 hours left to live,\u201d the doctor says. \u201cStay up all night making beautiful love to your wife.\u201d<\/p>\n He hustles home to tell her. \u201cThat\u2019s fine for you,\u201d the wife says. \u201cI have to get up in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n Beth Teitell can be reached at beth.teitell@globe.com<\/a>. Follow her @bethteitell<\/a>.<\/p>\n