Gerecht: Eat, drink, be healthy

There’s this guy, Dean Karnazes. He’s 47, Greek-American and was raised in California. At age 11, he hiked the Grand Canyon rim to rim. But that’s not why he’s famous.

He’s famous for running — a lot. He once ran 135 miles across Death Valley, with temperatures around 120 degrees. He ran a marathon to the South Pole in negative-40-degree weather. He ran 148 miles on a treadmill in 24 hours. He ran 350 miles consistantly over the course of 80 hours.

Recently, he ran 50 marathons — a marathon is 26.2 miles — in 50 states in 50 days.

So although I might want to call him the craziest man in the world, Karnazes is more widely known as the fittest.

Thus, I was intrigued when he posted an entry to his blog on the Runner’s World website about a recent study of the question, “Where in the world do the hardiest human beings live, and what makes them so healthy?”

The study was led by a man named Dan Buettner. At age 27, Buettner biked from Alaska to Argentina, a distance of more than 15,000 miles.

Don’t these people know “The Real World” is on?

The blog post says Buettner and his team of scientists discovered that the hardiest humans are from the small Greek island of Ikaria.

Well, I’d be hardy too, if I lived on a Greek island.

But the real secret to their longevity is not the blue skies, beautiful people or endless piles of phyllo dough. As Karnazes says, “They drink. They stay out late. They don’t run. They eat loads of fat.”

Hurrah, college students! I think the University has cause to celebrate. Look alive, Generation Y: We’re gonna live forever.

The Buettner study, though, turns out to be more complicated.

It actually identified several so-called Blue Zones around the world, including Ikaria, as well as cities in Italy and Costa Rica. In Blue Zones, the population reached the age of 100 at a rate 10 times that of the United States.

Buettner attributes various reasons to different regions. In Greece, it’s the herbal tea, in Italy, the wine and in Costa Rica, its the high-fiber diet.

Buettner spends a great deal trying to understand why Americans don’t have the same rates of longevity.

To be honest, I’m kind of confused too. I don’t think any other nation (especially regarding us college students) cherishes a “sit around, consuming stuff” lifestyle like the grand ol’ U.S.

Come on, Buettner. Karnazes said if we get drunk and sleep in, we’re basically golden, right?

Not so fast.

Even Karnazes was telling a half-truth for the sake of a silly blog post. Maybe Ikarians eat fats, but we’re talking olives, not fries. Maybe they don’t run, but they sure don’t take the bus from Atwood to Bouquet streets.

We all know this, deep in our hearts: We aren’t invincible, especially because we spend most of our time shivering in the cold streets of Pittsburgh, not being fed grapes off the coast of the Aegean Sea — very unfortunate for us.

Karnazes, and even Buettner, are extreme examples of good health. Following their example is really asking for a double hip replacement, not a 95th birthday party.

But we, too, have to be good. Being good is not stupid or shallow. It is stupid and shallow to equate “being good” with “looking good,” and too many people make that mistake.

In that world, Britney Spears is healthy, and just putting her name in the same sentence as the word “healthy” makes me shudder.

No, being good is trying new foods, soaking up sunshine and seeking out friendships that last longer than a night at the bar. It’s paying attention to that big blue world around us, the one that gets all those Costa Ricans old and tan while we shrivel up and die in Pennsylvania.

It would be wonderful to believe that whole “eat-don’t-run” thing works, but, hey, Karnazes and Buettner would know. Living takes more effort than that.

E-mail Carolyn at Carolyn.gerecht@gmail.com. Then quit wasting life away on the computer.