Signs of age

This is very much in line with what I've been thinking about aging.

One thing I've noticed with adults compared to adolescents is the "puffiness" of adults. It's not just that adults are overweight and have a greater fat mass, it's more like a general inflammation or along those lines.

I sometimes try to guess the age of a person from behind. The giveway clues for youth are shinier hair, a faster walking pace, and a general "tightness" (even if they are overweight). Many adults tend to look more bloated, independent of their of weight.

I admit that I am obsessed with judging people's age by looking at their physical profiles. One thing I always look for is how saggy their skin is, especially around the cheek and neck areas. My pet theory is that if you are a sugar burner, elevated glucose level, even for a short period time after meals -- given that you are not insulin resistant, will damage the collagen that supports your skin. And this is just a tip of iceberg: the damage to your internal organs is as much as, if not greater than, that to your skin, it's just that we don't observe it easily until it's too late.

Right on the point

That's exactly what I've been thinking. It's more about what we eliminate from diet than what we do eat.

Different people have different degrees of susceptibility to the damaging effects of the modern Western diet. This depends on genetic background, age, activity level and many other factors. When you remove damaging foods, peoples' metabolisms normalize, and most of the differences in health that were apparent under adverse conditions disappear. I believe our genetic differences apply more to how we react to adverse conditions than how we function optimally. The fundamental workings of our metabolisms are very similar, having been forged mostly in hunter-gatherer times. We're all the same species after all.