(Courtesy of Your Body’s Keeper) Did you know that sitting—yes, just sitting—could shorten your life?
That you should not drink orange juice, or give it to your children?
In medieval times, nobody washed—not even royals, and especially members of the clergy, and during the Inquisition, secret Jews were revealed because they bathed and kept clean?
By making just five easy lifestyle changes you could add 12 to 14 years to your life (men, 12 more years; women, 14).
And, why you should never wish anyone to live to 120?
Can’t be? Way out, you say?
Look it up. These startling, but verifiable, statements are but a few of the head-turning facts documented in Michael Kaufman’s remarkable, insightful book, “Am I My Body’s Keeper? The Way of Torah and Science—Be Healthy and Fit, Lose Weight and Live Years Longer.”
We all want to be healthier and fitter. And who doesn’t want to live longer? But it’s not a magical pill or fantasy fountain of youth that Kaufman offers, but a realistic, practical guide to being healthy and fit at any age, and to live longer—years longer. The remarkable work is grounded on the age-old teachings of the Torah sages, the Rambam in particular, and on scientific research.
Kaufman’s extraordinary book is a must-read, an easy-to-follow guide for men and women of all ages for behaviors that have been confirmed by rigorous, large-scale scientific studies as effective in producing dramatic, life-transforming results. The studies conclude that you could add a dozen or more years to your life by just making some simple lifestyle changes. As the author makes clear, we need not accept 73, today’s average lifespan, for ourselves. We could extend our lives beyond 73, quite possibly considerably beyond.
Moreover, Kaufman shows that those additional years we gain need not be accompanied by the painful, debilitating illnesses often linked to old age—heart disease, cancer, stroke, Alzheimer’s and diabetes; they could be healthy ones.
The most significant of the lifestyle changes that could significantly extend your life? More physical activity. So important is physical activity, Kaufman informs us, that if you exercise regularly you could even skip some of the other items on the life-extending behavioral list and still prolong your life.
So why isn’t everyone getting up and moving? Why are so many intelligent people living sedentary lives and just average lifetimes when they could easily enjoy additional good, healthy and happy years?
When we spoke to Michael Kaufman, he explained that getting people to take the simple steps necessary to prolong their lives is precisely why he wrote “Am I My Body’s Keeper?”
The author eats his own cooking. In his 92nd year, Kaufman is energetic. Slim and fit, he lives in Jerusalem’s Beit Tovei Ha’ir retirement residence, where he researches and writes about health and fitness 10 to 12 hours a day while standing—and continuously moving—at his shtender-desk. For that matter, he stands and moves all the time, sitting only to eat—mostly fruit and vegetables.
Kaufman’s day starts long before daybreak, with spirited calisthenics, weights and a vigorous daily workout on an elliptical exercise machine on the patio of his apartment, fitted with a stand for a learning book. Then, Shacharis at a Netz-sunrise minyan, and some more learning, followed by breakfast.
He walks briskly wherever he can. And, unless he is going to a high floor, he invariably chooses the stairs over the elevator. He views keeping healthy and fit as routine, an integral part of his daily life, like davening, learning and eating—the vital behavior that makes everything possible for longer. Kaufman is his body’s keeper.
