There once was a time when all food was organic and no
pesticides were used. Health problems were treated with folk
wisdom and natural remedies. There was no obesity, and people
got lots of exercise. And in that time gone by, the average life
expectancy was … 35! That’s right. For most of human existence,
according to fossil and anthropological data, the average human
life expectancy was 35 years. As recently as 1900, American
average life expectancy was only 48. Today, advocates of
alternative health bemoan the current state of American health,
the increasing numbers of obese people, the lack of exercise,
the use of medications, the medicalization of childbirth. Yet
life expectancy has never been longer, currently 77.7 years in
the US. Advocates of alternative health have a romanticized and
completely unrealistic notion of purported benefits of a
“natural” lifestyle. Far from being a paradise, it was hell. The
difference between an average lifespan of 48 and one of 77.7 can
be accounted for by modern medicin