The Nutrition Information All That Scanty

None of those studies had anything to do with whether or not food was "processed," "natural," or contained "additives." They all had to do with the amount and types of fats and proteins in the diet, the amount of exercise, and the amount of calories taken in. They all demonstrated that diets low in animal fats, low in animal protein, and lower in calories was healthier. In the U.S., that basically translates to a Mediterranean diet. For us diabetics, we need to modify the carbohydrates down from the typical Mediterranean diet.

Telling people to eat like your grandparents really isn't useful advice. Vitamin deficiencies were extremely common in their day. The had very limited access to vitamin C and B vitamin containing foods in the winter. Even modern diets are vitamin D deficient. Our ancestors were much smaller than us. People in their 60's were considered elderly, and indeed were to a great extent. Now it's still middle age. Those things aren't modern medicine. They're nutritional.

Even more extreme are those advocating a caveman (or hunter-gatherer) diet. I suppose that consists of gorging on huge amounts of meat every few days, and eating some raw roots and berries. Very deficient in innumerable essential nutrients.

Blanket condemnation of additivies and processing doesn't hold up to scrutiny. Nor is natural or organic any guarantee of healthfulness. Each food, additive and processing has to be evaluated individually. Some are good and some are bad. Additives and processing are not the cause of all diseases as some have suggested. All these disease have been around long before additives and processing. Simply because a disease has increased in incidence doesn't mean an additive is the cause. There are many other possible causes. Many kinds of pollution have increased. New viruses and other infectious agents are in circulation. Correlation does not equal causation. Causation must be proven.

Serious about what? I'm not sure what you mean. I said that MY family used to live to be really old, but now we are not. I didn't say let's go back to the "good old days" of no antibiotics or modern meds. That is something totally different, and has nothing to do with nutrition. Nor is the nutrition information all that scanty. There was the Seven Countries Study, the Lyons Study, the China Study, the Okinawa Study, etc... Many of these studies involved thousands of individuals over many years.