It’s always nice when people say that I do not look my age. When they ask me why, I say, “no children.”

While there is a grain of truth in that, I think the real reason is slightly more complicated.

First: Genetics. Never underestimate the power of your parents. Whether you are short, tall, fat, slim, good-looking or ugly has an awful lot to do with your genes. Those people in the commercials who tell you that if you just followed their exercise regimen or ate their health food that you would look just like them are lying. In many ways, you can no more control these things than you can control whether you are male or female, straight or gay.

My grandmother on my mother’s side lived to be almost 99 years old, and my mother is currently doing fine in her 80s. There must be something there that has benefited me. Now if only I could have been tall and handsome…

So let’s look to the second factor: exercise. This is very important, and is something I just don’t do. I know, I know, these are supposed to be my advice columns, my life lessons. Just because I have these life lessons doesn’t mean I’m very good at following them. I really should exercise more. Like any.

The third factor, though, is something else: diet. What you put into your body can affect your body greatly. People who would never consider putting kerosene in their car have no problem downing greasy hamburgers washed down with a soda …

I’ve been a pescatarian since 1976, but I never heard the term pescatarian until a few years ago (that’s someone who eats fish but no other meat). The reason is two-fold: First, as a kind of boycott against factory farms and the cruel treatment of the animals there; but also for my health.

My wife and I try to never buy food in cans. We have salad about every other day, fish twice a week, and buy fresh fruit and vegetables for our meals.

The problem with eating well, though, is that it is expensive. Because of subsidies, the bad food is cheaper than the good food, which is one of the reasons there are so many overweight people in America today; the bad food is also fattening.

Taking care of what you put in your body also includes things like sodas, which have no nutritional value at all and are very bad for you, and of course all sorts of unwanted drugs.

You have to be an informed consumer for this to work well. Never trust any packaging; they all lie. There are so many things that advertise themselves as being healthy that are anything but, and you’ll be paying more for this packaging because what you get is still crap. Read the ingredients and compare and you may be shocked at how the package with the happy farmer is actually just as full of chemicals as the brand name product (and, if you look real close, you’ll discover that it’s probably made by the brand name company, too).

And “natural” doesn’t mean “good for you”. Arsenic is “natural.”

I’ve rambled a bit here, but I think the life lesson from this is “take care of your body; It’s the only one you have.”