What Does Average Life Expectancy Really Mean? The Lie You’ve Been Tol

People love to say, “We live longer now.”It’s their go-to argument when defending modern medicine, pharma, and processed food.

But here’s the problem: they don’t understand what average life expectancy really means.

Let’s set the record straight.

What Does Average Life Expectancy Really Mean? It’s Not What You Think

The word average doesn’t mean typical, and that’s where the myth begins.

Yes, it’s true that average life expectancy in prehistoric times was “low”—sometimes reported as 30 or 40 years. But that number is heavily skewed by infant mortality and death in childbirth.

In reality, if you survived childhood, you had a strong chance of living into your 60s, 70s, and beyond.

Life Expectancy vs Lifespan — Know the Difference

• Life expectancy = a statistical average that’s dragged down by early deaths

• Lifespan = how long a human can live when not killed by trauma or infection

Our ancestors didn’t die of heart disease or diabetes. They died from:

• Infections without antibiotics

• Accidents or injuries

• Dangerous childbirth

• Infant diseases we’ve since learned to prevent

They didn’t die because they didn’t eat grains. They didn’t die because they were missing "healthy whole grains" or sunscreen.

They died because life was dangerous, not because they were biologically weak.

The Carnivore Ancestor — Strong, Lean, and Long-Lived

When you look at groups like:

• The Inuit

• The Maasai

• Early European hunters

• Pre-colonial Native Americans

…you find strong, capable humans who have aged gracefully and functionally. They weren’t riddled with cancer, obesity, or dementia. They were lean, muscular, mobile, and often lived long lives if they didn’t get eaten by a lion or die in childbirth.

As Anthony Chaffee often says:

“We were apex predators. We didn’t die at 30—we lived well into old age, assuming we weren’t killed unnaturally.”

Modern People Are Dying Slower, Not Living Better

Here’s the dirty secret: We’ve traded quality of life for duration of disease.

• We survive longer, but we’re on more drugs than ever

• We extend death, not life

• Most people today live the last 20 years of their lives in pain, disease, and dependency

This isn’t progress. It’s managed decay.

The Truth About Longevity

If you ate real food, avoided seed oils, moved daily, and didn’t get crushed by an ox cart, you had a very good chance of living into old age.

And guess what?

You wouldn’t have spent those years in a nursing home.

You would’ve been active, strong, and vital.

So next time someone tells you, “We live longer now,” ask them:

“Do we really? Or are we just better at keeping people alive while they’re sick?”