Reply #4: Ha! Actually...

[Bucky]

expected lifespan at birth was low back in the medieval times because of obscenely high infant mortality rates. Once a man got past 30, and once a women got beyond birthing age, life expectation was only marginally lower than what we expect today. Having seniors in the community who reached into their 80s was not uncommon. The trick was being among the happy few who got to the gray side of 40. One thing helping longevity along was the lack of fresh meat, by the way. Peasants too poor to have regular beef or chicken or pork with their diets had a much higher veggie intake than what the average human in an industrialized society gets today. Their teeth were nasty, of course, for as long as they lasted, but their arteries were clear and the diets full of sturdifying fibers.