Diet & Exercise Trends » The Okinawa Diet: The key to longevity?
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The Okinawa Diet: The key to longevity?
© Shelly Morgan
May 11, 2003
Miso soup with spinach and egg with rice is the typical breakfast for many who live on the island of Okinawa. This southern group of islands located between Japan's main islands and Taiwan is home to the largest population of centenarians in the world. The Japanese have long been admired for their good health and greatest longevity, but the Okinawans have even the healthiest Japanese beat.
Exercise and self-sufficiency are the norm for these 100 and 100+ Okinawans and they show no signs of slowing down.
So what's their secret? I wish I could tell you that they drink a magic potion every night before bed or they dance around in the fountain of youth twice daily - but I can't. Americans want specifics like, how many weeks do I have to be on this diet? Or how many reps do I have to do? Or how many ounces can I eat? This has been our problem all along. We stick to a strict "plan," we change for few weeks and then when it's all over, we're back to our old ways. The Okinawa way isn't a magic diet or exercise plan - it's a lifestyle. There's nothing complicated about it. Okinawa's enjoy simple lives and they eat from the earth. That's it. No plan, no time limit, no weighing, no beginning and no end.
Okinawa's have remarkably clean arteries and low cholesterol. Heart disease, breast cancer and prostate cancer are rare. This can be attributed to the Okinawans mostly plant based diet that includes fish and soy foods with a variety of vegetables and a moderate amounts of good fats. They consume locally grown vegetables and large quantities of tofu and seaweed. In addition, they also enjoy regular physical activity, a low-stress lifestyle, as well as strong community and social support. They also take pride in their health and maintaining their independence.
Studies show that younger Okinawans are eating more "American-like" and are beginning to experience the same health problems as Americans. This is further proof that diet IS everything and the Okinawans do hold the key to longevity. In a recent article, the authors of "The Okinawa Program" claimed, "if Americans copied the islands diet, doctors say we might be able to shut down 80 percent of our coronary units." Can you imagine that??
Bottom lime is this: a diet rich in fruits, vegetables and maybe a little tofu among other healthy foods and a diet low in processed foods and fat can not only lead to a long life, but a long healthy life.
To Med or not to Med?
(I believe this study may have been slanted, and its authors agree with the possibility that there was not much fish consumed by the study group, so its effect may not have been felt. The effect of olive oil, sparse diet, home grown veggies, and alcohol are well known and the correlations understood with respect to anti oxidation and cholesterol. It is afact that Ancel Keys found in this famous mediterranean diet study 35 years ago, that Cretans had cholesterol that had a very high ALA content. He found that to be a commonality with Okinawans also a long lived people, and this led to the assumption that fish was good for you. So far a few other studies have found similar results with large scale fish eating populations which were studied under controlled circumstances. It is also well known that the shortest living Japanese groups intake the most salt, and marinated foods. This alone may skew any study that just reports fish consumption alone, as some cultures enjoy a lot of salted fish.)
Only some parts of Mediterranean diet boost longevity
June 24th, 2009 - 12:41 pm ICT by ANI Tell a Friend -
London, June 24 (ANI): The traditional Mediterranean diet is well known for making people live longer, but a new study by British researchers claims some of its food groups are more important than others in promoting good health.
It is well known that a Mediterranean diet of vegetables, fruits, nuts, olive oil and pulses, washed down with a glass of red wine, helps boost longevity.
But the new British Medical Journal study claims, that following a Mediterranean diet high in fish, seafood and cereals and low in dairy products are not indicators of a long life.
While explaining the study, which included a survey of 23,000 men and women who were participants in the Greek segment of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), lead researcher Professor Dimitrios Trichopoulos at the Harvard School of Public Health concluded that the main reasons why the Mediterranean diet can lead to living longer are moderate consumption of ethanol, low consumption of meat and meat products, and high consumption of vegetables, fruits and nuts, olive oil and legumes.
In the study, volunteers were given dietary and lifestyle questionnaires and they were subsequently followed up for around 8.5 years with interviews.
Their diets were rated from 0 to 10 based on the level of conformity to a traditional Mediterranean diet.
As part of the interview process, participants were also asked about their smoking status, levels of physical activity and whether they had ever been diagnosed with cancer, diabetes and heart disease.
The authors maintain that when high intake of vegetables, low intake of meat or moderate alcohol intake were excluded from the rating system, the benefits of following a Mediterranean diet were substantially reduced.
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