How Okinawans dropped the baton
For
a couple of decades Okinawa was noted for
having the largest per-capita number of centenarians on the planet. There were
nearly one thousand Okinawans over the age of 100 in 2007 among a population of
less than one million. They are a remarkably healthy lot, with only a fraction
of the diseases that are so common in the U.S.: coronary heart disease,
breast cancer and hip fracture, just to name a few. In their 90s they live
independently and are sharp enough to know the names of all their
great-grandchildren.
What
is it about these persons who were born just after the turn of the last
century? Okinawa is the poorest prefecture in Japan, and that may hold the key.
Throughout most of their lives, which included decades of war, their meager
diet consisted mostly of plant foods (including seaweed), almost no red meat and
a moderate amount of fish. They consume
much less rice than Westerners suppose and the sweet potato is a daily staple.
With few labor-saving devices they rely on muscle power for all their household
chores, transportation and work-related activities.
The
average life expectancy of the Japanese in Okinawa
was the highest in the world but it is now in decline. The oldest are being weighed
down by the youngest. Within a couple of decades after World War Two ended, the
Westernization of the Okinawan lifestyle was in full force. The youth of Okinawa have embraced fast food, refined grains,
automobiles and computers. The result? Young Okinawans have the highest rate of
obesity in Japan
and type 2 diabetes is skyrocketing.
In
two or three decades the centenarians will be gone and so will most of those
now in their mid-seventies. Their children, born into the second half of the 20th
century, won’t grow old gracefully – or even grow old. We already have evidence
of that among Okinawans who migrated out of Japan. In Brazil the life
expectancy of immigrant Okinawans is 64, not 84.
There
is no Okinawan longevity secret. One of their lifestyle principles, however, is
to stop eating before reaching satiety. They call it Hara hachi bu -- Eat until
you are 80 percent full. Biologists have shown that the life span of
various species can be extended by as much as 150 percent by reducing calorie
intake to about 70 percent of the calculated requirement. The oldsters forgot
to tell the kids.
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