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Today's Case:

Diet and Longevity

	
 ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Ronald  
  To: phaed
  Sent: Monday, November 19, 2001 
  Subject: re: Japan

  My understanding is that in general, Japanese people have a longer 
  life expectancy than others.  This would lead to the assumption that 
  about 100 years ago there was something very . longevi-ning about 
  their diet.  Besides raw fish, rice and seaweed, got any ideas?
  

Hello Ronald,

Thanks for asking such a good question.

Just to see what other countries have higher longevity rates than the U.S., I checked the World Health Organization's numbers. It turns out that they are using a new system for calculating longevity. It's called DALE. What's different about it is that it uses healthy years instead of all years. Final years during which a person is disabled & bedridden are not counted as part of the longevity number.

What the numbers show is that Japan is number one at 74.5 years. The rest of the top 10 nations are Australia, 73.2 years; France, 73.1; Sweden, 73.0; Spain, 72.8; Italy, 72.7; Greece, 72.5; Switzerland, 72.5; Monaco, 72.4; and Andorra, 72.3. The United States is rated 24th under this system, or an average of 70.0 years of healthy life for babies born in 1999.

Let's talk about Japan and then come back to longevity in general.

Among the Japanese, the residents of the island of Okinawa are the longest-lived, with 33 persons over 100 years of age per 100,000 population. Various studies have therefore looked at the Okinawan diet for answers to why. The typical Okinawan diet consists of seven servings of fruits and vegetables daily, 80 grams of soy products a day, plenty of grains and legumes (herbs, beans, peas, etc.) and limited amounts of fish, lean meats and dairy products -- the opposite of the average American diet. The Okinawan diet consists of only 26 percent of daily calories from fat. The traditional Okinawan food culture follows a principle called hara hachi bu, which means you stop eating when you feel 80 percent full. Very few Okinawans smoke, and alcohol consumption is moderate to none. Okinawans remain physically active in their later years.

So, the secret to their longevity seems to be:

Stop eating before you're full ("hara hachi bu")
Reduce the amount of fats in your diet
Eat lots of soy products
Reduce the amount of animal protein in your diet.
Don't smoke, and drink in moderation, if at all.
Get regular exercise.

But look at that above list of countries again. The other countries in the top ten are not Asian countries in which people have diets similar to the Japanese/Okinawan diet. They're countries like Australia, France, Spain, Italy, and Greece, where there's a lot of meat in the diet and where almost no soy products are consumed.
So, to me it doesn't follow that the Japanese/Okinawan type of diet is the answer to living a longer life. It may be a contributor, but it can't be the main contributor or else other cultures with similar diets would also be in the top ten, and cultures that eat lots of meat and few soy products, such as France and Italy, would be much further down the list.

Still, imitating the Okinawan diet can't hurt, if that's what you want to do, and it probably does help some. The little list I made above is the gist of it. If you can follow it, more power to you. I personally have a taste for meat and have little taste for tofu.

Phaed

P.S. - Also note that Okinawans don't eat a lot of sugar and sugary foods. Sugar and sugary drinks and foods are fueling the diabetes epedemic, the obesity epedimic, and are as much a cause of high cholesterol as are dietary fats.

P.P.S. - Also note that all of the countries in the top ten, including Japan, are countries where all of the citizens have access to good health care, not limited by whether they can afford health insurance. Access to good health care is more important to longevity statistics than any other single factor. After all, when calculating the longevity rate for a country, all citizens are part of the statistic, not just those who can afford the best health care.

Reprinted from 2001. - Phaed