How to Live to 101 Without Trying

No, it’s not a fad diet (you should know me better than that!) This was a show on SBS recently about certain unique communities in various parts of the world that live longer than people anywhere else on earth and of how a group of scientists has dedicated their lives to uncover their secrets. The specific towns they are studying are the remote Japanese island of Okinawa, the Californian town of Loma Linda, and Sardinia, Italy.
These towns are all different in their culture and eating habits-but I did find a couple of common threads. One commonality I found very interesting was the fact that each of these communities had some sort of faith or spirituality as well as a “village” type of life. And intertwined with this was the low level of stress in their life. Not that they never had to deal with stress, but it seemed that they were able to cope with it through their faith or spirituality. And of course, most of us know that stress is a huge inhibitor to a healthy life-as it is a very big factor in causing certain types of illness and disease.

Another thing, of course, was they were all simply active. Whether working out with actual weights, or doing Tai Chi, or involved with family. They weren’t sitting around watching tv or playing on the computer (hmmmm)-but actually living life! In Loma Linda, there is a 92 open heart surgeon-still doing surgery on people!

Now, I’m not sure what the Loma Linda people were eating-they didn’t really show that, however; though the people of Okinawa and the Sardinians had very different eating habits (the Okinawans ate no meat and the Sardinians were very much meat lovers), they were both eating REAL food. The Sardinians were eating lamb that I’ll bet was straight off the farm, cheese most likely from the farmer down the street, and of course wine! The Okinawans were eating lots of veg from the local market, and lots of tofu (may have to re-think that one AGAIN!), aaaaannd-They stopped eating when they were full-WHAT A CONCEPT! No processed chips, frozen meals or sodas here!

Another interesting point that was made on the show was that the Okinawans that moved away to American cities had children that ate an American diet all ended up with problems like high blood pressure & obesity. So, it seems to not just be a genetic factor that was keeping them healthy.

Basically, the conclusion I draw from all of this is as follows:

Eat real food in balance, stay active (physically & mentally), be involved in your community, and perhaps add a bit of spirituality into the mix.

Staying balanced is really the key.


Our food should be our medicine and our medicine should be our food. --Hippocrates