Should we live in Okinawa?

Why this curious question?

Because the rate of centenarians in this Japanese island is one of the highest in the world! Okinawa with 4 other places in the world has shown to have a rate of centenarians that is 10 times greater than in US. A Danish group (lead by Dan Buettner) studied their characteristics and found 9 similar lifestyle characteristics such as having a purpose in life, routine to shed stress, ... They are summarized in the publication of Buettner “Blue Zones: Lessons From the World's Longest Lived “*. But experts think that the biggest influence is their diet.

So, let’s dig in.

What’s the Okinawa diet? Sushi? Oh my god if that could be possible. I would eat sushi every day! Unfortunately, they are less healthy than you think.

Really?

Search for what’s hidden! (I can tell you if you want...) Sugaaaaar! Yep, the rice contains vinegar but also a biiiiiiig amount of sugar. And that’s what is tricky in sushis.

On the other hand, the traditional Okinawa diet is low in calories and fat, while high in carbs. It is mainly composed by yellow and orange vegetables (included sweet potatoes) and soy-products (miso, …) with small amounts of fish, lean meats (free-range pork fed by throw-away vegetables) and noodles. 58% of the calories of their diet is coming from vegetables and mainly from sweet potatoes!!!

The sweet potato is one of the healthiest vegetables with a high content of dietary fiber, naturally occurring sugars, slow digesting low GI carbohydrates, protein content, anti-oxidant vitamins A and C, potassium, iron, calcium, and low levels of fat (saturated fat in particular), sodium and cholesterol.

So what do we learn from them? Certainly that we should eat more vegetables (and that sweet popatoes is a good one!)

If you want to know more about this diet, I highly recommend this publication on the subject: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5403516/pdf/nihms568325.pdf

*Am J Lifestyle Med. 2016 Jul 7;10(5):318-321. doi: 10.1177/1559827616637066. eCollection 2016 Sep-Oct. Blue Zones: Lessons From the World's Longest Lived. Buettner D1, Skemp S1.

Image from spicysouthernkitchen.com