For some time I have been reading or watching news headlines about Okinawan longevity, their remarkable diet, highest percentage of centenarian population in the world, etc. etc. Until recently, I had not paid much attention to this topic despite our own interest in healthy life style. Finally, this week I decided to learn more about Okinawan healthy older age life style. There are numerous books, news articles or posts, research papers about Okinawan, however this post is based on a selected few (see resource below) to highlight its main component – their traditional diet.
Okinawa Islands
Okinawa, located in southwest Japan, is a chain of 169 small islands with about 1.4 million population. Although Okinawa is a low-income and socially marginalized prefecture in Japan, majority of its inhabitants are known to be healthy aging & longest living in the World. A great segment of their population live longer than 100 years, which has been the interest of many scientists from all over the World to understand the secrets of their longevity.
Secrets of Healthy Aging?
There is long way to fully understand the science behind the Okinawan’s longevity. In 1976 the Japan’s Ministry of Health established The Okinawan Centenarian Study (OCS) to study its centenarian population through geriatric physical and mental assessments. Findings from OCS and other studies suggest that their distinct genetic makeup, a low-protein / high-carb plant-based diet, active life-style and good social network as the main factors for most Okinawan’s aging healthy lifespan. Active life-style at older age is known to reduces body’s stress and a good social network for avoiding isolation.
Some Highlights from OCS
A google scholar search with “Japan centenarian study” had more than 12K results, at the time of writing this post. In this post, following major findings listed in The Mountain of Youth: What We Can Learn from Okinawa, Japan – physical activity, social culture and their traditional diet are highlighted below.
Physical Activity
- Okinawa are short structured, low weight and body-mass-index (BMI) throughout their lifespan.
- They exhibit lower rate of “age-associated-diseases” like cardiovascular disease, stroke, cancer, coronary heart diseases, atrophic gastritis, kidney disease, hypertension, Alzheimer’s and other neuro-degenerative disorders.
- Most Okinawan spend 9-12 hrs in labor-intensive physical activities through farming & group exercise which is important part of their culture.
- Majority of Okinawan don’t smoke & drink moderately.
Social Culture
- Okinawan live close family-knit and community-based low stress life style which appears to avoid lack of apathy & social isolation in the elderly population.
- Okinawan respect elderly generation, practice ancestor worship and form a sense of belonging and kinship networks.
Tradition Diet
The typical Okinawan diet is comprised low calorie, high-carbohydrate, moderate protein, rich in vegetables, soy products and seafood (eg. sweet potatoes, bitter melon, konbu (edible sea kemp), seaweed, fish, soy, green vegetables, etc.). This type of diet is known to be cardio-protective and anti-hypertensive.
Okinawan Diet
The traditional Okinawan diet (with 1:10 protein/carbohydrate ratio) is reverse of high protein & low calorie diet recommended by most western health specialists. Some highlights of the traditional Okinawan diet include:
- The Okinawan have a cultural tradition of eating until 80% full.
- The diet is low in fat, high in carbohydrate, 80% plant-based (fruits & vegetables) and low salt. It contains less meat and refined food grains.
- Drinking of un-sweeten green tea daily is part of their daily diet.
- Long-term mild low-calorie diet is considered beneficial to health. A low calorie diet creates negative energy balance with lower insulin concentration & body temperature.
- Sweet potatoes, which contain abundance dietary fibers, natural sugars & vitamins, and beta-carotene known to slow the aging process, is the main sources of carbohydrate in the diet.
- Konbu (a seaweed) known to prevent arthritis & reduce oxidative body street, and goya (a bitter melon) known to reduce blood sugar are stable in their diet.
The article points out the similarity between the Okinawan diet components with Mediterranean diet and Dash (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertensive ) diet.
Benefits of Low Protein Diet
Samantha Solon-Diet, a nutrition & diet researcher, University of Sydney conducted series of studies to examine effect of diet in aging animals and found that low protein / high carb diet (1:10 ratio) expanded lifespan in various animal species, and reduced aging signs in the brain.
Other similar studies quoted in The Guardian article suggest that (i) low protein diet promotes cell repair & maintenance; (ii) encourages cell to recycle old protein rather than synthesizing new one thus reducing accumulation of damaged protein in the cell (responsible for diseases in old age).
Learning From Okinawan
One of the main characteristics of Okinawan centenarians is their continued physical activity even in old-age, native anti-hypertensive diet and stress-minimizing culture. By working hard, family value with respect to elderly and following sense of communal support, even we in North America could start practicing in our own life style change. These practices are very simple and don’t require lot of money or prestige.
Adapting a Healthy Life style
For almost a decade or so, we as a family have been interested in how to adapt a healthy eating & life style ourselves and teach our kids with living-by examples of our own. Practicing a healthy life-style is no fun nor an easy endeavor, which requires a laser focused self-disciple, giving-up foods that we enjoy most and daily workout/ physical activities. However, with a mind set of “nothing is impossible” and “can do” attitude and taking one step at a time with perseverance & patience even the hardest goal could be achieved. There is no doubt in our mind that the task ahead however we are determined to try our best towards achieving our goal.
Some food ingredients that we include in our diet include:
- Occasional bitter cucumber: helps to lower blood sugar in diabetes
- Turmeric: Lower risk of cancers
- Herbal (jasmine green) tea: abundance of anti-oxidants
- Purple sweet potatoes: Anti-oxidants, flavonoids, caroteinoids, vitamin E, lycopene.
- Olive Oil: No-carb, no-proteins, high in monosaturated fats (essential for healthy heart), vitamins E, K, etc.
- Beans: Source of complex carbohydrate,dietary fibers, proteins, essential vitamins and minerals.
- Fresh fruits & vegetables: Low fat & calories with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and dietary fiber. They contain negligible amounts of saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol.
- No-alcoholic drinks & smoking.
- Use of non-processed or canned foods.
- Primarily plant-based food with only occasional fish & poultry meat.
Its not easily achievable goal or else most have tried & succeeded. Any success could only be achieved with hard work, never giving up!
Useful Resources
While preparing this post, I have referred the following references extensively. Please refer to the original posts for more detailed information.