Okinawans

[Guest guest]

Do they not eat a lot of rice? BTW, the Asian diet is up there with the

Medit diet.

Regards.

----- Original Message -----

From: <fskelton@...>

< >

Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2001 2:37 PM

Subject: [ ] Okinawans

> This month's Modern Maturity has a short article on the Okinawans.

> Some exerpts:

>

> Okinawa has the highest percentage of 100-year olds in the

> world.....After 25 years of an ongoing study, researchers have found

> these 100-year olds have 80% fewer heart attacks than Americans, less

> than 1/4 the level of breast, ovarian, and prostate cancer and 1/2 the

> incidence of colon cancer. Researchers conclude we could benefit from

> their common lifestyle traits.....

>

> * A low calorie diet that includes lots of soy, vegetables, fish.

> *Regular physical exercise

> *Moderate alcolhol use

> *Strong social networks and spiritual beliefs that foster a sense of

> well-being.

>

> Okinawans not only live longer, they also remain healthier and more

> active untll very late in life, enjoying what researchers call an

> " extended life span " . Findings will soon be published in " The Okinawan

> Way: How the World's Lonsgest Lived People Achieve Everlasting Health -

> And How you Can Too! " .

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Francesca wrote:

Okinawa has the highest percentage of 100-year olds in the

world.....After 25 years of an ongoing study, researchers have found

these 100-year olds have 80% fewer heart attacks than Americans, less

than 1/4 the level of breast, ovarian, and prostate cancer and 1/2 the

incidence of colon cancer. Researchers conclude we could benefit from

their common lifestyle traits.....

* A low calorie diet that includes lots of soy, vegetables, fish.

*Regular physical exercise

*Moderate alcolhol use

*Strong social networks and spiritual beliefs that foster a sense of

well-being.

Okinawans not only live longer, they also remain healthier and more

active untll very late in life, enjoying what researchers call an

" extended life span " . Findings will soon be published in " The Okinawan

Way: How the World's Lonsgest Lived People Achieve Everlasting Health -

And How you Can Too! " .

Francesca,

I seem to recall Rae mentioning that most of the Okinawan's 100

grams of daily protein are from soy. I assume and hope that a high rate of

dementia would have been noticed by now. Perhaps this long, ongoing study

can be considered to have effectively canceled out the small study linking

soy to dementia.

S Pollock

[Guest guest]

Hello All,

I agree with jwwright, not enough of the other cultural factors were

controlled strictly enough. Did they use Ginseng or other tonic herbs? Other

supplementary nutrients? Other drinks?

And this makes me question the Soy controversy. Did the Japanese-Hawaaians

injest other substances in common that soy eaters from different cultures

didn't? And how are they sure it was the soy and not other factors?

hmmm

MM

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[Guest guest]

We lived in Okinawa for 3 years, does that mean I'll live longer?

Seriously...I noticed when we lived there that the Okinawan people (true

Okinawans) aged almost unnoticeably. They all looked so young. Their hair

doesn't gray until they are very, very old - 80s or 90s maybe. The elders

remain very active in gardening and other " hard " work and are very agile. I

didn't know about any specific studies at the time we lived there. The

average Okinawan eats a lot of rice (white that is treated with lime of some

sort which is why you have to rinse, rinse, rinse rice before cooking.) The

usually buy their food daily - the kitchen consists of a little console with

a sink, a small stove, and a few cupboards. Refrigerators are about the

size of dorm size or a little bigger. So what they want to eat that day is

bought at the local market that morning. They also don't seem to spend a

lot of time in actual food preparation. Rice is cooked in a major rice

cooker that cooks and keeps it warm for 8 hours. It's dipped into all day

long.

They eat lots of soup-like dishes with lots of animal parts Americans don't

use - a friend ordered Fish Head Soup by mistake one time because he knew

the word for fish (sakana) but not the one for head. Another friend

ordered the house specialty at our favorite Soba Restaurant and found out

later it was the equivalent of Chitlin' soba! Okinawans eat a lot of

vegetables, but they do eat a lot of fish and seafood and also a lot of

pork, horse, goat. A missionary found out about the horse when she got a

really good deal on ground " beef " at the local market. She quickly learned

the kanji for horse. Octopus is a favorite. It's called tako. A friend's

maid offered to make tako for lunch the next week and my friend agreed

thinking " tacos " . She was in a real panic when her maid showed up with a

live octopus floating in a bag of water the following week. Condiments

consist of dashi (dried bonito flakes with msg added), ginger pickles,

horseradish paste, shoyu (soy sauce), miso, sesame salt. Oh, and they also

drink a lot of tea, green, Jasmine, and grain based like mugi-cha. They are

not big on bread products or really sweet cakes or cookies. The Dunkin

Donuts over there have half the sugar as American Dunkin Donuts. I could

actually eat a whole donut there.

The climate in Okinawa is subtropical. It has a very mild winter. I wonder

if that has something to do with longevity. They also cover up completely

when out in the sun. I'm talking long pants, long sleeves, big sun hats,

and the gardeners will even wear a cloth strip wrapped around their faces so

only their eyes show. We affectionately referred to them as the ninja

gardeners. I never saw Okinawans lying out in the sun at the beach or even

swimming for that matter.

Oh, well, just sharing a little nostalgia from our time on the island. We

really loved being stationed there.

ine

[Guest guest]

ine:

You might want to post a review of the book THE OKINAWAN PROGRAM at

amazon.com. This book is a politically-correct presentation of the Okinawan

diet and, of course, claims that Okinawans eat a low-fat diet that revolves

around fish, rice, vegetables, and canola oil. I'm sure your comments about

the horse and goat meat will be much appreciated as there is a " review

debate " going on about this book on amazon.

All the best,

Byrnes, PhD, RNCP

http://www.PowerHealth.net

>From: " Food From Afar " <foodfromafar@...>

>Reply-

>< >

>Subject: Okinawans

>Date: Mon, 8 Apr 2002 21:03:31 -0400

>

>We lived in Okinawa for 3 years, does that mean I'll live longer?

>Seriously...I noticed when we lived there that the Okinawan people (true

>Okinawans) aged almost unnoticeably. They all looked so young. Their hair

>doesn't gray until they are very, very old - 80s or 90s maybe. The elders

>remain very active in gardening and other " hard " work and are very agile.

>I

>didn't know about any specific studies at the time we lived there. The

>average Okinawan eats a lot of rice (white that is treated with lime of

>some

>sort which is why you have to rinse, rinse, rinse rice before cooking.)

>The

>usually buy their food daily - the kitchen consists of a little console

>with

>a sink, a small stove, and a few cupboards. Refrigerators are about the

>size of dorm size or a little bigger. So what they want to eat that day is

>bought at the local market that morning. They also don't seem to spend a

>lot of time in actual food preparation. Rice is cooked in a major rice

>cooker that cooks and keeps it warm for 8 hours. It's dipped into all day

>long.

>

>They eat lots of soup-like dishes with lots of animal parts Americans don't

>use - a friend ordered Fish Head Soup by mistake one time because he knew

>the word for fish (sakana) but not the one for head. Another friend

>ordered the house specialty at our favorite Soba Restaurant and found out

>later it was the equivalent of Chitlin' soba! Okinawans eat a lot of

>vegetables, but they do eat a lot of fish and seafood and also a lot of

>pork, horse, goat. A missionary found out about the horse when she got a

>really good deal on ground " beef " at the local market. She quickly learned

>the kanji for horse. Octopus is a favorite. It's called tako. A friend's

>maid offered to make tako for lunch the next week and my friend agreed

>thinking " tacos " . She was in a real panic when her maid showed up with a

>live octopus floating in a bag of water the following week. Condiments

>consist of dashi (dried bonito flakes with msg added), ginger pickles,

>horseradish paste, shoyu (soy sauce), miso, sesame salt. Oh, and they also

>drink a lot of tea, green, Jasmine, and grain based like mugi-cha. They

>are

>not big on bread products or really sweet cakes or cookies. The Dunkin

>Donuts over there have half the sugar as American Dunkin Donuts. I could

>actually eat a whole donut there.

>

>The climate in Okinawa is subtropical. It has a very mild winter. I

>wonder

>if that has something to do with longevity. They also cover up completely

>when out in the sun. I'm talking long pants, long sleeves, big sun hats,

>and the gardeners will even wear a cloth strip wrapped around their faces

>so

>only their eyes show. We affectionately referred to them as the ninja

>gardeners. I never saw Okinawans lying out in the sun at the beach or even

>swimming for that matter.

>

>Oh, well, just sharing a little nostalgia from our time on the island. We

>really loved being stationed there.

>

>ine

>

>

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[Guest guest]

Dominck: I think you're very wise to follow the Okinawans. They are the

true " human experiment " ; they're moderate in their eating habits; and

they've proven that their way of doing CRON works. For those who haven't

yet read the Okinawan literature, follow our " links " in the left hand side

of the home page at: /.

Thanks to Iris for posting it there.

on 10/12/2003 11:17 PM, Dominick at chiprunner1995@... wrote:

> I'm not yet on a true CRON diet, but I am interested in it anyway. I'm

> currently moving towards " The Okinawa Program " and then we'll see

> where things go after that.

>

> -Dominick

[Guest guest]

One more factor: it is well known that the younger generation of Okinawans

are abandoning the healthy eating habits of their elders and turning to SAD.

Mc's and the like are making their way to the island and the

youngsters are " eating it up " so to speak (pardon the pun). They are also as

a result, getting all the illnesses that we see in the west (diabetes, heart

disease, obesity etc). If all generations of Okinawans are being counted

together, that would explain a lot.

Francesca wrote:

Rodney: I can not find this source you speak of. I checked the link and I

checked Walford's discussion of Okinawans. Where does it say the average

lifespan of an Okinawan male is only 77? That is about the avg lifespan of

an american male (females are somewhat higher). Walford does discuss (pg 88

of " Beyond " ) calculating the average of the last 10% of the population (the

tenth decile). Also accurate legal birth records have only been kept there

since 1872, only for the last130 years. Perhaps that isn't long enough with

which to base accurate figures afa using birth records.

on 10/18/2003 9:34 AM, Rodney at perspect1111@... wrote:

> In 2002 the average lifespan of a US male, including those members of

> minority groups that have a poor diet and healthcare, was 74

> (source: US Department of Health and Welfare, news release). The

> average lifespan of the Okinawan male is 77 (source: one of the links

> at the left side of this page). Does that look like extension of

> maximum lifespan?