Okinawa diet

[Esote]

The people of Okinawa are living longer in average than anywhere else.
Their overall traditional diet would be considered a very-high-carbohydrate diet by modern standards, with carbohydrates, protein, and fat providing 85%, 9% and 6% of total calories respectively.
What's amazing is that they eat a lot of soy and beans, among the staple food consumed by the people of Okinawa, meat being the lowest consumed staple on their diet (mostly pork).
If soy etc. is so bad, why would they be so healthy then ?
Genes are part of the answer, but wouldn't be enough a reason if eating toxic food...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawa_diet

http://voices.yahoo.com/long-life-7-essential-diet-habits-island-5931214.html

http://www.okicent.org/

 

[on_strike_usaexpat]

Of course then there is this contrary view:

Eat Fat, Live Long—the Real Food of Okinawa
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat

http://www.tendergrassfedmeat.com/2011/03/01/eat-fat-live-long—the-real-food-of-okinawa/

 

[Esote]

Thanks for this very interesting link on_strike_usaexpat.
My finds about the Okinawa diet were disturbing, if true !

What's amazing then is how anything can be turned to fit one's concepts, unless there is real knowledge...

 

[Laura]

Yup. Just another example of how the food industry twists and outright misrepresents things to serve their agenda of inducing human beings to destroy themselves.

You may have heard about the longevity and health of the Okinawan people. According to records kept by the Japanese since 1879, the people of Okinawa just may be the longest-lived people in the world, often staying healthy and active into their nineties, or even longer.

Many have claimed that this longevity and health is due to a low-fat, meat-free, high-vegetable diet. Being skeptical of such claims, I researched traditional Okinawan cooking and traditions.

My skepticism was justified, as it usually is. The long-lived, healthy people of Okinawa eat a diet that is heavily based on meat. Mostly pork. Mostly fat pork. The main cooking fat is pork lard. Many foods are fried in pork lard. The Okinawans traditionally do not rely on doctors when they get ill, but on food-based remedies consisting of—pork organs. In fact, pork is so vital to Okinawan culture that Okinawans often refer to their land as the “Island of Pork.”

The real lesson of Okinawan longevity is “Eat fat, live long.”

...

Dr. Weston A. Price spent 10 years studying the diets of the last healthy peoples on Earth. These peoples were free of the chronic diseases that plague the modern world. Dr. Price did not just read studies, he actually traveled right to the people he studied and observed them personally. Dr. Price found a number of similarities in the diets of these people:

They ate a large amount of animal fat.
They ate a substantial amount of meat and/or seafood.
They ate a large amount of organ meats regularly.
They ate some of their meat and/or seafood raw.
They ate many kinds of natural foods, unrefined and unprocessed.
They ate a number of naturally fermented foods.
They ate at least a small amount of seafood, fermented if they could not get it fresh.

All of these factors are present in the real Okinawan food.

The Okinawans eat a great deal of pork fat.
The Okinawans eat a substantial amount of pork and goat.
The Okinawans eat organ meats regularly.
The Okinawans eat raw goat meat.
The Okinawans eat most of their food unrefined and unprocessed.
The Okinawans eat a number of naturally fermented foods.
The Okinawans regularly eat a small amount of fermented seafood.

In summary, the diet of the Okinawans is very similar to the diet of the healthy peoples studied by Dr. Price. The longevity of the Okinawan people is further evidence of the benefits of the diet developed by Dr. Price.

 

[Trajan]

Its already been stated but yes the Okinawan diet is a lot fattier then it is given credit for being. A lot of Pork and some lamb. There is also a good amount of seafood but I worry about its quality since Fukushima took place.

Unfortunately fast food is also starting to take hold as well and while there is some soy consumption it is not nearly as high as a lot of people seem to think. More of a condiment then a staple in the diet though it can be found being used in some dishes.