Eat and live like an Okinawan

The Japanese live longer than anyone else on this planet – and Okinawans live longer than anyone else in Japan. The Japanese government says 457 Okinawans are at least 100 years old. That’s 34.7 centenarians for every 100,000 Okinawans, the highest ratio in the world. Life expectancy is 81.2 years on Okinawa, longer than in any other area, region, or country. New figures show that the average Okinawan woman lives to 86 and the average man to 78.

Okinawans just don’t live longer, they also live better. According to recent studies, the elderly there appear to have far lower rates of dementia than their Western counterparts and suffer less than half the risk for hip fractures. Some Okinawan centenarians even claim they are still enjoying sex. Researchers have no way of verifying that though.

The rest of the world is just beginning to learn about this amazing phenomenon through a best-selling book, The Okinawa Program, written by Bradley and Craig Wilcox and Makoto Suzuki, based on 25 years of research – and which was featured recently on the Oprah Winfrey show.

The Island Of Okinawa

Okinawa is one of the Ryukyu islands south of Japan. In 1945, it was the site of one of World War II’s bloodiest battles as US forces pushed toward the Japanese mainland. Though the island was returned to Japan in the early 1970s, the US still maintains large military bases there.

Since 1976, the Japanese Ministry of Health has been studying older Okinawans (who live in traditional cultures presumably unaffected by the American presence), hoping to unlock the secrets of their good health and long life. What’s most interesting about them is that they have the longest disability-free life expectancy in the world. Heart disease rates are low: 80 percent fewer heart attacks than Americans, and Okinawans who have heart attacks are more likely to survive. Breast and prostate cancer are so rare as to be unheard of among the older population. Obesity is equally rare.

The Okinawan Diet

The Okinawan diet might well amaze most people. The average citizen consumes at least seven servings of vegetables daily, and an equal number of grains (in the form of noodles, bread, and rice – many of them whole grains). Add to this two to four servings of fruit, plus tofu and other forms of soy, green tea, seaweed, and fish rich in omega-3s (three times weekly).

Sweet potatoes, bean sprouts, onions, and green peppers are prominent in the diet. Vegetables, grains, and fruits make up 72 percent of the diet by weight. Soy and seaweed provide another 14 percent. Meat, poultry, and eggs account for just three percent of the diet, fish about 11 percent. The emphasis is on dark green vegetables rich in calcium (Okinawans, like other Japanese, don’t eat much dairy). Okinawans do drink alcohol, but women usually stick to one drink a day, while men average twice that. Moderation is the key.

In short, the average Okinawan’s diet is far richer in complex carbohydrates and plant-based foods and lower in fat than the average Western diet. (It’s completely different from low-carbohydrate plans like the Atkins and Zone diets).

Physical Activity and Exercise

These people are far from sedentary. Most practice martial arts and traditional Okinawan dance. They garden, they walk. Even at age 100, they look lean and healthy.

Martial artist Seikichi Uehara was 96 when he defeated a thirtysomething ex-boxing champion in a nationally-televised match two years ago, later explaining that his opponent "has not yet matured enough to beat me." Nabi Kinjo became a local legend when she hunted down a poisonous snake and killed it with a fly swatter. She was 105.

Other Factors

Good food and exercise aren’t the only thing Okinawans have going for them. They’ve also got the following:

• Good weather. Winter never really comes to Okinawa. It’s warm year-round, hot and humid in the summer. Okinawans say the hospitable southern climate keeps them from vegetating indoors.

• A low-stress lifestyle. Okinawa seems a century removed from the stressed-out world of salaried men on the Japanese mainland. Okinawa more closely resembles a South Sea island. The Okinawans use the word taygay to mean the island’s easy-going atmosphere. Researchers strongly suspect – but have not yet proved – that a low-stress lifestyle contributes to good health and longevity.

• A caring community. Okinawans look out for one another. Okinawans have a word for it – yuimaru, which roughly means, "helping each other." Okinawa does not isolate or ignore its elderly. In a 1996 survey, less than a third of the elderly described themselves as lonely, even though many lived alone. The support may be one reason why the suicide rate in elderly Okinawan women is the lowest in East Asia, a region plagued by high suicide rates among elderly women.

• Spirituality. Many elderly Okinawan women find a sense of purpose in spiritual things. Ancestor worship is widespread in Okinawa, and elderly women are responsible for saying prayers (ugan) to the dead. "Prayer helps relieve stress and ease the minds of the elderly women as they confide their troubles and complaints and ask for help from their ancestors," says longevity researcher Makoto Suzuki. "The practice of ancestor worship – and Okinawa’s spiritual culture that can relieve emotional distress – can be considered one factor behind the longevity of Okinawan women."

The Other Okinawans

Unfortunately, the younger Okinawans and those who have left the island largely have abandoned the healthy habits.

About 100,000 Okinawans moved to Brazil and quickly adopted the eating regimen of their new home, one heavy on red meat. Result: The life expectancy of the Brazilian Okinawans is 17 years lower than Okinawa’s 81 years, Suzuki says.

The younger generation goes to the fastfood outlets that surround US military bases. The change has had devastating results: Okinawans younger than 50 have Japan’s highest rates of obesity, heart disease and premature death.

Okinawan Saying

In Okinawa, there is a small fishing and farming village which is quite unique. Ogimi, with only 3,500 residents, has six persons who are 100 years or older – a rate equivalent to 171 centenarians per 100,000. And local officials think the figure would be higher if it included natives who had left the village.

On the outskirts of the village, carved into a stone marker facing the sea is an old Okinawan saying: "At 70 you are still a child, at 80 a young man or woman. And if at 90, someone from heaven invites you over, tell him: ‘Just go away, and come back when I am 100!’"

Wouldn’t you wish you could say the same thing? Well, you actually can. How? By eating and living like an Okinawan!