Since 2012 I’ve been on the road again, living “one day and one dream at a time”. Still, every day is a study in the art of living well. Not until recently did I learn that my new way of life (which originally was actively resisted) follows ancient Ikigai philosophy. The origins of Ikigai are in Okinawa, Japan, where elders are the healthiest on earth. Even at 100 they are often still active and living independently, and they die of old age, not heart disease, not dementia, not diabetes, not addiction and not cancer. They were born in the age of zero prenatal nutrition. The first 60 years or so of their lives were before modern medicine existed. They take zero supplements. In addition to their uncomplicated plant based diet built around sweet potato, soy tofu and vegetables (;ow in calories and fat, high in carbohydrates) Okinawans prize time spent outdoors, forest bathing, in silence, and in onsen. All of these elements were intentionally woven into the fabric of Japanese culture to create lasting health and happiness.
Posts filed under Wellness & Prevention
More Evidence on Diet and Chronic Skin Diseases like Psoriasis
Body fat is metabolically active tissue which feeds inflammatory pathways correlated with many chronic diseases including psoriasis. And waist circumference has long been correlated with psoriasis severity. But waist circumference alone can be misleading. Thankfully this study delivers useful details. Published in the Investigative Journal of Dermatology, this study highlights that obesity alone may not be a culprit as much as the high refined sugar and high fat diet that often precludes obesity.
Jiro, Health Hero
Jiroemon Kimura, recognized by Guinness World Records as the oldest man in recorded history, died in June of natural causes at the age of 116. He was succeeded as the world’s oldest living person by yet another Japanese Okinawan.
What is the common thread that runs amongst these centernarian Okinawans, a Japanese group which often includes the world’s oldest person who usually dies of natural causes? If you believe in math and science, the odds are extremely good that their plant-based, whole foods diet is crucial to their health and longevity, just as it was with the 70,000 Seventh Day Adventists recently researched in this study. http://www.adventist.org/mission_and_service/features/study-of-adventi.html Quite contrary to what is recommended by Dr. Atkins, who had a heart attack and lived a whopping 44 years less than Jiroemon, or the so-called “Paleo Diet”, Jiroemom ate rice, sweet potato, and beans including soybeans at nearly every meal. Every day. As with elder Okinawans, fish was the primary source of animal protein. But meat like fish was reserved for special occasions like Jiroemon’s last birthday. http://www.faboverfifty.com/intheknow/our-health/diet-secrets-centenarians
Now imagine living just 116 years ago. And every year in human history before that. You had no refrigerator, no freezer, no stove, no oven, no running water, no electricity, no grocery store. Everything cooked was cooked over a fire. Imagine what life was like before public education. The entire world was third world, the middle class did not exist, and meat was at least as “expensive” as it is now, meaning you had to sacrifice months of meals to an animal before you got a single meal of it. Humans everywhere lived every day to survive, not to thrive. If refrigerators and freezers did not exist to refrigerate meat or dairy, and yesterday’s poverty makes today’s poverty look wealthy, how would you have eaten? Perhaps a lot like the elder Okinawans and billions of others in third world countries today where the incidence of heart disease, alzheimer’s, diabetes, osteoporosis, and cancer are still rare. Perhaps like the billions of people whose dietary staples are still affordable plant-based, whole foods like rice and beans or rice and lentils.
Quick fixes, short-term symptomatic improvements, hype, and a wide money trail help many forget not just common sense, but overwhelming evidence. Billions of people in today’s world, and billions of people across human history, make for a very, very large research trial. The same approach that works so effectively for Okinawans and 70,000 Seventh Day Adventists works for all humans across all blood types, “metabollic types”, and other gimmick phrases which represent opinion and marketing, not empirical research. Don’t be fooled.
Separating Reality from Marketing
As the holiday season nears don’t forget that a mountain of evidence now makes clear that popular dietary practices like the so-called “Paleo” and Atkins diets can negatively impact long-term health and longevity. Heavy emphasis upon consumption of meat, especially red meat and processed red meat, may create quick weight loss. But it’s also known to contribute to risk of our biggest killer, heart disease. It’s also known to contribute to some of the most common forms of cancer including colon cancer. And now it’s being connected to long-term risk of Type 2 Diabetes. Whereas the “Paleo” diet implies it represents how humans ate for thousands of years, in fact the Paleo Diet, like the Atkins diet, was created by one person. That one person is attached to quite a product line. What they’re not attached to is a body of empirical research backing their claims.
Some of the most reputable public health institutions in the world offer a very different viewpoint of how prehistoric humans ate. And how we can replicate those patterns today to optimize health, longevity, and associated expenses. The University of Michigan ranks #34 in the world for leading publishers of empirical research (which by definition removes subjective opinion and bias). Review of empirical research led their Integrative Medicine Department to publish this Healing Foods Pyramid. As a public health institution rather than an individual with a product line and a hungry ego, the emphasis is on long-term health for all humans regardless of blood type. Although not vegetarian, the obvious emphasis is on plants and plants found whole in nature. This makes sense given that prehistoric humans ate between 100-150 grams per day of fiber, none of which is found in meat. Try just one day of eating 100-150 grams of fiber and see how much meat you still want to chew.
Europe’s oldest prehistoric town in Bulgaria is a viewable reminder of the difficulty and rarity with which humans ate daily meat before refrigerators, freezers, food subsidies, and a worldwide middle class with much more disposable income were introduced just one century ago. The residents boiled water from a local spring and used it to create salt bricks which were traded and used to preserve meat. As such, salt was an immensely valuable commodity at the time. Hence, the huge defensive stone walls which ringed the town.
As New Year’s resolutions and guilt trips follow holiday indulgences, don’t forget that Dr. Atkins himself suffered a heart attack. Dr. Atkins didn’t live as long as the average American male, and the average American male ranks 42nd in the world for longevity. Instead of jumping for a quick fix, take a moment to review the common sense message of the Healing Foods Pyramid and how you can start building more of it into your daily life at your own pace. There are lots of ways to make this fun and enjoyable.
Bon appetit!