Quote:
Originally Posted by AutoBike
BTW, the Okinawan diet is high in pork and sweet potatoes, from what I read.
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I should have made it clear in my opening post that I was referring to the Okinawan lifestyle as set forth in the book "The Okinawa Program". That book was the result of a 25 year study. At that time, Okinawans were the healthiest and longest lived people in the world. When the book was written, several years ago, the authors mentioned that lifestyle standards were declining. For example, I believe there were already one or two McDonald's restaurants and the younger generation was slowly acquiring a taste fast food.
That's why the 25 year study and the book are so valuable. It's a snapshot in time of a healthy lifestyle. In the future, we may never have another example like it to follow.
As far as eating a lot of pork: That may very well be true today but at the time of the study, their total consumption of animal protein was only about 15 % of their diet, on average. By comparison, the total amount of animal protein consumed by Americans was about 52%, on average.
Sweet potatoes: Back in the very early days when there was a drastic shortage of food, they ate a lot of sweet potatoes to keep from starving.