Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Life Span in Okinawa
Life Span in Okinawa
From
the most simple to the most complicate desire, all of them have a heavy influence
on life quality, resulting in effects on the life span. Have you ever wondered about
where people have high longevity? Today I will give you some information about a
spot of longevity in Japan called Okinawa.
Okinawa is a group of 161 islands in the East China Sea, known for ruins, rare cats,
extensive limestone caves and coral reefs. The residents here also live longer than
anywhere else in the world. There are around 35 centenarians (who are euqal or
more than 100 years old) for every 100,000 inhabitants, five times more than the
rest of Japan, a country already noted for the long life expectancy of its citizens .
According to WHO statistics, the Japanese live to 83.7 years, on average.
(Source : Telegraph)
Explanations have included diet (low-fat, low-salt foods, such as fish, tofu and
seaweed are popular here), low-stress lifestyle, and the spirituality of the
inhabitants.
People from all around the world have tried to emulate the "Okinawa diet" to
reap its health benefits believed to be because it is nutritionally low in calories.
The traditional diet of the islanders contains 30% green and yellow vegetables.
Although the traditional Japanese diet usually includes large quantities of rice, the
traditional Okinawa diet consists of smaller quantities of rice; instead the staple is
the purple-fleshed Okinawan sweet potato. The Okinawan diet has only 30% of
the sugar and 15% of the grains of the average Japanese dietary intake
Okinawan cuisine consists of smaller meal portions of green and yellow
vegetables, fish, relatively smaller amounts of rice compared to mainland Japan,
as well as pork, soy and other legumes. The center of the Okinawa diet is the
Satsuma sweet potato. The traditional diet also includes a tiny amount of fish and
more in the way of soy and other legumes. Pork is highly valued, yet eaten very
rarely. Intake of salt was low. There is a small quantity of pork consumption per
person (only 3g per day) in Okinawa.
Another reason may come from their culture. Okinawa and Japan have food-
centered cultures. Festivities often include food or are food-based. Moreover, the
food in Japan tends to be seasonal, fresh and raw. Portion sizes are small and
meals are brought out in stages that starts with appetizers, many main courses
including sashimi (raw fish) and suimono (soup), sweets and tea. Since food
culture is linked to ancestral traditions, the food culture and presentation is
preserved, passing low-calorie food from generation to generation. A belief still
prevalent in Okinawa is the healing power of food. Food is regarded as medicine
which helps contribute to the longevity of Okinawa.
(Source : Wikipedia)
Video about the spirituality of the inhabitants (đã gửi Bíu).