The Okinawa Diet Plan: Get Leaner, Live Longer, and Never Feel Hungry - Softcover

Willcox, Bradley J.; Willcox, D. Craig; Suzuki, Makoto

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1400082005 ISBN 13: 9781400082001

Verlag: Harmony/Rodale/Convergent, 2005

Inhaltsangabe

In their New York Times bestseller The Okinawa Program, Drs. Bradley and Craig Willcox and Makoto Suzuki explained why the Okinawans are the longest-lived people on earth. Now, they offer a practical diet program rooted in Okinawan traditions so that you too can have a leaner, more “metabolically efficient” body that will stay healthier and more youthful. Conveniently divided into three dietary tracks—western, eastern, and a fusion plan that combines both—their program will help you achieve healthy weight loss without deprivation. With more than 150 recipes, an eight-week phase-in plan, and other unique resources, The Okinawa Diet Plan is an easy-to-follow breakthrough concept in healthy weight loss.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Bradley J. Willcox, M.D., M.SC., is an internationally recognized expert on healthy aging, a U.S. National Institute on Aging–funded scientist, and a principal investigator in geriatrics for the Pacific Health Research Institute. He is also Co-Principal Investigator of the Okinawan Centenarian Study and Assistant Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Hawaii.

D. Craig Willcox, PH.D., M.H.SC., is a noted medical anthropologist and gerontologist. He is an internationally recognized expert in nutritional anthropology, aging, and health. He is Assistant Professor at Okinawa Prefectural University–College of Nursing and Co-Principal Investigator of the Okinawa Centenarian Study.

Makoto Suzuki, M.D., PH.D., is a cardiologist and geriatrician and an internationally recognized expert on aging and health. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa and Professor of Human Welfare and Director of the Okinawa Gerontology Research Center at Okinawa International University. He is the founder, Director, and Principal Investigator of the Okinawa Centenarian Study.

Aus dem Klappentext

The elders of Okinawa, Japan, are among the leanest and longest-lived people on earth. These Okinawans--many in their eighties, nineties, and beyond--maintain an unprecedented quality of life. More than any other population, older
Okinawans are slim and agile, and their minds are clear and lucid. Few suffer the lifestyle-related diseases like heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity that are so common in their western counterparts.

In their New York Times bestseller The Okinawa Program, Drs. Bradley and Craig Willcox and Makoto Suzuki shared important insights about these unique and amazingly healthy people from their landmark twenty-five-year Okinawa Centenarian Study. The latest findings from that study are proving even more surprising: the elders do not gain weight with age.

The secrets behind this discovery are twofold: the Okinawans' calorie-light diet and their active lifestyle, which results in leaner and more "metabolically efficient" bodies that stay slimmer, healthier, and more youthful as they age. In The Okinawa Diet Plan, Drs. Willcox, Willcox, and Suzuki adapt traditional Okinawan dietary principles for a delicious blend of East and West so that anyone can reap these very same benefits. The authors' Caloric Density Index and the Caloric Density Pyramid, developed from the study's latest findings, debunk the myths of trendy diet gurus and provide a revolutionary approach to eating, health, weight loss, and weight maintenance that is easy to follow and simple to maintain. This approach allows Okinawans to eat more food than the typical American diet, and still weigh less--and you can too. With more than 150 delicious recipes that incorporate foods low in caloric density, The Okinawa Diet Plan offers dozens of satisfying meal options. Conveniently divided into three tracks--western, eastern, and fusion--and with healthy options for both vegetarians and meat eaters alike, their program provides all the benefits of calorie restriction without deprivation. With dietary guidelines, cooking techniques, an eight-week turnaround plan, and other unique resources, The Okinawa Diet Plan is a breakthrough concept in healthy weight loss and maintenance.


From the Hardcover edition.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Okinawa: lean people, long, healthy lives

N'kashin tchu nu kutuba ya, amari fusuko neran.
The wisdom of the ancients is still true and applicable.


Far off in the East China Sea, between the main islands of Japan and Taiwan, is an archipelago of 161 beautiful, lush green islands known as Okinawa. The beaches are a dazzling powdery white; the waters are crystal turquoise, and the pristine subtropical rain forests house a huge variety of exotic flora and fauna. But while Okinawa has all the makings of a tropical paradise, it is in fact something even more special-Okinawa is more like a "real-life Shangri-la."1 Why?

Because the islands are home to the longest-lived population in the world.2 It's a place where the aging process seems to have slowed and age-related diseases common in the West are kept to a minimum (see figure 1.1). Great-grandfathers practice martial arts. Energetic great-grandmothers garden and perform traditional dance. And some centenarians of both sexes even run businesses and lead socially fulfilling and wonderfully independent lives. You can see them daily as you stroll the streets. Here, a lean, wiry woman who appears to be sixty walks with a container of freshly made Okinawan tofu perched on her head-she's ninety-nine years old. There, a slender, tanned "seventy-something" woman sells traditional bright red, yellow, and blue Okinawan kimonos in the thriving marketplace-she's actually 101. And there, a spry woman pushing an overloaded wheelbarrow collects bottles for her recycling company-she's 102 years old. And over there, a fit-looking, older man with a floppy straw hat threshes sugarcane. He is 103 years old. This is life as usual in Okinawa.


I hope to live to 120...To tell the truth, I really only feel like eighty.
--Ushi Okushima, 100 years old


Okinawa, in fact, has the highest concentration of centenarians worldwide, some of them 110 years old and older, including the world's oldest living citizen, Kamato Hongo, still going at age 116.3 These so-called supercentenarians now account for more than 15 percent of the world's documented living supercentenarians-despite Okinawa's paltry 0.0002 percent contribution to the world's population.4 When you consider that the United States counts only about 10 centenarians per 100,000 people, while Okinawa has 40 per 100,000, you begin to see the significance of these numbers.5


My brother and I first began investigating this amazing phenomenon a decade ago when we joined Dr. Makoto Suzuki as part of the research team for the landmark Okinawa Centenarian Study, which had been established in 1976 to uncover the secrets of the elders' successful aging. But we had been fascinated by reports of unusually hale and hearty Okinawan elders all through our university days. It was in 1994, in fact, upon meeting one of these elders, Mr. Toku Oyakawa, while doing a research project as medical and graduate students at the University of Toronto that we initially felt compelled to go to Okinawa.

We had been studying the impact of body fat on hormone-associated cancers, and because the Japanese had among the lowest risks of breast, prostate, and colon cancers in the world, we had wanted to include as many Japanese (and Japanese-Canadians) in our study as possible.6 Mr. Oyakawa, who had been raised in Okinawa and had immigrated to Canada more than half a century earlier, graciously agreed to an interview. At the time, he was 105 years old and likely the oldest man in Canada.

When we arrived at his home in the Ontario countryside, Mr. Oyakawa was just coming back from fishing-one of his regular favorite pastimes. As he walked over to greet us, fresh catch in hand, we were flabbergasted. This 105-year-old man was lean and vital. He had twinkly eyes and tan, supple skin, and he moved with a grace and ease that any seventy-year-old would envy. After talking with him for only a few minutes, it was obvious that his mind was as youthful as his body.

As Mr. Oyakawa recounted stories of his unusually long life and told us about Okinawa, we were more fascinated than ever. One fact that especially caught our attention was that Mr. Oyakawa and his ninety-two-year-old wife (who was also in incredible shape) had maintained a near-traditional Okinawan diet during all their years in Canada. Dietary habits were an important part of our study, and if indeed there was an entire population of people who had the same eating patterns as Mr. Oyakawa and were as fit, slim, and healthy as he was, we absolutely needed to find out more. With the help of a research grant from the Medical Research Council of Canada, we were soon on our way to the East China Sea.

Okinawa has been a big part of our lives ever since-and it's even more magical for us now than it was in the beginning. Amid the physical beauty of the islands, we've discovered a rich, wondrous culture with fascinating shamanistic traditions and inspiring holistic beliefs. It's a land where good health is viewed as a natural right, women play the dominant role in religion, the elderly are honored and revered, and ancient healing herbs and tonics are smoothly integrated with Western medicines. And the people are truly exceptional.

The men and women we've met, interviewed, and befriended over the years-many of whom we introduced to you in our last book, The Okinawa Program-are remarkable individuals in their eighties, nineties, and beyond, who in many ways are much like Mr. Oyakawa. Their minds are lucid, their bodies are slim, their movements are fluid, and their zest for life is infectious. And, of course, their health is superb for their years. Not only do these long-lived people have among the lowest rates of the West's leading killers-cancer, heart disease, and stroke-but they also have the world's longest disability-free life expectancy.7 While Americans have about seven years of disability at the end of their lives, Okinawans have only 2.6 years of disability-even though they live longer than Americans. This means that Okinawans are not just living longer but living longer in good health-and that's really the secret to successful aging. I think we'd all agree that longevity tends to lose its appeal if it means years of infirmity and dependency.


Other Shangri-la Contenders


Of course, we've heard stories of such Shangri-la populations before. Long-lived people supposedly lived in abundance in Pakistan's Hunza Valley, in the mountainous village of Vilcabamba in Ecuador, and in the Caucasus region of the former Soviet Union, where yogurt was supposed to be the magic elixir. (The TV commercial featuring an ancient Soviet Georgian crone sweetly coaxing her octogenarian son to eat his yogurt is a classic.) Unfortunately, none of those longevity claims held up to scientific scrutiny.8 On close examination, it turned out that age exaggeration was rampant and that birth certificates-the sine qua non of credibility in studies of long-lived people-were few and far between.

Okinawa, however, is a different story. Every town, city, and village has an official family register system (koseki) that has been recording all births, marriages, and deaths since 1879. Pertinent data, including birth certificates, are highly reliable. There's no doubt that Okinawan centenarians have beaten the odds to ascend the peak of the world's longevity scale. The question is, How did they do it.


The Okinawa Centenarian Study


That question continues to be addressed and answered by the Okinawa Centenarian Study. The study, now entering its twenty-eighth year, is the world's longest-running population-based study of centenarians and has spawned more than two hundred scientific papers.9 Over the years, we've interviewed and examined more than seven hundred Okinawan centenarians and hundreds of "youngsters" in their seventies,...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Harmony/Rodale/Convergent
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2005
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1400082005
• ISBN 13: 9781400082001
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 432
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: MUSIC STORE professional GmbH; 022188841282; Lars.Mueller@musicstore.de; ; Istanbulstr. 22-26; Köln; 51103; Deutschland