3 habits of longest living populations

OUR DAYS are numbered. And no one is spared from the certainty of his or her own mortality. The thing is, some societies just get to stay that much longer here on earth than others. The typical Filipino can expect to live to about 70 years. Does that seem long enough for you?

Wait till you learn the five longevity hot spots where centenarians studied were found to be lean, energetic and have low rate of chronic illness like heart disease and cancer. These spots are the Japanese island city of Okinawa, the Greek island of Symi, the Italian village of Campodimele, the valley town of Hunza in northwest Pakistan, and Bama county in southern China.

Nutritionist Sally Beare, in her book “50 Secrets of the World’s Longest Living People,” pinpointed 50 commonalities among these five longevity hotspots. Due to space (and time) constraints—pardon the pun—Inquirer Health can only cite the three most striking habits.

1 They love their fruits and veggies. To be specific, they eat five to seven servings of fruits and vegetables every day. Aside from being blessed with fresh air and nutrient-rich soil, the longest living populations on earth feast on large amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables a day.

Compare this to the typical Filipinos’ daily consumption of vegetables and fruits—just 111 g and 54 g, respectively, for a total of 165 g, which lands pitifully below the World Health Organization’s recommended daily dietary allowance for fruits and vegetables of 400 grams per person per day (or two cups of raw vegetable salad or one cup of cooked vegetable per day and three servings of fruits).

So we know that eating lots of fruits and veggies can help you live longer. So what if we fall short of the daily quota? We get our nutrients from our daily meats, right?

A study of 122,000 female American nurses, as detailed in the book “Healthy at 100” by John Robbins, found that those women who ate meat daily were two and a half times more likely to get colon cancer than those women who ate meat less than once a month.

In 2001, a comprehensive Harvard review of the research on dairy products and prostate cancer found that those who had over the course of their lives consumed the most dairy products had double the rate of advanced prostate cancer and four times the rate of metastatic prostate cancer.

The book “The China Study” by T. Collin Campbell, Jacob Gould Schurman professor emeritus of nutrition biochemistry at Cornell University, and Thomas M. Campbell II also showed that animal protein promotes the growth of tumors. The book is titled after and based on a 20-year project conducted by Cornell University, Oxford University and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine.

The book cited that a vast majority of all cancers, cardiovascular diseases and other forms of degenerative illness can be prevented simply by adopting a plant-based diet.

2 They maintain loving and intimate relationships, have a positive outlook in life and low stress levels. Filipinos seem to have no problem with this habit. Our inherent traits of happiness and that community-centered bayanihan spirit do seem to add years to happy fulfilling lives.

When Inquirer Health met Dr. David Itokazu, chair of the Okinawa Gerontology Institute (OGI) when he visited the Philippines in 2007 for an international conference on longevity, he was quick to say that Filipinos could live well past 100 just like his fellow Okinawans, as the two societies shared many things. He gushed that Okinawans love to sing, they respect their elders and treasure relationships—traits familiar to Filipinos. They also practice yuimaru, the spirit of helping one another, much like what the Pinoy cooperative “bayanihan” does for the local community.

3 They love to move it, move it. The longest living people on earth can’t stand sitting for long. The routine chores of daily life may be key to longevity, and that means lots of exercise. A brisk daily walk for at least half an hour or any aerobic activity (swimming, dancing, climbing, etc.) seems to do the trick.

Dr. Raffy Castillo, in one of his Inquirer Health columns “Medical Files,” shortens this to a motto: Sit longer, die earlier.

He cites an American Cancer Society study, which showed middle-age and senior individuals who sit longer hours during their free time after work had a tendency to die earlier.

Castillo added that based on this long-term study, lead author Alpa Patel, PhD and colleagues, reported that people who spent at least six hours of their daily leisure time sitting, died sooner than people who sat less than three hours. Worse results were noted in those who both sat a lot and exercised little. And this isn’t for men only.

Ladies, take note, the adverse effect of sitting longer than moving along is stronger for women than for men. So let’s gossip while walking, or maybe while doing some light jogs, right? –Tessa Salazar, Philippine Daily Inquirer