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Longevity Hotspots
Category Archives: Eating for Longevity
Okinawan Sweet Potato Boosts Your Anti-Aging Defenses
In the village of Ogimi, famous for its high ratio of Centenarians, as much as three times higher than most Western Nations, Michael and I found the richly colored deep purple Okinawan sweet potato to be a staple of their daily diet. This vibrant potato, rich in flavor and packed with nutritional benefits has long been thought to be one of the reasons the Okinawans are among the world’s longest-living people and suffer far less from common diseases associated with the aging process, such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer’s.
The Okinawan sweet potato, not related to the potato, is actually part of the morning-glory family, a vine coveted for its beautiful deep purple flower. Native to the Americas, the “Okinawan” sweet potato was brought to Japan sometime between 1492 and 1605 and after World War II, became a staple of the native survivors left on the island of Okinawa because it was such a hardy crop.
Not only high in vitamin A, vitamin C and manganese, they are also a good source of copper, dietary fiber, vitamin B6, potassium and iron and have been shown to improve blood sugar regulation and insulin production. More recent studies have discovered significant antibacterial and anti fungal properties, yet another indicator of why the Okinawan Centenarians maintain remarkably vibrant health.
The primary nutritional benefit, and the one for which Okinawan sweet potatoes are especially prized, is their high antioxidant levels. Antioxidants help to guard against cancer and cardiovascular disease. Anthocyanin, the antioxidant responsible for the brilliant purple color of the flesh, is the same anthocyanin pigment that gives blueberries, red grapes and red cabbage their color. The Okinawan sweet potato actually has 150 percent more antioxidants than blueberries.
These little purple powerhouses are also a rich source of DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone.) This is a precursor hormone – a substance that remains latent until it converts into a hormone that the body needs. DHEA can become estrogen, progesterone, or testosterone, all essential for your body’s anti-aging defenses to work. As we age, the body’s level of precursor hormones like DHEA drop dramatically in Western cultures, but drop at a much slower rate among the long-lived Okinawans, a phenomenon attributed by many to their diet rich with Okinawan sweet potatoes.
Enjoy these potatoes baked, roasted, boiled, steamed, sautéed, scalloped (with almond milk), or mashed with coconut water and sea salt. They are also great mashed with a little applesauce, cinnamon, nutmeg and grated orange zest. They make a great substitute in a sweet potato pie, or any other recipes you would normally use yams or bright orange sweet potatoes. So begin today adding the Okinawan Sweet Potato to your diet … and remember, “By birthright, we are all entitled to live A Longer Healthy Life!”
Diane Haworth and Michael Varbaek, Longevity Researchers www.ALongerHealthyLife.com
Superfood Ingredients
Your body is a remarkable machine. Put the right fuels into it, whole, local, fresh, unprocessed, chemical-free foods found right in your grocery store, and it will run like it should. Give it optimal nutrition, and it can protect itself and help prevent illness. We have researched the global food market and nature’s gardens to discover which foods provide the healthiest benefits – the foods that are shared across tables in the world’s key Longevity Hot Spots.
Here is a list of many of the foods we will use in the recipes to come.
| Acai berries | Ginger |
| Apples | Goji berries |
| Apricots | Green tea |
| Avocados | Mushrooms |
| Blueberries | Red Wine and Resveratrol |
| Beans | Soy |
| Brassica vegetables | Spinach |
| Buckwheat | Sprouted Foods |
| Chocolate (cacao) | Sweet Potatoes |
| Chlorella and Spirulina | Tomato Paste and Tomatoes |
| Cinnamon | Turmeric |
| Flax | Yogurt |
| Garlic |
Diane Haworth and Michael Varbaek
Longevity Researchers
www.ALongerHealthyLife.com
(619) 743-4263
Email Us
Posted in Recipes for Longevity
Tagged eating for longevity, foods for a longer healthy life, foods for longevity, health and longevity, how to eat for a longer healthy life, recipes for longevity
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The Long Lived People Eat Nutrient Dense Foods
In order to live a longer healthy life, the long lived people consume nutrient dense diets, consisting of foods that their bodies are able to absorb and utilize the most nutrients from. Dr. Joel Furhman in his book Eat for Health created the Aggregate Nutrient Density Index (ANDI) which is a score assigned to whole foods that contain the highest nutrients per calorie.
The ANDI Score goes from 1 to 1000 with 1 being a soda pop. The top ten foods that our bodies will get the most nutrients from per calorie are Kale, Collard Greens, Watercress, Bok Choy, Spinach, Broccoli, Cabbage, Brussel Sprouts, Swiss Chard, Arugula, Mustard Greens, and Parsley.
Unfortunately, those are the foods that Americans, and Western Culture in general consume the least of … yet by no small coincidence, they are the very foods we see the long lived people consuming again and again in our travels to the longevity villages.
So, what can you do? Start adding greens in your morning fruit smoothie, if you only add in a small amount to begin with you will not taste the greens and within a week you will find yourself craving more greens, reaching for more salads over processed foods and noticing a change in how you look, how you feel, and you will find the extra weight melting off your frame. Watch for our favorite longevity recipes, including green smoothies beginning next week.
Beginning now, ask to substitute greens as a side with your dinner or lunch at a restaurant instead of fries or coleslaw. At a buffet, fill your plate with dark leafy greens and top with raw fruits and vegetables, tofu, beans or rice. Skip the processed foods and foods smothered in sauces.
By making this small change in your daily diet, looking for the low calorie, nutrient dense whole plant foods to fill your plate instead, you will be headed down the path to longevity like the long lived people … remember “By birthright we are all entitled to live A Longer Healthy Life!”
Diane Haworth and Michael Varbaek, Longevity Researchers www.ALongerHealthyLife.com
Posted in Eating for Longevity, Longevity Lifestyle Habits
Tagged ANDI Chart, ANDI Scale, ANDI Score, dark leafy greens, Diane Haworth, foods for a longer healthy life, green smoothies, health and longevity, live longer, longevity, longevity diets, longevity recipes, Michael Varbaek
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“Hari Hachi Bu” Can Help You Live Longer
By eating until you are 80% full you just may outlive your peers, and as an added bonus, you will likely feel more energetic, and delay the signs of aging like wrinkles, hair loss and mental decline. You may also significantly lower your risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis, and cancer.
The first studies done at Cornell University in the 1930’s showed a link between eating fewer calories and longevity and today more than 2000 studies have been conducted that consistently show the same. As a rule, a 30 percent reduction in caloric intake corresponded to at least a 30 percent increase in life span in these animal studies. In Okinawa, Japan, residents of the island boast over three times the number of centenarians as their counterparts on the Japanese mainland. This population of long-lived robust Japanese support the theory that restricting caloric intake will also slow the aging process in humans.
The Okinawans consume about 30 percent fewer calories than other Japanese and they not only live longer, they have significantly lower rates of chronic disease such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis, and in addition lower rates of cognitive decline compared with other Japanese. So what can you do? Do as the Okinawans do in the cultural calorie counting habit of Hari Hachi Bu, the practice of stopping eating when you are 80 percent full. This strategy works as a good way to lose extra weight and maintain a healthy base weight as it takes the stomachs stretch receptors about 20 minutes to tell the body how full it really is, and about 20 minutes after eating you will feel full.
Eat a whole food diet that is plant-based. Chose to eat more nutritionally dense calories in the form of fresh organic fruit, vegetables, dark leafy greens, sprouted nuts, seeds, grains and fermented foods. The rewards of making this simple change are immense, including renewed feeling of vitality, the slowing of the aging process, and the postponement or prevention of chronic disease.
Posted in Eating for Longevity
Tagged foods for a longer healthy life, Hari Hachi Bu, health and longevity, healthy long life, life longevity, live longer, long healthy life, longer healthy life, longevity, Okinawan longevity
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Animals Know How to Live A Longer Healthy Life
We happened across this engaging story and thought we’d share. It’s about how animals recently led farmers to discover a new variety of oranges.
More specifically, it’s about how a troop of baboons led one farmer to discover a promising new cultivar of Minneola tangerines, those deep-orange, knobby-ended, delicious tangerines available for just a couple of months each year.
Here’s the story: An annual mystery baffled South African fruit farmer Alwyn van der Merwe. In June, when his oranges began ripening, a troop of baboons would descend from the mountains around his farm in the Western Cape and target one particular tree among thousands. The animals would feast until the tree was stripped of all its oranges.
Eventually the farmer decided to inspect that tree and discovered that it was a different variety from the others. Its fruit was sweeter and ripened three weeks earlier. “We couldn’t believe it. The one tree was different from the thousands of others, and the baboons knew it,” he told the Christian Science Monitor.
Laboratory testing confirmed it was a new variety of Minneola orange. Van der Merwe grafted shoots from the tree onto standard stocks, and they are now regularly cultivated and grown.
Because the new cultivar ripens earlier, it will extend the farmer’s growing season.
“It hasn’t got a name, and they said we could choose it—maybe we should call it the ‘baboon Minneola,’ ” he says in the CSM’s story.
Fascinating! Remember, the longevity matrix suggests one to three servings of fresh fruit every day. (Buy organic whenever practical, and buy fresh-frozen fruit when fresh fruit is limited or looking peaked.)
Tangerines are one delicious way to get a good dose of vitamin C, fiber, and the phytochemical benefits fruits offer. Check for Minneolas and other varieties of tangerines in your local store.
Posted in Eating for Longevity
Tagged a longer healthy life, anti aging longevity, eating for longevity, food for longevity, foods for a longer healthy life, foods for longevity, how long will i live, longevity foods, longevity research, longevity secrets, the longevity diet
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