What Do the Longest Living People Eat?

Medical dietary advice consistently suggests selecting foods that are nutrient rich but calorie poor. That can be difficult with modern food manufacturers eternally seeking to load fats and sugars into their offerings to increase taste and satisfaction. Many people who go on a healthy eating regime turn to vegetables. And there is medical research to support this choice.

There are populations on Earth that center their diets around vegetables. Some entirely so. Studying them offers some useful data to use in dietary selections. Japanese in Okinawa, for example, do center their diets primarily around vegetables. And they also have some of the longest lifespans on the planet.

Okinawan diets are more than ninety-five percent comprised of vegetables. Fish, other meats, dairy, and eggs all contribute less than five percent of what people in Okinawa typically eat.

Medical explanations for how this diet high in vegetables can be good and healthy include some basic conclusions. Plant based diets tend to be very high in both antioxidants and in anti-inflammatory nutrients. It’s lower in fat and sugar. And it tends to come in at a lower calorie count than other dietary plans; most Okinawans tabulate less than two thousand calories per day. The measurable results are clear though. They’re about ten times less likely to have cardiac related deaths, and a variety of cancers are significantly lower as well.