Essential diet you should try to unlock longevity and healthy life
What is the one secret diet that people who live to 100 eat? What kind of activities these centenarians do to enjoy a healthy life?
In the first post of this Secret of Longevity 4-part series, I mentioned my encounter with a Netflix series titled “Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones”.
The series made a great impression on me so much so that I made a promise to myself that I would start to live in a more healthy way.
This second post talks about the first 2 out of 4 ‘secrets’ these people in the Blue Zones had about how they managed to live to their 100.
There is a link to the third part at the end of this post.
Eat Wisely
It is obvious that diet is going to be a big part of this. You are what you eat.
But what insights could we glance from these centenarians? What sort of diets do they have? Have they been eating anything special?
The answer might not be very surprising for many people.
As it turned out, they eat mostly plant-based foods!
They eat less meat, less eggs or dairy products and even less fish; or none at all.
It looks like the Vegetarians are heading in the right direction 🙂
Let’s have a look at some of the diets that these guys are eating.
If I have to summarise what is the one single diet that the people in these blue zones have in common, it is LEGUMES!
These people have foods from Legumes family as their staple diet. In many countries, legumes are their main diet, replacing rice or bread or potatoes as carbohydrates intake.
What are Legumes? They are your:
Beans
Peas
Lentils
Chickpeas
Peanuts and
Soybeans (edamame, tofu and tempeh)
What are the benefits? The benefits read like superfoods:
Rich in protein
High in fibre
Low in saturated fat
Complex carbohydrates
Packed with vitamins and minerals
Low in Glycemic Index
Antioxidant
Buettner was talking about foods having caloric density, meaning how much calorie contains per unit of weight or volume of the food.
Legumes are consider of having moderate to low caloric density. It means that you can eat more without worrying about eating too much carbs.
In anyway, the high fibre characteristics of legumes would make you feel ‘full’, so you don’t need to ‘stuffed’ yourself.
PS: I’m looking for great recipe for Legumes. If you happen to know any, please do share in the comment, I would really appreciate it. Thanks!
Other diets that were mentioned in the series are the usual suspects like:
Green Vegs
Fruits
Sourdough Bread
Squashes
Corn (especially the black variety)
Many people also drink herbal teas, e.g. Rosemary, Sage, Mallow to name a few.
Every herb has their special benefit for the body.
Yeah, they were not talking about English Breakfast or Capt. Pickard’s Earl Grey unfortunately 🙂
Look, I’m not saying that I’m going Vegan by tomorrow, but I think we have witnessed here enough to prove that this diet works, and that there is a strong correlation between these type of diets and their seemingly healthy and long life. Though it’s not the only factor, as we will discover later.
From my side, I started my own organic vegetable garden 3 years ago. My aim was to be able to supply myself and my family with at least some non-GM vegetables a couple of months every year.
It’s been great so far, I had 2 harvests already and the taste of these bio veggies are just heaven and earth compared to the ones we usually buy from supermarkets!
The garden has also an extra benefit in that I have to tend to it physically - regularly, it becomes my exercise routine.
Physical Exercise
This is the second obvious thing that we ALL know has a direct impact on our health.
But none of these guys hit the gym! In fact, most of them come from a very humble environment, so something like ‘paying money to force themselves to exercise’ wouldn’t cross their mind at all.
So what’s going on? What were they doing differently?
As it turned out they just like to walk, a lot of walking by the look of it! Like every day, everywhere!
Ok, I hear you all, I live in a city too and many times it’s not very convenient to just walk everywhere.
But, it is NOT impossible.
I mentioned in the previous chapter that after watching this series I started to take the stairs at work, I used to just take the lift!
I am sure you can do something similar wherever you live.
What is important here is to move around. My day job is in IT, so I would predominantly sit at my desk almost 6 - 8 hours a day. I know many of you do too.
Here we need some conscious mind, determination and maybe a help from a smartwatch, to regularly get up from our desk and start walking around a bit. Let’s do this!
Another set of activities that the series seemed to suggest was to do some sports. I mean like real sports!
You can take your pick according to your ability and convenience.
After I got diagnosed with high blood pressure this year, I knew I had to do something in terms of physical activity, and that just walking around my desk for 5 minutes once in a while wouldn’t cut it.
So I decided to restart my martial arts training. Back when I was still studying at High School and later in University, I used to train quite rigorously in some form of martial arts.
2 months ago I joined a local Aikido Dojo, and I’ve been training once a week since. It was tough after over 25 years of hiatus, but I’ve been loving it!
So take your pick, learn a new sport if necessary.
The point is this: physical activity is absolutely essential for our health. But we need to commit to it to do it regularly.
Commitment is the key here.
Don’t wait until you get bad news like I did, do it today!
The third part continues the journey to the path of Longevity by looking at the Mental Health, why it is important, and what are the things we could do to achieve a mental stability.