What Chinese Centenarians Can Teach Us About Living Well

By Jennifer J. Brown, Ph.D. At 115, Boxin Huang is the oldest resident of China’s Bapan Village, also called Longevity Village. But he's not extraordinary there, where many live long past 100 years. Cardiologist John Day, MD, of Intermountain Healthcare in Murray, Utah, visited Bapan and the Chinese centenarians and learned fascinating lessons about healthy living and healthy hearts, ones he shares with his own patients. “Most people think it’s their genes, but the data don’t support it,” Dr. Day says about the Bapan centenarians. Research on about 3,000 pairs of twins who had identical DNA -- the same genes -- but as adults had different home environments and life choices, showed that only 25 percent of their longevity was due to genes. The other 75 percent was affected by lifestyle. Things within your control can make all the difference in lifespan. I'll Have Vegetables With That “In Longevity Village, the fascinating thing is that they eat vegetables as part of all three meals, even breakfast,” Day noticed. The food groups consistently associated with a healthy heart and long life are fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, legumes and fish, Day says. He found that in Bapan, vegetables were always a main course. They ate a lot of fruits, nuts and legumes as well. “The diet we eat is absolutely critical,” says Day. He points to data from the California Seventh-Day Adventist study. Researchers tracked an extra seven years of life for men and four yea...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news