The secret to live more than 100 years is not Japanese only

The Japanese have more of a chance to reach the century than any other people, which some people attribute to your diet. But there are other "blue zones". What are, what and how much to eat.

Can we eat to get to live a century? I am not referring to players of cricket; I speak of the Japanese Diet. Or diet sarda, or diet ikariana. Or any of the half-dozen regional ways, generally traditional, supply to the that is attributed to maintain a proportion of their populations with unlikely lives beyond the 100 years with elixir of immortality.

A few days ago, the longest living man which has record, Jiroemon Kimura, Kio tango, near Kyoto, died at the 116 years. His death, and the fact that the new owner of the record is Misao Okawa, 115 years, a native of Osaka, reminded us that the Japanese people know a couple of things when the item is to live a century or more. According to the United Nations, Japan has the highest proportion of inhabitants centenarians in the world is immortality possible?, and a good part of this know-how is related with the power.

Since long ago, I was interested to know how should feed me with a view to old age. I visited the Okinawan islands, south of Japan, whose populations, it is said, are home to the largest proportion of centenary of the country and I met with some in the that is supposed to be the village with more longevity in the planet, Ogimi, that is a little more than a dirty street of small houses, where live more than a dozen settlers centenarians. What are dreams?

The old dealt with gardens or were sitting in their porches watching pass a funeral procession. With my family ate rice and tofu, bamboo shoots, algae, pickles, cubes of pork stew and a small cake in the coffee of the longevity, local below pitahaya (fruit "dragon") in flower.

The next day, met the gerontologist us, Dr. Craig Wilcox, who has spent many years researching the Okinawan longevity and is co-author of a book, "The Okinawa program", where exposes its conclusions.

Wilcox summarized the benefits of the local diet: "The okinawenses have a low risk of atherosclerosis and cancer of the stomach, and a very low risk of hormone-dependent cancers such as breast and prostate. Eat three servings of fish per week, on average, large amount of whole grains, vegetables and soy products, more tofu and kombu seaweed more than any other people of the world, as well as squid and octopus, rich in turbine, which would reduce cholesterol and blood pressure".

The native vegetables of Okinawa are particularly interesting: its purple potatoes are rich in flavonoids, carotenoids, vitamin E and lycopene, and cucumbers bitter place, or "Goya", have been shown to reduce the blood sugar in diabetics.

As the majority, I know the general food tips: eating less sugar, salt and saturated fat, but I prefer the idea of discover little-known shortcuts toward the longevity; I am more the type of person you are looking for the "magic solution".

With this in mind, while lunch Goya chanpuru - cucumber bitter, sautéed with tofu, egg and pork - in a restaurant that was little more than a ruinous hut near your campus, i asked Wilcox what elements of the Okinawan diet had incorporated in its life. Jasmine tea and turmeric, said: both prevent potentially the cancer. It goes without saying that today both form part of my morning ritual.

Other factors

Obviously, our destination as possible centenarians will also be determined by our DNA, upbringing and temperament, as well as by how physically active and sociable us; the climate of the place where we live; the level of health care that we have; what we relaxed on the punctuality; if we naps and are religious; wars, and others.

Having been born woman helps: 85% of the centenaries of the world are women. But it is generally accepted that the power determines around 30 per cent of how long we live. There are those who argue that you can add as much as a decade to our life. So the question, then, would now be: do all we should go over to a diet based on tofu, sweet potatoes and squid?

The Mediterranean diet

according to Professor John Mather, director of the Institute of Aging and Health from the University of Newcastle in the north east of England, follow this diet probably would not do any harm, but the scientific evidence until today is more inclined to favor of the Mediterranean diet.

Since man is man has tried to find the elixir of eternal youth. All attempts have failed, but science continues to advance in the understanding of the aging. Today we know how the years pass by our body, we know the diseases associated with ageing and we have studied, fairly accurately, that genetic mechanisms trigger the physical deterioration. All this is not enough to cheat death, and may the immortality is an unattainable dream, but science has found practices and constraints that can, or could lengthen our life.

During the last century the average life expectancy increased in three decades, and get to meet 100 years is ceasing to be something extraordinary in many countries. What scientific advances could help us in our eternal struggle against the passage of time? These are the main avenues of research through which it could find the key to the third age is not the last station on our life journey.

Ending With cells aged

Cells depleted cause harm to their companions in good condition and cause inflammation in the cells of our body are born, live, are reproduced and die, but there comes a time in which the replacement does not arrive. As discovered five decades ago, our cells have a limited number of divisions, past which remain in a kind of limbo biological - known as the "cellular senescence- in which neither die, and multiply. This cellular status is a determinant factor for the emergence of numerous illnesses related to old age, because the cells depleted cause harm to their companions in good condition and cause inflammation in the tissues. The research on these cells has been intense. It is known that are associated with some diseases of the old age and with many shortcomings, but it is difficult to study since their presence does not reach the 15 per cent on average in an elderly person.