Long living cultures page 2

[Sean40]

The reason I bring up the semi-specific cultures that I did, is because they live so long. Isn't that the point, overall wellness equals longevity? It's just frustrating that there are sooo many opinions out there on food. I have been looking for cultures that are meat centric that live a long time, and none stand out. Does Mark ever answer questions on here, or is this just the members space?

[Acmebike]

I have no sources to cite (but none have been in this thread), but seem to have read (Eades, Stephan, Peter ? other Paleo blogs) that corn, rice, soy, grains in general are a very minor part of long lived cultures. Much like the fantasy Mediterranean Diet, there is some debate as to what quantities and what foods certain long lived cultures consume.


For instance, as I understand it (again, no particular source) long lived Okinawan's diet is very much pork based. Also, historic Japanese consumption of Soy is under 2 tblspoons a day and only in fermented form, and always eaten with fatty fish broth.


Do we even know that there are high grain eating long lived cultures?

[Sean40]

Very easy to research Acmebike, just do a Google search for longest living cultures. You will come up with quite a bit of info on cultures that eat very little red meat, and a lot of whole unprocessed grain and in some cases unpasteurized dairy. Obviously Asian cultures eat huge amounts of rice.

[Athena]

I think its largley individual as well. Im italian/irish/native american. Apparently even though half my ancestery ate loads of pasta, i cant take it. Whenever I eat large amounts of carbs I start burping like crazy and my stomach hurts for the entire day. So I guess I take after my native american side (which they were mainly hunter/gatherers). But I suppose Asians are better adapted to eat rice than other cultures. Same with Latin cultures and corn, etc.

[frogfarm]

Longevity and health appear far more related to what one avoids than what one consumes. Modern industrial poisons (vegetable oils) are demonstrably more harmful than even the neolithic agents of disease (grains).

[Prowler]

In the video "Sugar: The Bitter Truth," Dr. Lustig says that what all of those cultures have in common is a very low intake of fructose.


White rice isn't nearly as harmful as sugar, for example. If you haven't seen that video already, look it up on YouTube.

[Sean40]

Good point Frogfarm, I think it really comes down to eating clean. Every culture I have looked at that lives long takes in large amounts of veggies, be it sea vegetables or otherwise. Also, quite a few of these cultures get a lot of their protein from fish. I will tell you this...a friend of mine is Japanese and he can eat rice every day and stay shredded, I unfortunately cannot. I have to eat a fairly low carb diet to stay lean(Norwegian, native American, Dutch, English, Spanish, Irish and maybe German).

[Prowler]

It's not necessarily what they are eating; it is probably what they are not eating, i.e. large amounts of fructose, gluten, or omega-6 vegetable oils.

[maba]

I agree w/ Prowler. Dr.Kurt Harris of PaNu calls them the 3 horsemen. Unfortunately, SAD is high in all 3 of them.


Also, these long-living cultures, until now, ate foods prepared traditionally - soaking, sprouting, fermenting etc to mitigate the effects of phytates and lectins.

[Sean40]

Well, I did a little research on my mainly Nordic heritage. I should be eating lots of fish, game meats, domesticated meats, some dairy, and veggies and nuts....LOLOL!! I guess it was a little too cold for my Viking ancestors to be farming!