The Longevity Diet: Secrets to living a healthy and long-lasting life
Animals in the wild, eating their natural diet, live an average of ten times the number of years it takes them to reach maturity (Chimpanzee’s reach maturity by the time they’re five, and live to about fifty years, for instance).
Meanwhile, most humans’ lifespan is barely five times the number of years it takes to reach maturity.
The Longevity Diet: How long should we be living?
Steve Charter, in Eat More Raw: A guide for health and sustainability
Dr Wallach lists a few more cases to further support this, including Russian Georgians who commonly live to 120 and the Armenians and Ebkanians, where living to 140 is not uncommon.
He cites one Armenian who, from his military records, is thought to have lived to 167 years old, and the Titicaca Indians of south-east Peru who lived to between 120-140 years old. There’s also the case of the Niger chief who died at 126 with all his teeth, and a Syrian in the Guinness Book of Records who fathered 9 children after 80 and went on to live to 133.
Put into context, the average age for Americans was 75.5 years old in 1994. For doctors it was 58. Dr Wallach suggest that these figures suggest that there is great value in treating yourself (through nutritional and lifestyle changes), rather than putting your health in the hands of doctors.
If you think about it logically, the reason there’s such a difference in our lifespan (compared to chimpanzees or those who manage to live to a ripe old age) is that we are not eating our natural diet.
In this article I’ll discuss some of the longest-living tribes and what the commonalities are in terms of their diet and lifestyle, what I term the longevity diet.
“Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.”
– Socrates
The longevity diet: Diet of the longest-living cultures
John Robbins, in Healthy at 100: The Scientifically Proven Secrets of the World’s Healthiest and Longest-Lived Peoples, describes the lifestyles and dietary patterns of the long-lived cultures of the Abkhasia of Southern Russia, the Vicalbamba Indians of the Ecuadorian Andes and the Hunza of North Pakistan.
He found that the percentage of calories they obtained daily was between 69-73% carbohydrates, 15-18% from fat and 10-13% from protein.
Overall daily calories ranged between 1,700 -1,800, while the Abkhasia ate 90% plant foods and the Vilcabamba and Hunza ate 99% plant foods.
All three ate low amounts of salt, zero sugar or processed food, and had no incidence of obesity and other common diseases.
He also discussed the Okinawa, who, though eating a more animal-based diet, had a similar lifestyle.
I highly encourage you to read this book, or if you need a taste of what it’s about, read this review of Healthy at 100, which includes a preview of the fascinating first chapter.
Alternatively, check out this video where John Robbins talks about his book: Healthy at 100.
