In a message dated 6/26/01 11:55:30 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< Okinawans simply eat less.  According to Walford, their caloric
 intake averages about 80% of what the Japanese eat, and the
 Japanese are already light eaters, in energy terms. >>

I'm sure this is true. I think this is true of most cultures that have better
health than westerners -- we do eat far too much, and I'm sure you remember
those rat studies, where the underfed ones lived the longest. The Chinese
laborers supposedly built the transcontinental railroad on a bowl of rice a
day.

I skimmed through that Okinawan diet book in the bookstore. It seems very
mainstream to me -- it's written by a couple of MDs, who toe the low fat high
carb party line. They think it is basically explained by lots of fruit and
veggies, rice and tofu, although they were surprised at how little fruit the
elderly Okinawans actually ate.  They are all wrong in their analysis, and I
think it is because of cultural blinkers -- if you look at other people's
eating habits through your own (American) cultural bias, you will miss the
subtleties inherent in native eating patterns, which have evolved over very
long periods of time.

According to one of their charts, 11% by weight of the diet is fish. That is
very high, and based on Weston Prices' analysis, that is sufficient
explanation right there.

They have the usual bunch of silly Americanized recipes -- microwavable
veggie burgers, beer crepes, low fat this that and the other (you think
Okinawans drink low fat milk?), they list bad fats as animal fats, butter,
coconut oil, dairy fat and palm oil, all oils that the Okinawans probably do
consume (except perhaps the dairy).

They bad mouth and misinterpret Atkins and paleo type diets, and advocate a
lot of manufactured junk like "trans free margarine", low fat muffins,
All-bran, skim milk, canola oil, etc., etc., which has nothing whatsoever to
do with what Okinawans eat. What started off as a good idea became
bastardized in the translation. Don't bother with this, except for the data
on the Okinawans themselves, which is somewhat useful, but merely supports
the existing research on traditional native eating patterns. They do advocate
tai chi, which I think may well be beneficial., and tea drinking.

Charles
San Diego, CA