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15 Mar 05 - 07:25 AM (#1435156) Subject: BS: Eat sweet spud & live a long life From: GUEST,mashed potata Okinawa holds secret to long life March 15, 2005 - 9:09PM Eating a third fewer calories, keeping fit and remaining social are the keys to a long and healthy life, researchers on ageing have found. Brothers Craig and Bradley Wilcox, co-principal investigators of the Okinawa Study, said a combination of these factors had created ideal conditions for a cluster of centenarians in the 1.3 million-strong Japanese community. Craig Wilcox said 47 out of every 100,000 people in Okinawa lived to 100 or more years of age. "This is opposed to a country like Australia where maybe 10 or 15 out of 100,000 people (live to more than a 100)," he said. Bradley Wilcox said the Okinawa community was by far the highest reliably documented concentration of centenarians in the world. He said although genetics had been found to play a part in this longevity cluster, it was only a small factor in the overall equation. Craig Wilcox said as opposed to the rest of Japan, where rice was the dietary staple, the people of Okinawa ate a huge variety of green leafy vegetables, water-based soups and high quantities of sweet potatoes. "The sweet potato was the staple of the diet and the sweet potato is very low in calories; it's got a healthy version of carbohydrates with a low glycemic index," he said. The brothers, who will be presenting their findings at the Second International Conference On Healthy Ageing and Longevity in Brisbane this week, said the older generations of Okinawans did not own cars and kept up strong relationships with friends and family. But Craig Wilcox said all of these factors had only come into play in recent decades, with the introduction of good health care stopping the spread of contagious diseases like tuberculosis. He said not only did the Okinawans enjoy long lives, but they were also active and productive up until their 90s. "What we found ... was that over 80 per cent of the centenarian population were functionally independent with an average age of 92," he said. He said unfortunately the people of Okinawa may not hold their longevity record for too much longer. "Now in Okinawa there are more hamburger joints per capita than any other part of Japan - due to the large (US) military presence in Okinawa," he said. "What we're seeing is the leanest people in Japan turning into the heaviest, within two generations." © 2005 AAP |
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15 Mar 05 - 07:33 AM (#1435159) Subject: RE: BS: Eat sweet spud & live a long life From: jacqui.c I suppose that it is too much to hope that one day the West might wake up to the fact that we have things of value to learn from Eastern countries and that our, unfortunately, all pervading culture can cause more harm than good. |
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15 Mar 05 - 10:09 AM (#1435259) Subject: RE: BS: Eat sweet spud & live a long life From: mack/misophist The sweet potato element is interesting. A search turned up nothing specific. Could you post a link, please? |
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15 Mar 05 - 12:00 PM (#1435352) Subject: RE: BS: Eat sweet spud & live a long life From: Peace Some info here . . . |
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15 Mar 05 - 12:03 PM (#1435358) Subject: RE: BS: Eat sweet spud & live a long life From: Rapparee Move to Idaho, raise potatoes, and live forever. At least it will seem like forever. |
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15 Mar 05 - 12:36 PM (#1435376) Subject: RE: BS: Eat sweet spud & live a long life From: Ebbie Wrong kind of spud, Rap. |
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15 Mar 05 - 12:40 PM (#1435378) Subject: RE: BS: Eat sweet spud & live a long life From: robomatic How about yams? Popeye liked 'em! I has a low gli-seem-ik uk uk uk uk ...... |
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15 Mar 05 - 01:14 PM (#1435399) Subject: RE: BS: Eat sweet spud & live a long life From: Chris Green Sweet and good for you? Nah, can't be true! |
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15 Mar 05 - 01:39 PM (#1435415) Subject: RE: BS: Eat sweet spud & live a long life From: Stilly River Sage The Mexican yam is a great plant, though. It provides a sane, bioidentical source of hormone replacement therapy (in contrast to the synthetic stuff and the horse urine stuff). Sweet potatoes are a wonderful food, one we eat year round, not just at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I generally bake it and eat it plain--it doesn't need butter or sweetner or any spice (though it is excellent when prepared that way). SRS |
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15 Mar 05 - 01:56 PM (#1435431) Subject: RE: BS: Eat sweet spud & live a long life From: sixtieschick SSS: According to Deborah Metzger, a reproductive endocrinologist at Stanford, although the wild yam contains bioidentical hormones, the human body does not absorb them well. Therefore wild yam products are not a good choice for HRT. Soy and peanut-based HRTs are more effective. The yams you find in supermarkets in the USA are really sweet potatoes. The word "yam" comes from similar words in several West African languages meaning "to eat," since yams are such a staple there. "Nyami" is one. African slaves refered to sweet potatoes in the USA as nyami or yami until the word morphed into yam. True yams have brown, bark-like skin and white flesh. You can find them in the Caribbean and in markets that import Caribbean produce. Gets confusing, huh? Live long and be happy. |
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15 Mar 05 - 01:59 PM (#1435440) Subject: RE: BS: Eat sweet spud & live a long life From: JohnInKansas I've seen perhaps a half dozen "interviews with old people" in the past 20 years or so in which the subjects each cited their long term use of "sweet taters" as one of their "reasons" for living to notably advanced age. Although such anecdotal witness doesn't mean much in rigorous scientific terms, (George burns said his long life was because he always smoked at least one big cigar a day) it's hard to argue with the merit of the yam as a part of one's diet. As several said, you can stick a sweet 'tater in your pocket when you leave for work, and you've got lunch for the day. I've tried it for a couple of weeks at a time, when other "preparations" were inconvenient, and it does work at least as well as most other similarly simple tricks. John |
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15 Mar 05 - 02:27 PM (#1435449) Subject: RE: BS: Eat sweet spud & live a long life From: sixtieschick Beatrice Wood, ceramicist, member of Dada Movement, rumored to be the inspiration for the Jeanne Moreau character in the Truffaut film, "Jules et Jim," consultant for the centegenarian Rose in the film "Titanic" AND the THE MOST GORGEOUS, SEXY 105 YEAR-OLD I ever laid eyes on, famously attributed her longevity to "YOUNG MEN AND CHOCOLATE." The last time I saw her I brought her a chocolate cake and she ignored me and flirted madly with my partner. |
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15 Mar 05 - 10:27 PM (#1435732) Subject: RE: BS: Eat sweet spud & live a long life From: Little Hawk Sweet potatoes are great food. Thanks for the reminder. |
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16 Mar 05 - 01:57 AM (#1435812) Subject: RE: BS: Eat sweet spud & live a long life From: rich-joy The Kumara (the Maori RED sweet potato) is even better - also has high antioxident properties and like all those red foods now being discovered as good for you, contains anthocyanins ... http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s1310369.htm "Red Leaves" Cheers! R-J |
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16 Mar 05 - 07:26 AM (#1435947) Subject: RE: BS: Eat sweet spud & live a long life From: Liz the Squeak #Hmmmm I loved kumara when I was in NZ 20 years ago.... haven't been able to convert the rest of the family yet.... LTS |
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16 Mar 05 - 07:28 AM (#1435949) Subject: RE: BS: Eat sweet spud & live a long life From: Liz the Squeak Although I must admit to dyslexing this as 'Eat sweets pud & live a long life'..... It was a lovely moment whilst it lasted.. I would have lived to 168! LTS |
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17 Mar 05 - 04:53 AM (#1436723) Subject: RE: BS: Eat sweet spud & live a long life From: rich-joy LtS - I have a much-loved card on my notice board at present that shows a voluptuous, decadent siren with the caption : Life is short : eat dessert first" Cheers! R-J (PS |
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17 Mar 05 - 04:55 AM (#1436724) Subject: RE: BS: Eat sweet spud & live a long life From: rich-joy damn TAB button!! I was gonna ask : PS any sign on the horizon of that Mudcat Desserts Cookbook??? :~))) |
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17 Mar 05 - 05:06 AM (#1436727) Subject: RE: BS: Eat sweet spud & live a long life From: Liz the Squeak Ah well... the files got lost when the computer died last year. However, I have managed to retreive them. However, all the formatting I did on them, putting pictures in, sorting them into categories, got lost. However, I will be starting again!!! LTS |
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17 Mar 05 - 07:32 AM (#1436794) Subject: RE: BS: Eat sweet spud & live a long life From: freda underhill remember, stressed is desserts spelt backwards :) |
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17 Mar 05 - 03:39 PM (#1437101) Subject: RE: BS: Eat sweet spud & live a long life From: JohnInKansas Not meaning to reflect on the drift toward the pleasures of eating, but the original post of the article begins with: Eating a third fewer calories.... It occured to me that every one of those centenarians who attributed longevity to eating sweet 'taters also tacked on "because it was the only lunch I could afford." Much geriatric research has found that those likely to live longest were ones who were on "near-starvation" diets during large parts of their early and/or middle years. At least a couple of prominent longevity researchers are known to be on "personal research diets" that are extremely restrictive in total calories, along with some very uncommon choices of the specific foods (perhaps including lots of sweet 'taters?) in their diets. They believe that extremely low BMI is a key to their own longevity. If they're right (it's still in study) then watching the mommas wait in line to pull up next to the schoolhouse door so their little dear sweetums won't have so far to waddle in to class offers the reassurance that the U.S. Social Security funding "problem" isn't really that much of a problem - if these kids live long enough to pay a bit in. They're unlikely to collect much in large numbers. Very disturbing concept. I may need two chocolate bars to calm down. John |
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17 Mar 05 - 04:06 PM (#1437122) Subject: RE: BS: Eat sweet spud & live a long life From: Liz the Squeak Well I bought a sweet tater today... will cook it tomorrow and see if anyone else actually eats it. LTS |
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17 Mar 05 - 04:51 PM (#1437149) Subject: RE: BS: Eat sweet spud & live a long life From: JohnInKansas LTS - One of the good things about sweet taters is that they require much less cooking to make the useful parts digestible. Ordinary potatos are very hard to digest if they're not cooked, and perhaps "too digestible" if they are. Some cooking in either helps break down the complex starches into more usable components, but the sweet tater seems more tolerant of variation in how much you do. When I had teeth that were equal to the task, I enjoyed sweet taters raw (in small amounts and not too frequently). I still prefer them "less cooked" than the ways they're commonly served. Experimenting to find what you like is the key. John |
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17 Mar 05 - 06:22 PM (#1437215) Subject: RE: BS: Eat sweet spud & live a long life From: LilyFestre We had sweet potatoes for dinner last night...yum! Question: We eat the skins of white/russet potatoes and of red potatoes (excellent nutritionally) but not the skin of sweet potatoes...does anyone eat the skin on sweet potatoes? Michelle |
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17 Mar 05 - 07:18 PM (#1437251) Subject: RE: BS: Eat sweet spud & live a long life From: Liz the Squeak yep, well scrubbed and baked in the oven, with about a pound of butter mashed into it!!! Most of the vitamins are just under the skin so no point in wasting them. LTS |
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17 Mar 05 - 07:23 PM (#1437256) Subject: RE: BS: Eat sweet spud & live a long life From: LilyFestre I know the skin is the best part for you but I have never met one single solitary soul who eats the skin on sweet potatoes. If you put tons of butter on it, that negates the benefits you were getting from the skin! Michelle |
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17 Mar 05 - 07:31 PM (#1437264) Subject: RE: BS: Eat sweet spud & live a long life From: Liz the Squeak Who said I ate it for the benefits?!! (I did exaggerate the amount of butter..... but not by much!) LTS |