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Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets

economist.com

221–230 of 268 posts

Re: Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets

#221
post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotal data - as a Sardinia native, we do eat seafood, but to be honest around me at least that's at most a once a week practice. My grandpas, which lived to 96, 98 and 101, didn't eat much fish either. Lots of veggies though. One of my grandfathers died young due to a heart condition. All of them were regularly checking their health and doing regular blood tests. I can confirm we don't see getting tested as being…

Interesting! Some Friends from Sardinia told me that seafood is predominant in their diet! And of course, veggies.

seafood is cheap af in greece.

When I was in Athens, a kilogram of fresh caught sardines ran about 2 euro for a kilo. Thats cheaper than canned!

On Crete, it was a bit more expensive at 4 euro per kilo but I never paid more than 4 euro for a pound of fish. thats cheap enough to make fresh caught fish a daily meal

Re: Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets

#222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> seafood instead of meat most of that's still meat though?

Fish have lots of selenium that meat lacks.

Fish can also have lots of mercury that meat lacks. It's probably best to eat a variety of different foods in order to avoid excess toxins and nutrient deficiencies.

Re: Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets

#223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting! Some Friends from Sardinia told me that seafood is predominant in their diet! And of course, veggies.

seafood is cheap af in greece. When I was in Athens, a kilogram of fresh caught sardines ran about 2 euro for a kilo. Thats cheaper than canned! On Crete, it was a bit more expensive at 4 euro per kilo but I never paid more than 4 euro for a pound of fish. thats cheap enough to make fresh caught fish a daily meal

That's not a good thing. The Greeks are over fishing their waters.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-greece-fishing/as-stocks-...

Re: Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets

#224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an Italian person (also our life expectancy is really good on average) this hits home. An anecdotal example: I now live in Switzerland and my current doctor was shocked when I ask to get some blood analysis without being sick. He believed that I lied to my insurance company and hid some pre-existing condition. In Italy, instead, it is pretty common that every couple of years you get a complete blood analysis just…

>I now live in Switzerland and my current doctor was shocked when I ask to get some blood analysis without being sick. He believed that I lied to my insurance company and hid some pre-existing condition. this is the same kind of situation in Denmark, I've lived most of my life outside of Denmark, after I cam back in my early 40s I went to the Doctor and said innocently "well I guess I'm getting to that age now where…

Annual check ups aren't supported by evidence based medicine.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1507485

Re: Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets

#225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an Italian person (also our life expectancy is really good on average) this hits home. An anecdotal example: I now live in Switzerland and my current doctor was shocked when I ask to get some blood analysis without being sick. He believed that I lied to my insurance company and hid some pre-existing condition. In Italy, instead, it is pretty common that every couple of years you get a complete blood analysis just…

I remember some research with respect to the U.S.A. where such routine checkups are common, and it concluded that it was close to useless to do so. Routine checkups never happen where I live. — one visits a healer when one feel sick.

Here is a medical editorial which makes the same point and cites the relevant research. Routine annual check ups are probably a waste of resources in most cases.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1507485

Re: Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets

#226
post #47

What's not mentioned in the OP: - INSANE peer pressure. If you're skinny as a twig in the US, you're probably considered normal in Japan. If you're actually an obese person (again, in the US standard), people here wouldn't even look at you straight. This kind of environment put a huge pressure for one to stay in shape. - INSANE obsession for health. I hear that Americans are obsessed with health, but oh boy, have the…

As an Italian person (also our life expectancy is really good on average) this hits home. An anecdotal example: I now live in Switzerland and my current doctor was shocked when I ask to get some blood analysis without being sick. He believed that I lied to my insurance company and hid some pre-existing condition. In Italy, instead, it is pretty common that every couple of years you get a complete blood analysis just…

This seems indeed anecdotal.

I would consider a blood test every couple of years a default practice among GPs in Switzerland. Among other measures that fall under the "prevention is better than treatment" scheme such as free skin cancer screening or colon cancer screening from a certain age.

I find the described reaction of your doctor to be out of the ordinary, and with relation to the described accusation unacceptable.

I would have switched GP in that case.

Re: Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets

#227

Can't let this pass without the old classic: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/704080v1 In the United States, supercentenarian status is predicted by the absence of vital registration. The state-specific introduction of birth certificates is associated with a 69-82% fall in the number of supercentenarian records. In Italy, which has more uniform vital registration, remarkable longevity is instead predicted by l…

"This article is a preprint and has not been certified by peer review"

also the first comment there (http://disq.us/p/25lpyed) which I take the liberty to reproduce here:

Greetings,

With all due respect, the allegations in the article, namely, that supercentenarians are concentrated into regions with no birth certificates and short lifespans is false. By the study of the Gerontology Research Group, International Database on Longevity and Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research among others, we know that supercentenarians are extremely rare, yet an existent and validated population. The Gerontology Research Group takes the global view on the subject, using stable and defined validation criteria outlined by Dr. Poulain of Belgium in the Supercentenarians monograph (2010). I invite all of you who would like to learn more about the GRG data and its characteristics.

www.grg.org

Sincerely,

Waclaw Jan Kroczek

GRG Administrator for Case Validation Reports

Re: Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets

#228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> people here wouldn't even look at you straight Quite the opposite! Random strangers will stare, and friends and colleagues will make blunt comments in a way that would send them straight to HR in the US: you'll be told to your face you're fat, asked how much you weigh, get poked in the belly, asked if you've tried sumo wrestling, etc. A random デブちゃん's experience: https://www.tofugu.com/japan/fat-in-japan/

I’ve had those experiences in China, my friends would often comment on my weight. They never meant it in a offensive way, but it’s still hurtful.

Well did it work?

Re: Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets

#229

When my wife was working in NYC, she gained weight considerably, with her normal eating portion. After she went home back to Japan, and still had her normal eating portion, she lost her weight. At the same time, every time I visited Japan for 2 weeks I usually splurge daily, above my normal portion, and I did not gain weight at all. I might've even lose some occasionally.

It could be something environmental that we haven’t identified yet.

maybe high-fruitcose corn syrup?

Re: Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets

#230
post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fish have lots of selenium that meat lacks.

Fish can also have lots of mercury that meat lacks. It's probably best to eat a variety of different foods in order to avoid excess toxins and nutrient deficiencies.

There’s some interesting research suggesting that mercury poisoning is in fact just pulling out the availability of selenium for bio chemistry by forming metal ion complexes

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18761370/

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