Do You Want To Be Healthy At 100? Book Review Part 1

By Lisa D Liguori –

I want to introduce you to a fabulous book I am reading.

Studying. Devouring.

Healthy at 100, How You Can  – at any age – Dramatically Increase Your Life Span and Your Health Span, by John Robbins

(The Scientifically Proven Secrets of the Worlds Healthiest and Longest-Lived Peoples)

Warning – If you don’t want to make positive changes in your lifestyle, don’t read this book. 

However, if you DO want to “increase both your lifespan AND your health span, you need this book.

I am going to cover part one of the book, as it is quite meaty (no pun intended, as this book is written by John Robbins, who wrote Diet for a New America, the very book that converted me to a vegetarian over 20 years ago).

Having said that, this book is not about being a vegetarian; at least that is not what I have discovered so far.

Part One is about the longest-lived and healthiest people in the world today. 

Four long-lived amazingly healthy cultures are reviewed.

1. The Abkhasians of the Caucasus Mountains – where people are healthier at 90 than most of us are at middle age.
2. The Vilcabambans of Ecuador – where heart disease and dementia do not exist.
3. The Hunzans of Pakistan- where cancer, diabetes and asthma are unknown.
4. The Centenairans of Okinawa – where more people live to 100 than anywhere else in the world.

What do these cultures have in common? Why do they experience such health and longevity?

There are three factors that stood out to me:

Diet – These four cultures had a similar low calorie, low protein, low fat diet, consisting of fruit, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, and no refined sugar.

Even further, these cultures eat on average, 74% of their diet from carbs, 15% from fat and only an average of 12% from protein, nearly 99% of their diet is plant based, with NO salt, NO sugar and no processed food consumption. A truly high carb, low protein diet.

Exercise – They move their bodies as a normal part of their day. They walk everywhere, and usually up and down steep terrains.

Respect for elders – The Abkhasians do not even have a phrase for ‘old people’. Instead, they are referred to as ‘the long-living people”. The Vilcabambans never fear being abandoned, or isolated in their old age; it is unthinkable. This is a sharp contrast to how our culture feels about the aged.

This is by no means an exhaustive review of part one of the book. There is more, so much more. I am still working my way through part two, and will be back with more.

Lisa D Liguori is founder & owner of Style Essentials, the resource for healthy beauty and a personal touch! In between consulting with clients and researching new products to share, she is an active homeschooling mama of two growing up kids in the San Francisco Bay Area. Website: http://www.styleessentials.com/