Okinawa blue zone diet and trends

[Earthtodan]

Hi all,
In one of the early podcasts, the 2 dudes mentioned that since Okinawa was identified as a blue zone, fat intake has gone up while heart disease and other complications have gone down. Are there any studies to support this? My dad is diabetic and eats mostly rice, tofu and other low fat foods, citing Okinawa as his source of wisdom.

Thanks,

Dan

[PaulL]

Interesting! I’d like to know more about what the Okinawan diet was, and is. I have heard a lot of discussion about the Okinawan diet, but no one I’ve read seems very clear about what Okinawans actually eat. And descriptions of the diet vary wildly, from a lot of meat on the one hand, to rice, tofu, and low-fat foods, as your father believes. I’d love to know where he got his information, because I’d love to unravel this puzzle.

[Madeleine]

Here’s from Wikipedia: The traditional diet of the islanders contains 30% green and yellow vegetables. Although the traditional Japanese diet usually includes large quantities of rice, the traditional Okinawa diet consists of smaller quantities of rice; instead the staple is the purple-fleshed Okinawan sweet potato. The Okinawan diet has only 30% of the sugar and 15% of the grains of the average Japanese dietary intake.[4]

The traditional diet also includes a tiny amount of fish (less than half a serving per day) and more in the way of soy and other legumes (6% of total caloric intake). Pork is highly valued, yet eaten very rarely. Every part of the pig is eaten, including internal organs.

It’s higher carb for sure than what we’re all aiming for but from the rest of the page and what I’ve read in the past, I think it’s important to keep in mind that their eating is:

• local
• seasonal
• very low in grains and sugar and processed foods
• whole foods
• fish and all parts of the pig (seafood and internal organs both are tied to good health outcomes)
• less food overall than we’ve come to think of as normal

and all in the context - at least traditionally - of much more time outside, more activity, with strong communities (all very important for overall health and longevity) AND in the context of genetics that have been honed for millennia by the available food.

@Earthtodan, rice, tofu and LF food sounds kind of miserable but it’s probably better than SAD, and if your father is thriving on this way of eating and he’s reversing his diabetes, great. Maybe he has a lot of Ainu or at least Asian genes?

I suspect that he’s not thriving, which is why you’re asking. In the end we each need to find what works for our particular bodies and circumstances (i.e. the proof is in the pudding). Many diabetics reverse their numbers and their symptoms astonishingly quickly on keto and find that they’re off of meds within 3 to 6 months.

[I don’t remember the reference on 2KD so I’m missing that particular piece…]

[Saphire]

See the article linked by @mikajomc, it answers your question

What about all those healthy high carb low fat people?

There are counter-examples of the Masai and Inuit that are very healthy and eat almost exclusively animal-based diets. Bottom line, diets comprised of whole foods lacking in processed crap are probably ok. Not veganism, that is a construct. But any traditional diet. Keep in mind that the high-carb traditional diets are very low in fructose. The problem is, most people don’t have the luxury of having lived their whole lives eating a traditional diet and are metabolically f’ed. So they need …

[Earthtodan]

Thanks everyone for the replies. The linked article from mikajomc pretty much flatly states the opposite of the conventional wisdom (low fat), and then the abstracts of the two studies linked in the breaknutrition podcast (here and here) offer more moderate accounts of the balance between animal products and carbs. In any case, all accounts seem to debunk the myth that they’re doing this on a diet of rice.