Okinawan Blue Zone and Mediterranean Diets Share 4 Things in Common

• Okumura Oyster is nutritional therapist I grew up in America and Japan.
• She points out four principles that are common to both the Okinawan Blue Zones and the Mediterranean diet.
• Common principles include balance, plant-based foods with antioxidants, and minimal meat and dairy.

Dan Buttner’s Netflix documentary series Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zone premiered Wednesday, with the first episode zooming in on Okinawa, Japan.

Buttner, a National Geographic Fellow and best-selling author, helped coin the term Blue Zone. He has spent the last 20 years researching communities with high longevity.

The Blue Zones refer to five specific areas around the world where people are known to live healthier and longer lives. Since the Mediterranean diet has become a hot topic in recent years, I decided to compare it with the Okinawan blue zone diet to see what it has in common.

Although the foods of the Okinawan Blue Zone diet are certainly different from those of the Mediterranean diet, the two different dietary approaches do indeed have some common characteristics, and perhaps the key to health and longevity is a single diet. Suggesting it’s not in the regional superfoods. But it can be attributed to overarching principles that lead to greater happiness.

In addition to Okinawa, Japan, the other four Blue Zones include Sardinia, Italy, Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica, Ikaria, Greece, and Loma Linda, California. These areas not only have unusually high numbers of centenarians, but also have relatively low rates of chronic disease within the community.

Here are four principles common to the Okinawan Blue Zone Diet and the Mediterranean Diet.

1.AfFocus on balance, not extremes

The Okinawan Blue Zone Diet, like the Mediterranean diet, does not exclude specific food groups. Instead of trying to eliminate macronutrients such as fats and carbohydrates (macronutrients that are essential for good health), there is more emphasis on balancing different food groups in one meal.

For example, in traditional Okinawan cuisine, it is common to cook and steam rice with diced sweet potatoes instead of eating it as is. In this way, sweet potatoes not only add B vitamins, iron, magnesium, and more to rice, but they also add fiber, which helps slow digestion and convey a feeling of fullness.

2. AvInclude a variety of fruits and vegetables in each meal

In a study on Japanese centenarians in Okinawa, Okinawans eat on average seven kinds of fruits and vegetables a day..

Eating this much vegetables and fruits in a day may seem like a lot of work, but Okinawan cuisine makes it easy. His one of the most popular and famous Okinawan dishes is called Chanpuru, which means “to mix”. It is traditionally a combination of bitter gourd, tofu, eggs and bean sprouts, often with added vegetables such as carrots, cabbage and onions.

In addition, stir-fried dishes such as irichi, in which ingredients such as kelp and root vegetables are simmered together, and rice dishes such as juicy, in which rice is cooked with vegetables, are often used in Okinawan cuisine. It makes it much easier to increase the variety of dishes. Similar to the Mediterranean diet, Okinawa’s Blue Zone diet emphasizes eating a variety of fruits and vegetables rather than relying on a single superfood.

3. Rich in antioxidant-rich plant-based foods

Okinawa’s Blue Zone diet is also rich in plant-based foods containing antioxidants, molecules that help protect the body from free radical damage associated with chronic disease and cancer.

sweet potatoes found to constitute a major part of the diet among centenarians Okinawa is particularly rich in carotenoids, a type of antioxidant. Other common antioxidant-rich foods in the Okinawan diet include sea vegetables such as bitter gourd, winter melon, and sea grapes, and legumes such as tofu, edamame, and soybeans, often served as miso. will be

Although the Mediterranean diet relies on other antioxidant-rich foods such as tomatoes, cucumbers, and legumes such as chickpeas, both diets should be high in antioxidant-rich plant-based foods. Emphasis on

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Four. less meat and dairy

Both the Okinawan Blue Zone and Mediterranean diets minimize meat and dairy. While neither food group was completely eliminated, the Okinawan diet found the following: Dairy and meat made up less than 2% of the diet. Instead, you’ll either get your protein from soy-based foods, or get your protein from moderate amounts of seafood.

I believe that there is no single best way to eat and that our personal preferences, lifestyle choices and genetic makeup influence what is best for our health, but Okinawa Blue The Zone and the overarching principles of the Mediterranean diet can suggest how to eat. We may eat to live longer and healthier.

Natsuki Okumura, the author ofWa – The Art of Balance: Living Healthier, Happier and Longer the Japanese Way.” To subscribe to her weekly newsletter Kakikata, please visit: kakikata.ck. page.