Nutrition The traditional Okinawa diet makes Okinawa people live a long and healthy life, but the carbohydrate content is as high as 85%? What's going on here? In recent years, the popular low-carbon and ketogenic diets are all low-carbohydrate diets, but they may be to simplify the problem! Sometimes carbohydrates are labeled as villains, as if they are responsible for all health problems ... but they are innocent! I saw a friend punching in Okinawa on FB the other day. Maybe I've been watching the relationship in Okinawa. It suddenly occurred to me that I read an article about Okinawa people's longevity and healthy diet many years ago. I vaguely remember that their diet is a type that plants eat a lot, and the proportion of carbohydrates is very high ... Before getting into the topic, I should emphasize one point. The diet that Okinawa people generally eat now is somewhat different from the traditional Okinawa diet. For example, the staple food has changed from sweet potato to rice or bread, or they eat fast food more often. The reason why Okinawans live a long and healthy life, and the traditional diet in Okinawa has attracted much attention, to some extent, is that there are many people over 100 years old in this place, 68 out of every 65,438+10,000 people, which is three times that of the United States, 4.85 times that of Taiwan Province Province, and even much more than other places in Japan. Okinawa people not only live a long life, but more importantly, they are in good health. They are still full of vitality in their 90 s, and aging-related diseases are slowly emerging. Genes, living environment and diet may all be related to their longevity and health, but this article will focus on diet. So, what is the traditional diet in Okinawa? Characteristics of traditional Okinawa diet The traditional Okinawa diet is actually a name given by researchers. For the local people in the past, they just ate whatever the living environment gave them. You should think about it wisely! Mediterranean diet is similar to diet, only to adapt to the environment. Based on the analysis of the traditional Okinawa diet, it is concluded that it has the following characteristics: low calorie intake of a large number of vegetables, especially rhizome and yellow-green vegetables, moderate intake of a large number of beans and fish from soybeans, less meat products, less pork with low fat, less dairy products with low fat intake, and higher proportion of unit and polyunsaturated fatty acids; Because of eating more seafood, the intake of omega -3 is more than that of omega -6, and the intake of carbohydrates is mainly low GI: most of them come from sweet potatoes with more dietary fiber intake and moderate nutrition. The traditional Okinawa diet makes Okinawa people live longer and healthier, but the carbohydrate content is as high as 85%? What's going on here? In recent years, the popular low-carbon and ketogenic diets are all low-carbohydrate diets, but they may be to simplify the problem! Sometimes carbohydrates are labeled as villains, as if they are responsible for all health problems ... but they are innocent! I saw a friend punching in Okinawa on FB the other day. Maybe I've been watching the relationship in Okinawa. It suddenly occurred to me that I read an article about Okinawa people's longevity and healthy diet many years ago. I vaguely remember that their diet is a type that plants eat a lot, and the proportion of carbohydrates is very high ... Before getting into the topic, I should emphasize one point. The diet that Okinawa people generally eat now is somewhat different from the traditional Okinawa diet. For example, the staple food has changed from sweet potato to rice or bread, or they eat fast food more often. The reason why Okinawans live a long and healthy life, and the traditional diet in Okinawa has attracted much attention, to some extent, is that there are many people over 100 years old in this place, 68 out of every 65,438+10,000 people, which is three times that of the United States, 4.85 times that of Taiwan Province Province, and even much more than other places in Japan. Okinawa people not only live a long life, but more importantly, they are in good health. They are still full of vitality in their 90 s, and aging-related diseases are slowly emerging. Genes, living environment and diet may all be related to their longevity and health, but this article will focus on diet. So, what is the traditional diet in Okinawa? Characteristics of traditional Okinawa diet The traditional Okinawa diet is actually a name given by researchers. For the local people in the past, they just ate whatever the living environment gave them. You should think about it wisely! Mediterranean diet is similar to diet, only to adapt to the environment. Based on the analysis of the traditional Okinawa diet, it is concluded that it has the following characteristics: low calorie intake of a large number of vegetables, especially rhizome and yellow-green vegetables, moderate intake of a large number of beans and fish from soybeans, less meat products, less pork with low fat, less dairy products with low fat intake, and higher proportion of unit and polyunsaturated fatty acids; Because they eat more seafood, the intake of omega -3 is lower than that of omega -6, and the intake of carbohydrates is mainly low GI: most of them come from sweet potatoes with more dietary fiber intake, and moderate drinking may be due to the popularity of pyramid painting in the research era. There is also a traditional Okinawa diet pyramid in my references, so I simply recreated a "traditional Okinawa diet pyramid". And what is the difference between the proportion of carbohydrate, protein and lipid in this diet pyramid and the diet we usually eat? Proportion of three nutrients in traditional Okinawa diet The following table lists the nutritional components of traditional and modern Okinawa diet, DASH diet and Mediterranean diet. The proportion of modern Okinawa diet is similar to that suggested by the dietary guidelines of Taiwan Province Province. As for the protagonist of this article, the proportion of "traditional Okinawa diet" is a bit surprising. Switching carbohydrates and fats in the traditional Okinawa diet should be 87% like a ketogenic diet. Before going to see what they eat in detail, many people should shake their heads as long as they see 85% carbohydrates. Is there really no problem with this ratio? The healthy elements of the traditional Okinawa diet Judging from the longevity and health status of the older generation of Okinawa people, this ratio is not only no problem, but may be one of the reasons for promoting health, but it is not as simple as the nutrition ratio. Why? Some studies have sorted out the healthy elements in Okinawa's traditional diet: eating a lot of healthy ingredients, such as bean products rich in flavonoids, bitter gourd, konjac, mushrooms, burdock, loofah, seaweed, herbs, spices and so on. Sweet potato is the main carbohydrate food source. Although sweet potato is the main carbohydrate food, it also contains various vitamins and minerals, and also contains a lot of fiber. Compared with refined starch foods such as white rice, bread or white flour, the GI of sweet potato is lower. In addition, if you see that sweet potatoes are low in GI and rich in nutrition, don't eat them! Please remember that the daily total energy intake of the traditional Okinawa diet is lower than our general regular diet. Do Okinawa people eat sweet potato leaves, which we often eat? Yes, sweet potato leaves are also vegetables used in Okinawa's daily cooking, such as directly cooking side dishes or adding seasoning soup to cook, which are very common practices. Note: Even for starchy foods, we can slow down the digestion of starchy foods by changing the eating order, and eat some vegetables and protein foods first, and then eat starchy foods. Or, taking a walk after a meal can also prevent blood sugar from rising too high after a meal. Please remember that the GI value is about the reaction of a single food, without considering the interaction between mixed food and human activities, which means that people's actual eating situation will change greatly.