Was Spock a Vegan?
Live Long and Prosper! Was Spock a Vegan? How can we live long? The Okinawans (a Japanese Island) lived for a long time; many times reaching 100 years of age or longer. Well, being on an island they probably ate lots of fish….but did they?….let’s take a look. If you look at the traditional diets of more than 2,000 Okinawans, we find that 96% of their diet was plant-based; they loved their purple and orange sweet potatoes among other whole foods. So how was their health?…..Okinawa had 8 to 12 times fewer heart disease deaths than the United States, 2 to 3 times fewer colon cancer deaths, 7 times fewer prostate cancer deaths, and 5½ times lower risk of dying from breast cancer. Eating a 90+% whole food plant-based diet makes it a highly anti-inflammatory and highly antioxidant diet which actually promotes ‘Health’; hummm, what a novel idea!!! So should we all move to Okinawa? Hummm, better not. The American Fast Food industry has taken over with more than 1 dozen KFC restaurants, McDonalds and plenty of other junk food outlets !!
And their health is no longer ‘healthy’; they are now the fattest of all Japanese and their heart disease, T2D, and cancer rates are neck and neck with the U.S. The generation that grew up eating American food is now reaching middle age, they are overweight and obese; and at risk from diabetes. Almost 30 per cent of Okinawan men die before reaching 65, and nearly half of men in their forties are obese. Malnutrition is killing many more Okinawans than they lost in WWII. Stay healthy, Vegan Doc
Thanks to Dr. Greger at www.nutritionfacts.org.