The island where people forget to die (1)

Peter Wu & Others

1 November 2012

Peter: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/magazine/the-island-where-people-forget-to-die.html

Another very interesting article from the NY Times, posted three days ago. It is 11 pages long so you may not have the time or patience to read it. But I strongly recommend that you do.

Anyway, the gist of the article is:

a. The inhabitants from an island called Ikaria in Greece live an measurably long and healthy life - 90 plus.

b. People from this (impoverished?) island don’t have much material goods but they subsist on a healthy diet, grow their own vegetables, exercise daily (through enforced walking up and down hills as mechanised transport is limited), are never in a hurry (they get up when they feel like it) and socialise regularly and extensively with family, friends and neighbours over a meal with wines of course. The environment is also clean.

c. In trying to understand why residents on this Island live to such a ripe old age, the author concluded that while a healthy diet and regular exercise are important contributors to longevity, their influence is limited. Far more important is the eco-system where the environment, the social structure, the culture, the way of life, the human interactions all combine to create an environment which promotes healthy living. So if everyone is not a hurry, what’s the point of being in a hurry? If everyone eats and drink the way they do, you end up eating and drinking the same. If everyone grows their own vegetables and bring foods to a gathering, you are likely to do the same. If the community is tight-knit and looks after one another, you will be in good company.

d. The strongest argument from the author is that trying to lead a healthy live, lose weight, kick unhealthy habits on your own rarely works because the surrounding environment is working against you, like pedalling a canoe upstream. Look at how we are constantly assaulted by advertising which tempts us to eat and drink and wrong stuff. Look at the temptations put before us when we go through the aisles in a supermarket. When was the last time you managed to just pick up the items you had wanted when you went to a supermarket? I always come out with extras – lots of extras. Always extras.

Many of the health problems we are facing are our creation. This thing called modern living, (where we sit in front of the TV and eat rich foods) has a lot to answer for. NZ has amongst the largest Polynesian population concentrations in the world. A significant proportion of these people are having acute health problems like obesity, diabetes, heart disease after they emigrate here. Back in their home soils, the incidents of health issues are much less serious.

Why? Because of the western life-style and diet. Polynesian people are genetically big-framed. By exposing them to a diet of diary, meats, junk and sugary foods and sedentary life-style, we are sending them to an early grave.

As China develops, I can see the same time bomb is ticking away. In saying ‘to get rich is glorious’, Deng Xiaoping not only created a climate of endemic corruption, he is sending the Chinese people on the road to health ruin.

Dr. Hon: Remember your childhood in Hong Kong in the fifties and early sixties, what did you eat every day?

Tons of vegetables and only small amount of meat, thin slices of pork, chicken and occasionally beef,shared among the whole family. You could only afford chicken during celebrations such as Mid-Autumn festival or Chinese New Year etc. Cream cakes and candies are luxuries. Soda was expensive. You drank mainly water or for a treat 維他奶. And you ate with your family every evening.

Your adult neighbours kept an eye on you. You walked almost every day because the buses were almost always full or didn't even stop.

Not every family had TV, so you played outdoors, exercising almost every day. There were hardly any overweight children.

The only entertainment was going to the cinema, two to a seat or even sitting at the aisle. If you're really hard up, squeezed into a 涼茶鋪,for a matinee 武俠片.

Life wasn't easy but were you happy? I was.

-To be continued-