The Okinawa Program : How the World's Longest-Lived People Achieve Everlasting Health--And How You Can Too Paperback – March 12, 2002

I have highly recommended this book to a number of my friends and family. The well documented information on diet, exercise and social and religious support presented was very interesting.As an engineer who understands statistical analysis, I continue to find it unfortunate that a country like America has a tendency to disregard thousands of years of empirical evidence and instead relies on better living though modern chemisty and surgical procedures to handle many health issues that could have been avoided through simple prevention.My hope is that information like this becomes mainstream in the US, which will make it a lot easier for everyone eat healthier. I would like to share a few thoughts on the profound ramifications something like this could have on us. The social impact of this is a lot larger than our individual health.Imagine how much better our lives would be if 3/4 of our loved ones that we were going to lose to cancer, heart disease and other ailments never got sick to begin with.Imagine how much more productive we would be with less sick days and a higher quality of life. (There are clear economic gains here as well)Imagine not having to worry about your parents loosing their faculties, and maintaining their independence until the end, and what great assets the elderly could be to us rather than often being incapacitated and with a low quality of life. I believe that we as a nation would show them more respect if they could share their experience and abilities with us.Imagine how we could ignore this information for the sake of social conformity, convenience, and an unwillingness to change.

This is not just a book about diet. It is also about sports, lifestyle, spirituality, attitude, family and community support. The Okinawans do everything we do not. They accept aging and death naturally. As a result, they are scared of neither, and age incredibly gracefully. Their lifespan is a lot longer than ours. And, they typically remain fully capable and active until they pass away. All their life signs remain much healthier and vibrant than ours through old age. This is regardless of the indicator you choose. Their respective cholesterol levels, blood pressure, gender hormone levels (testosterone for male, estrogen for female), muscle mass, BMI index are all much better than Americans. They achieve this with no prescription drugs, few supplements if at all, fewer doctors visits, including far fewer surgical interventions. When you are healthy and stay that way you don't need that much medical support.As described above, The Okinawa Program is the best way to reduce our rampant U.S. healthcare cost. But, it also may be the most unrealistic, because it relies on self discipline and spirituality. In America, most people are not interested in eating a healthy diet and exercising to lower their cholesterol and look young. They would rather take prescription drugs, growth hormones, and have cosmetic surgery. And, that is how our medical costs keep on skyrocketing.But now, thanks to The Okinawa Program you can emulate this superior lifestyle with its wonderful benefit that no magic pill will ever deliver. And, it is virtually free.

Anyone seeking a joyful life really should pick up this fine, thought-provoking book. Written by leaders in the field of health and wellness, this best seller offers a path to better health--physical, mental and spiritual--but without the strictures and dictates of the typical, modern fad diet. The authors gush with enthusiasm over their discoveries, and through their helpful approach and real-life stories, make what will be a radical change in lifestyle for many American readers seem not only doable, but also rewarding and fun. That's no mean achievement in a culture of obesity, soaring health care costs and frequent rush-rush, don't-bother-me-with-that attitudes.At the same time, Suzuki, Wilcox and Wilcox are, at times, victims of their own enthusiasm; the reader is cautioned accordingly. The book presents suggested menus and repeatedly offers specific foods as elixirs, more or less, and once past Dr. Andrew Weil's perspicacious Foreword, some readers may take the effusive advice as gospel. It's not, of course, and anyone embarking on a new diet ought to do so only under qualified, professional supervision: allergies and complications associated with certain foods may arise.I keep two copies of this book, one at my bedside and one at my desk, as a core reference. My health's terrific, I should add, and maybe yours will be, too, if you live the Okinawan way. A great companion to this book is George Mateljan's capacious The World's Healthiest Foods, Essential Guide for the Healthiest Way of Eating, but again, all such books are starting points, not destinations.My TitlesShadow FieldsSnooker GlenDasha

While this book was written a decade ago, the information is relevant to the Western diet and lifestyle today. The authors have MD's and PH.D's and studied the population in Okinawa for years using an evidence-based scientific approach. The diet is clearly healthy and something my cardiologist has been teaching me for several years. I learned a great deal from the section on herbs - not just what to eat but why. The section on stress focuses on ways to minimize the damage from a modern lifestyle. The recipes at the end are designed to be feasible for those of us in the West, which is both good and bad. I checked the book out of my local library for a test run, but bought it immediately.