Started Okinawa Program

I actually read the Foreword and first Chapter of The Okinawa Program. I read this book in the early 2000s when it was first released. I may have mentioned in my earlier post on it that I lived in Okinawa at the time the book was released and I've met all three of the authors as well as Dr. Weil who wrote the foreword. As I suggested in that previous post, the Okinawa Program does say it is not simply diet, but exercise, spirituality and community that help define what makes Okinawans so long lived.

The other thing that I knew but it comes up straight out inthe first chapter is that the Okinawa diet is high complex carbohydrates and low fat, contrary to the low carb "fad diets". Even back as far as 2001 when this book was published it was clear that the Keto based diets of low carbs was a thing, probably as much as it is now. So while someone like the Hall of Famer Joe Thomas of the Cleveland Browns continues to suggest that he Keto diet is healthy, the Okinawa Program suggests that it is simply not true. The specifics come out later in the book but the Okinawans have a diet the majority of which is complex carbs. And as you know Okinawa has more 100 year olds than anywhere else on the planet, at least at the time the book was published.

I also find it ironic that while I was in Okinawa and largely spurred by the publishing of this book, I was involved in a non-profit call the Okinawa Wellness Cetner that helped with a International Longevity Conference which is where I met Dr. Weil, but I was anything but living a healthy lifestyle. It wasn't until 2014 when I was close to 200 pounds that I really transitioned to a whole food, plant based diet and am again involved in a non-profit promoting a healthy dietary lifestyle.