Get into the ‘blue zone’
Around the world we engage in the ritual of eating in incredibly varied ways – some more conducive to our wellbeing than others. The typical ‘Western’ diet includes some particularly bad habits, such as high consumption of red meat and low consumption of fruit and vegetables. At the opposite end of the scale there is one particular place in the world that has been revered for its eating habits (and particularly how conducive these are to a long and healthy life): the Japanese island of Okinawa. In this unique place, food is not simply a source of energy or pleasure. Food, for Okinawans is ritualistically revered as remedial and life sustaining. The diet in Okinawa has traditionally included vegetables as a staple, plenty of soy protein and a limited amount of lean meat and seafood. This concept is captured by the Okinawan proverb nuchi gusui, or ‘food is medicine’. It is this special reverence for food that also appears to inform the Okinawan habit of hara hachi bu, or eating until you are only ‘eight parts full’ for health and longevity. This traditional way of approaching mealtimes has an increasingly sound basis in contemporary science: sensible calorie restriction has shown to have positive health effects in studies on eating habits. These two key habitual differences – both of revering what our food does for us and also practising a less is more habit of how we consume food – certainly seem to have done the Okinawan people multiple favours. These people are recognised around the world for their longevity. Okinawa is considered a ‘blue zone’, one of the places where people live longer than anywhere else. Is it time that we all made the ritual of eating a little more sacred, and a little less swift?