Can New Foods Let You Live Longer? | The Art Of Living: Japan | Tonic

he's now vacuum cleaning the sea floor this is one drama who doesn't want to live a long and healthy life my name is nicholas yexted and i run three restaurants my greatest passions are food and health since i recently crossed the 40 year old mark and it feels like i'm in the middle of my life thoughts of living for as long as possible run through my mind more frequently there are six mythical areas in the world where it's common that people live to become a hundred year or more these places are called the blue zones how come you get so old in these places who are the people living there how do they live what do they eat and what is the secret to a long and healthy life i have decided to travel the world and visit the blue zones to get answers to my questions [Music] this is the first time i cook breakfast for a hundred year old man look at that are you kidding me she has her own radio show no no you have sex up to a high age as well are you done for today are you gonna do more weights no no i've already been here for two hours you are hipsters yes but we started it hopefully i will come back knowing how to live to the magic age of a hundred or even more what you're saying actually is that my diet can change my gene yes exactly but you believe in the devil yes in hell yeah bye bye it's just difficult to understand i mean he's born in 1915 okinawa has always been on the top of my bucket list it's a place that i've always wanted to visit okinawa has been an independent island state and junction for trade in east china sea for centuries this along with the tropical climate is the foundation of a unique area of cooking that has inspired me and many others here the inhabitants have developed a lifestyle that has given them a superior health it is said to be the place on earth with the biggest chance for people to reach 100 years but since okinawa was a us colony for 27 years after the second world war the presence of americans on the island has influenced the culture as well as the food i wonder how that agrees with longevity [Music] so it's always very exciting to visit local markets it's the best place to get to know more about the local food and what they eat and so i'm gonna meet up with dr craig who's gonna show me around the market and also tell me more about the health and the centenarians on this island [Music] dr craig wilcox is a professor in public health at the okinawa international university he is also responsible for the okinawa centenarian study hey that must be craig you must be necklace it is how are you good can yourself what are these these are okinawan donuts perfect yes you start off talking about health and we got a dog cooked in healthy oils and using brown sugar tell me a little bit about you and how did you end up on the island okinawa is known as a blue zone it's just pockets of uh healthy aging and longevity where people live long and healthy lives around the world and um i was interested in healthy aging so i joined the okinawa centenarian study so i came out to work with dr suzuki okay he's the founder of the study what's the main difference between longevity on these islands compared to mainland japan there's a lot of cultural differences between okinawa and mainland japan there's different dietary habits the main difference being in the staple which is the sweet potato here and in the mainland of japan it's rice okay a little more seaweed here a little less fish a little more meat they're not strong believers in buddhism here that's in the mainland they have their own indigenous religion so there's no prohibitions against eating meat here okay pork was always the traditional meat really so the traditional okinawan diet was nutrient dense but calorically poor the ideal combination for healthy aging look at this it looks like a colder reef fish so the main diet i mean it looks like fish but the main diet is not fish is that it was pork well traditionally um but the equal amounts of fish and other meats in japan because we should eat 30 different foods every day ah sobriety is a very zero yes good number look at this yeah that's uh this is the fugue it's taking the skin off it's cause the skin is poisonous oh is it this is good to know god okinawa is a bunch of islands it's 140 islands and they have this island attitude it's kind of a slower pace it's kind of a happy-go-lucky and optimistic it's like a caribbean yeah kind of like a don't worry be happy kind of attitude they say nan kurunaisa kind of like whatever will be will be okay what happens what happens right it's a stress resistant kind of personality i'd call it so the attitude the religion and the diet is different from mainland japan yes [Music] tomaki is a 38 year old restaurant owner and food enthusiast working with the traditional okinawan kitchen hello nicholas hey nice to meet you thank you so much for showing me around yeah how are you excellent it's a little warm for a swede yeah it's a little hot in quinoa as well so we are going to meet yoshiko living in chattan today and we are going to cook one of the famous okinawan cuisine which is called goya champuri yeah goya is bitter melon okay so this is it oh okay yeah we're there yes we're here yeah this is a yoshi cozy house yeah beautiful yes so how do i say just hi can i shake your hand or is it okay well you don't shake hands what did i say konnichiwa so take my shoes off [Music] [Music] [Music] so family is living around okay okay so you have your family close oh nice [Music] [Applause] wow so many things oh okinawa so you're 93 years old and you cook every day 92 92 yeah of course [Music] she says i'm young what does he think about people that retire when they're 65 and don't do anything [Laughter] did she have every profession was did she ever work somewhere at the uh once you go to uh huh she was running a shop she must have experienced okinawa with very little products very little food through the war and everything and now she has a lot of things foreign and she still needs the canned food yeah 70 years later her love of canned pork is still there [Music] so bitter melon canned pork and tofu [Music] what is this it's called nigano migona yeah yeah always they say that the more bitter the vegetable is the better is it is for us i mean this is very nice chopped right professional yeah and now tofu yeah you want to put miso first okay first [Music] mix yeah i'm messing with [Laughter] peanut butter it's funny there's some american ingredients huh this dish i mean some okinawa up you have bitter leaves but you have a little bit of american ingredients there a little bit of mainland japanese miso that's true and tofu yeah [Laughter] [Music] wow this is really good well done i'm a little tall for this [Laughter] so what does she do when she's not cooking uh she goes out with their friends and saying karaoke yes wow wow can i come with her i don't yes this would be the first time i go out and sing karaoke in japan are you kidding me she has her own radio show [Music] no this is too complicated let's go out to sing karaoke instead let's go and sing swedish if we think about the okinawan blue zone older people in okinawa have been physically active their whole lives they've been farmers are fisher folk so they've burned a lot of calories they have strong social connections so supportive families strong social networks they have these kind of social groups called moai for example i used to call them the people's banks because the days before banks used to lend you money the whole village would contribute mostly it's more of a friendship-based function so these moai still survive in okinawa [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] um [Music] what a wonderful feeling to see yushiku and her friends gather to spend time to chat dance and sing it's fascinating that they put so much effort in their social life even at an old age i can truly see that this is one of the reasons that they live a healthier life what an amazing lady so much energy very powerful so that's all you need pretty much good friends music and good food yeah and dance yeah [Music] [Music] one of the most famous ingredients in the west from the japanese kitchen has to be miso every sushi restaurant around the world is serving miso soup until now i had no idea that miso is part of the superfoods and that it can really keep you healthy and well [Music] look at this wow yeah what a place huh this is a real miso factory it's all done by hand huh yes they are the only one for this miso in okinawa and they still keep the like traditional okay so this is the old style of making miso and miso is what what is it exactly it's a um miso is one of the fermented products it's uh so the ingredients are soy bean and we add koji mold okay so koji mode mode okay so the code like cheese okay and it was probably a way back in the days to save the soya bean right yeah preserve it before refrigerators and yeah it said the miso's history started around like 1300 years ago okay thirteen hundred years ago okay very very old process it's a steam cooker first they boil soy beans in this tank okay like around 90 minutes and then the soybean is moved into that grinder yeah yeah and grind it and put here okay [Music] every time when you come to a place with a very rich food culture there's always a very solid craft behind it [Music] personally i would say that there must be a faster and simpler way of doing this but just like many other places there is most likely a huge pride in doing it according to the old traditions and people here maintain that the results do become much better this way very glue yeah but you can actually taste that there's going to be miso from it [Music] cooked soya beans grinded down mints down to this paste where you add koji mold and salt and then you put them in barrels to ferment it yes summer more than six months six months yes oh so it's like wine pretty much so what are the health benefits with miso yeah miso was blood pressure and also cholesterol okay and also by fermentation some nutrition such as amino acid increase okay yeah so it's actually the fermentation process that you add to the soya beans that actually makes it more healthy [Music] hello nicholas nicolas mr ceo all right and has it always been your family's factory fifth generation miso maker so how how long have you have you been working with me so what does 83 years old you're 83 and still working yeah strong working he loves working here yeah so this is what keeps him [Music] going the people of okinawa stay active and eat healthy up to a very old age it is said to be a reason for them living longer but researchers are talking about a genetic heritage as a affecting factor for a long life if that's true i wonder if it really matters how one lives [Music] a couple of things here we have to qualify one genes are not static mechanisms they work in concert with lifestyle so your lifestyle can upregulate longevity genes or a poor lifestyle can down regulate a function of longevity genes even if you have an average version you can still make it work better so how would you do that for example dietary mechanisms polyphenols seaweed-based carotenoids that would change your gene yes we have we've no no wait this is this is too much so what you're saying actually is that my diet can change my gene yes exactly i mean there's certain nutritional advice or rules that everybody should be following they're simple don't want to eat too many calories okinawa they have a saying harahachibu so you always push yourself away from the table when you're say approximately eighty percent full you still have a little room in your stomach leave hungry leave a little bit hungry stay hungry it's this kicks in caloric restriction mechanisms turns on longevity genes really yes as a species human beings have been colorectal restricted it's been feast or famine throughout evolution and when there's a famine your genetic program goes into survival mode and you get these longevity effects but there's foods too i mean you can there's foods that are called caloric restriction mimetics so they mimic the effects of color restriction what would they be for example well again we get back to um what flavonoids or or polyphenols or speaking of different foods sweet potatoes are color restriction with a lot of colors the rainbow diet do you want to go caloric restriction eat a lot of vegetables right vegetables are full of nutrients they're very colorfully poor but they're very nutrient rich and that's the ideal food so less meat more vegetables leave hungry that's those are three very good things you could start yeah tomorrow today leave the donuts for you [Laughter] [Music] okay feels like it's time to start upgrading my jeans i will start off with seaweed which they eat loads of here this is why tamaki and i will go out in the ocean fishing for seaweed one of the reasons why long live it is so present on the island is because the diet is very healthy and very diverse and good for you yeah is that something that's known to people the people know this that's interesting question i don't think so like what we eat is just part of your daily life yeah we don't right recognize oh we eat this that's why we live longer or you know so it's just there it's just part of the culture the food yeah and so it's nothing that you talk about at your house or in the school or not very much no [Music] exciting i've been on a lot of boats fishing for fish but never for seaweed so this is the first time i go on a seaweed boat yes are you excited very okay these are our friends yes [Music] head north west north this way tell us this way sorry so this is cultivated uh seaweed yeah what's it called yes and it's very typical for okinawan typical i eat the kind of everyday very often so does it work like in regular farm do you put seeds in the in the sand or no generally they put seeds on the net okay before they put the net in the water okay yeah and you wait for six months yeah and then they harvest the seaweed yeah here is a fan oh this is the farm underwater can you see some like brown stuff yeah that's the seaweed yeah so cousin is a diver okay to take the horse with him do you suck up music oh so it's basically like a vacuum cleaner yes right yeah so he's going with that down [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay wow [Music] [Music] he's down vacuum cleaning the sea floor this is one germa vacuum cleaning sea floor for seaweed [Music] and the seaweed comes up in this pipe here and then comes down like this yep and here is just to rinse it to clean it right separate the some stuff from there yeah it was good and you eat this pretty much like this straight up right yep fresh yeah it's delicious it's very nice too yeah but still it's like noodles yes it is yeah yeah wow like tapioca noodles can we cook this tomorrow yeah let's okay and what are the health benefits why is it so good uh like mozaku is rich in dietary fiber and also like vitamins minerals and also especially mozuke has a nutrition called the fukuo edam hukoidan observes purely bacteria in your stomach okay yeah purely bacteria is a major cause of stomach cancer all right and we if we could build farms like this and eat more of these type of ingredients it's not only good for us but it's also good for the environment right yeah i think so yeah it's very sustainable chaton town also called the american village is mainly known for being a meeting place for youngsters it is a very americanized part of okinawa here you will find restaurants cinemas theaters and bars but the city is not only entertainment even though the united states of america gave back okinawa to japan in the 70s the americans have stuck around 53 percent of the american village surface are military bases the most problematic effect of americanization in okinawa has been the fast food culture more hamburger joints per capita than anywhere else in japan lots of steak you'll eat a lot more meat than they ever used to that's mainly due to the american influence i think younger people in okinawa they're very receptive to most things american hey saudi hello how are you hi how are you good hey nicholas how are you sorry i'm hi how are you how are you how is it okinawa it's a little warm for me i'm from sweden so i'm a polar bear you know it's normal normally so sorry where are we what's this place this is an american bridge in chattan city so many americans come here because the very biggest base and over there and the other side and um looks like american that's why it's like disney world and someone told me i don't know if this is true the closer you live to american village and then and the base the less health the less healthy you are yeah is that true that's true that's true because we can get the big hamburgers big coke and then anything we can get so mushy okay [Laughter] rather eat a hamburger than a traditional okinawan dish i think that they're going to be changing right now it's a big change yeah really exchanging my friend who is the nurse yeah she said that so many 60s yeah in a hospital so people who are in their 60s are more sick than the people that are in their 80s yes the older people live longer than pretty well everybody else in the world younger people middle-aged people higher risk for lifestyle related diseases such as cardiovascular diseases higher rates of obesity higher rates of diabetes this is what younger people are faced with these are the challenges so our generation won't live as long as the old generation well life expectancy is still growing but it's growing much more slowly than it used to actually if you look at average life expectancy at birth you're seeing not much differences between the mainland and okinawa now but on on the positive side there's been a real resurgence of of traditional okinawan culture and a return to the roots of the traditional okinawan diet the slow food movement is very strong here so slowing down spending time eating with family members taking time to prepare food [Music] my new friend tomaki is one of the few who is trying to turn the trend and teach traditional okinawan cooking and healthy food so this is your neighborhood yes and you run your little restaurant here yes yeah we have a studio over there nice hello i'm nicholas rina lina hi how are you that's your sister yes yeah oh this is her older sister yes ah are you the one in charge yeah you're in charge yeah yeah so we're gonna cook braised pork belly with special miso sauce okay so pork is a big thing in okinawa we often say that we eat all parts of the pig except oink so basically everything so one of the technique which makes pork dish still healthy is we pre-boil pork for two hours before cooking which decreases the unnecessary fat all right and then the fat is good though it's tasty yeah so i would say unnecessary fun you know okay this is miso we just got from tamannaah miso factory okay we put this in there yeah [Music] which is local liquor that's good [Music] so how long is this gonna cook now for one hour one hour let's cook tempura yes perfect so what's the secret for a good tempura batter then that's a secret yes um there's no secrets so how do you do a good tempura batter marina should tell okay i'll ask her you don't know i don't know [Laughter] so compared to japanese tempura yes the butter is very thick so it's more like fritta so we use egg and yum and yum yes that's the secret yeah egg in here so perfect you can be our assistant today yes thank you for having me okay that's the okinawan way to make tempura right and flour so gently oh gently yeah so this is the the one we fished yesterday yes yeah exactly put that in here yeah you want it in here yes yeah i'm just making sure i'm double checking with them they look beautiful yes fresh mozuku fresh picked up by me yeah so these are traditional dishes from okinawa exactly [Music] let's try the pork it's very soft rich and sweet and there's acidity to it and then you have the fermented flavor from the miso oh good really good wow that's amazing i mean really tasty it's almost like an omelette because it has those eggs in it and it's not greasy at all yes and then you got the salty seaweed and so the secret is to eat a lot of vegetables and a lot of seaweed yeah and when using meat you use it as a side dish or to enhance the flavors of the vegetables when you're cooking them so take nutrition balance balance yeah it's the most important to keep it healthy yeah i mean that was really delicious thank you very much and thank you sister i think she's the one that do the cookies you're a spoiled man dr craig wilcox told me one shall eat about 30 various kinds of food each day and we as westerners should also cherish eating more varied food but it's not only the food that has made the elderly okinawan people live a long life they've also maintained a physical active lifestyle okinawa is very famous for its long liberty but it's even more famous for its martial arts and especially karate which originates from this island so i'm now on my way to meet up with a karate master who will teach me some moves and this will be new to me because i've never done any types of martial arts [Music] niklas hey hey [Music] i wonder if this is how cut karatekid felt the time he trained with mr miyagi [Music] [Applause] okay this [Music] music [Music] created you're twice the age of me and you're still doing characters it's something you can go on forever with karate es even on so is it only the character or is there something else in your life that you do to keep fit and be in good health [Music] [Music] um [Music] much [Music] [Music] okay okay i really need to work out more i mean it's it's hard to go to to work out with someone who's 85 years old and way more fit than you so it's just go back home and train do you think there is any hope for me okay right thank you thank you thank you very much older people in in okinawa place a large value on a concept called ikigai ikigai basically is you're raison d'etre it's your what gets you out of bed in the morning your reason for keep on going when you're 70 or 80 or 90. once you stop working and you're a little bit removed from other social roles you really need some some purpose in your life it could be anything it could be your grandchildren it could be painting it could be doing karate they do in okinawa it's very personal but it's an important concept as you grow older it's important concept in social policy for older people [Music] so what do you think about the future for the blue zones do you think there'll be more or do you think it'll be less blue zones that all depends on what public health measures we take as societies do we make the healthy choice the easy choice do we have cities where we have lots of walking paths so if we do people will use them we don't people will drive so there's a lot of what we call blue zone infrastructure that could be taking place school lunches cafeterias do we need a softing machine there what's in the soft drink machine you gotta there's soft drink machines everywhere in japan but if you look well what are the choices well water green tea are better options yes better options healthy options if people have two choices a healthy choice or an unhealthy choice with regards to food or exercise or other lifestyle habits they'll take the easy choice most often if the healthy choice is the easy choice then they'll take it so what you're saying is that you can city plan a blue zone yes yes [Music] i can now take okinawa off my bucket list the learnings i will bring with me from this wonderful and varying trip are the following always do leave the dining table hungry for more and stick to your social community all your life exercising and being active with something you really enjoy is satisfying and last but not least we must all find our ikigai the reason for getting out of the bed in the morning and the thing that gave our life its meaning [Music] oh

Channel: Tonic

Views: 882,617

Keywords: ancient health traditions, ancient wisdom, anti-aging foods, balanced diet, blue zone secrets, culinary inspirations, culinary traditions, documentary series, global cuisine, global cuisine exploration, healthy aging tips, healthy eating habits, healthy living tips, international cuisine, lifestyle tips, longevity secrets, superfoods exploration, sustainable living, traditional foods, wellness travel

Id: D18P7duyZ6Q

Length: 45min 11sec (2711 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 21 2021