If Pasta Is So Bad, Why Do Italians Live So Long?

now if pasta is so bad why do the Italians live so long at least in certain parts of Italy one part of the northern part called Liguria they live longer than any other region in Europe and in Sardinia which is the second-largest island off the coast of Italy in the Blue Zone they also are tied with Japan as living the longest now I just wanted to mention that I'm not saying that the entire country of Italy ranks higher than other countries as far as living longer but these two areas definitely are at the top of the list and another point that's interesting out of over a thousand residents aged over a hundred and five years old 951 of them are female okay that's eighty seven point two percent this is because of estrogen estrogen can act as an antioxidant thereby slowing down the free radical exposure and damage to the DNA in the mitochondria so now I recently did a trip in Italy and I interviewed a lady from Sardinia a lot of times when you read a books or in the news you hear about the blue zone Sardinia they have all sorts of opinions on what they eat you're gonna find out exactly what sardines eat so there will be no more mystery and I think you're gonna be quite surprised at a couple things but before I show you this interview I want to talk about pasta what's so different about the pasta in Europe and especially Italy there's no glyphosate in the US they spray wheat with glyphosate that's like the stuff they used in Roundup Ready now in the u.s. is not GMO but it's still sprayed with glyphosate unless it's organic but they don't use glyphosate in Italy now the argument about glyphosate is that it doesn't affect our genes okay well it definitely affects microbes for sure okay and we have a lot of microbes within our gut and throughout a body in fact we have over thinkin sicom a hundred trillion microbes living inside and around it's it's about five pounds of microbial life and this chemical can definitely affect the genetics of those microbes and we depend on those microbes and they depend on us and they become part of us so glyphosate can definitely create a lot of problems in your gut if you consume it also the wheat used in pasta in Italy is not enriched okay with iron and synthetic vitamins iron is very oxidative and corrosive to our bodies in fact we don't really have a mechanism of getting rid of iron so if you accumulates too much it can create a lot of problems especially in men because men are not menstruating like women but if you're a woman in post menopausal you're in risk of accumulating too much iron if you consuming the wheat in the u.s. now the type of wheat that's used with pasta compared to bread is the durum wheat it's a hard wheat it's higher in protein and it digests very slowly now what's interesting about pasta because it's so condensed is that it will not spike your blood Sugar's initially okay and it has a glycemic index of 45 to 50 compared to bread which is 70 however here's the problem check your blood sugars in two or three hours sometimes four hours and it will definitely spike your blood sugar so I am not recommending pasta all I'm saying is the quality of pasta is a lot better in Italy compared to America that's probably why people go to Italy and they eat pasta and they don't bloat now let's go to my interview from the lady who lived in Sardinia okay so we have this young lady here from Sardinia you born there right yeah I was born in yes and when did you move from Sardinia when I was 20 years old 20 okay and give me some examples of types of food that you eat in Sardinia oh yeah is it more organic pork meat yeah pork we ate fish fish what kind of fish it depends sea bream sea bass sea shells how about lobster and then vegetables vegetables of course do they taste really good artichokes artichoke many artichokes Wow do you believe do they eat a lot of sugar there no no too much sugar Wow even they be so it for their not know and this way they're not really sweet and then a little pasta but not too much not too much pasta Wow and what about bread yeah we have right a little bit or a lot of it it depends that's not too much okay and then olive oil olive oil yes we've got very good olive oil in Sardinia as well it's right from the Tuscany other things we we drink the Mirta what's what is my kind of digestive with my berries the typical plants in Sardinia any good and then what about people live a long time but they they spend a lot of time cooking preparing maybe yeah in the past there the women were more used to you know just find time to bring food for all the family now we have less time to do that but still really interesting no to to to cook food no to to to prepare things with some dishes for family fascinating and how old are you I'm nearly 49 and you're the age to do a woman right it's bad but your grandmother's still living no how old is she she dies when she was 92 and she look fairly young Wow and then how about your stress level and Sardinians did a high stress low stress that's that's one of the secret Wow the stress you know the life is very quiet no no pressure it's an island right yeah so you're on the island you have got a fish low pace low stress but vegetables and healthy food and like many part of Italy a thing but maybe in Sardinia even do you know the water Pantheon is different do you drink do you drink the water right from the tap or do you have a filter yeah when I was young yes I used to drink water from the tap now and then do they drink wine yes they drink a lot yes but do they ever drink too much or just enough just a little bit between beers you know 13 yeah yeah do they make you longer no not their own beer but there are many interesting many companies are two beers Wow and how about like the pesticides the GMO foods do they do that there or no I think not too much I'm gonna trust them no so they kind of kept the culture there all the time looks like agriculture has been there for they keep the culture the same they don't alter it and become more American no no they want to keep you know the culture to imitate the culture to the island we are an island so we don't have many in the past we don't we do not we didn't have any contact with the other countries they keep they preserve the culture the or them the food recipes even the maybe the veget called the plans young well so I will be moving to Sardinia shortly and I'll be living there that was interesting wasn't it I mean she definitely does not look 48 or almost 49 years old but did you hear what she said pork okay now we've been taught that pork is very bad for us right well they consume a lot more pork fish shellfish loaded with DHA okay iodine selenium zinc copper very very good for anti-aging vegetables artichokes but not much sugar not many desserts and not much pasta some bread some wine of course and some beer olive oil of course and a digestive okay some type of berry that actually helps the digestive process low stress they walk a lot probably to burn off these carbs right here now it's very very difficult to isolate exactly what specific food or thing is helping Sardinians look longer but I want to ask you out of all of these or some other other factors go ahead and list down below in the comment section what you think contributes most to longevity from people that live in the Blue Zone if you're liking this content please subscribe now and I will actually keep you updated on future videos

Channel: Dr. Eric Berg DC

Views: 1,292,704

Rating: 4.8778968 out of 5

Keywords: italy, italian, italian lifestyle, pasta, italian diet, italian food, live longer, longevity, healthy diet, sardinia, the secret to longevity, life expectancy, italy life expectancy, italian way of life, italian pasta, why are italians so healthy, why italians live longer, italians secret to living longer, life in italy, secret behind sardinian's longevity, dr eric berg, eric berg, dr berg

Id: WwasJCB4FaA

Length: 10min 17sec (617 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 11 2019