The Okinawa Program : How the
Worlds Longest-Lived People
Achieve Everlasting Health--And How
You Can Too by Makoto Suzuki
Best Book!
If ever there were a prescription for longevity, the folks of Okinawa, a
collection of islands strung between Japan and Taiwan, have found it.
Considered the worlds healthiest people, residents of this tropical
archipelago routinely live active, independent lives well into their 90s and
100s. Their rates of obesity, heart disease, osteoporosis, memory loss,
menopause, and breast, colon and prostate cancer rank far below the
rates for these illnesses in America and other industrialized countries. In
fact, researchers believe many Okinawans are physically younger than
their chronological ages. In essence, the Okinawans have found a way to
beat the clock. How do they do it? In The Okinawa Program, Bradley J.
Willcox, M.D., D. Craig Willcox, Ph.D., and Makoto Suzuki, M.D. reveal
the islanders age-defying secrets. Of course, there are really no surprises

here: a low-fat diet, exercise, stress management, strong social and family
ties, and spiritual connectedness--the same things experts have been
recommending for years--all play key roles in keeping the Okinawans
youthful. But in this fascinating read, which is peppered with inspiring
anecdotes about these remarkable people, the authors provide concrete
evidence that adopting these healthy habits pays off significantly in terms
of tacking more productive years onto our lives. Based on the authors 25-
year Okinawa Centenarian Study, this extraordinarily well-written book
demonstrates that genetics provide only so much protection against
disease. Indeed, the authors often remind us that when younger
Okinawans pick up Western habits, their rates of obesity, illness, and life
expectancy start to match ours as well. Clearly, when it comes to
longevity, healthy lifestyle habits will out. That said, the major message of
The Okinawa Program is that we can easily adopt the life-lengthening
strategies that have served the Okinawans so well for generations. To that
end, the authors pack chapters with suggestions for following The Way,
from eating a low-fat, low-calorie diet packed with fiber and complex
carbohydrates (cooking up the books more than 80 recipes is a start) and
learning tai chi to finding time to meditate and relax, developing ones
spirituality, doing volunteer work, and building a solid network of friends
and family. Rounding out the book, the authors pull their key
recommendations into a comprehensive yet doable four-week plan thats
meant to get you started. Following The Way isnt a free shot at
immortality, but it certainly helps stack the deck in your favor. --Norine
Dworkin
Personal Review: The Okinawa Program : How the Worlds
Longest-Lived People Achieve Everlasting Health--And How You
Can Too by Makoto Suzuki
Old age in America is beset with misery. No matter how much money
elderly people have, ill health inevitably attacks and then lingers endlessly,
making their final years a living hell.
When the authors (Willcox, Willcox and Suzuki) undertook a twenty-five
year study of the phenomenon of healthy longevity in Okinawa, they met
their first centenurian, Nakajimasan. Upon approaching his small wooden
cottage, they encountered a sprightly man of about seventy preparing to
garden, who greeted them with a wave and winning smile. They asked
this man where his father was, and to their amazement discovered that this
energetic man was the centenarian, Nakajimasan, they sought. They
conducted full medical testing and discovered that, after 100 years, there
was nothing wrong with his body or mind. He was in perfect health.
After reading this opening, I was hooked.
And the rest of the book lived up to this promise. In meticulously
researched chapters, the authors show how a diet emphasizing veggies,
fruit, soy, grains, fish and legumes, healthy regular exercise, a relaxed,
non-time-pressured yet confident, optimistic and assertive approach to life,

social support, universal health insurance and an active spiritual life can
lead to amazing health up to and surpassing age 100. The Okinawan
centenarians (and those in their 80s and 90s) have astonishingly low rates
of cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, dementia, diabetes and obesity.
They do not require the extensive medical care elderly Americans need.
Yet when the Okinawans immigrate elsewhere or just take on a more
western lifestyle (as, unfortunately, the younger Okinawans have done),
their life expectancies plummet and western diseases emerge.
Throughout the book, the authors give numerous ways Americans can
adopt "the Okinawa way" and add joy and health to their final years (and
all the years preceding these.)
In 2005 when I first read this book, I was obese, had unhealthy cholesterol
and other blood test levels, looked like a rotund pear, and was hopelessly
out of shape. Gradually over the next two years I gravitated toward the
Okinawa program and a diet of legumes, soy, fruit, grains, veggies and
less meat, dairy and processed foods. I did not follow their exact diet
(which would require cooking three meals per day - yeah, right), but I
incorporated the principles of the diet into my eating and exercised an hour
per day five days a week, mixing weights, aerobics and stretches as these
authors advised. I have gone from a tight size 18 to a size 6, now can jog
the majority of an hour, and feel energized and light-years younger. This
plan is pleasant and easy to follow, unlike my previous rigid diet attempts
which required counting carbs, calories, points, fat grams, or whatever.
This is the best health book you will ever read. It will guide you toward the
health of the older Okinawans, a place the ancients hauntingly described
as "a land of the immortals, a Shangri-La."
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