The Okinawa Program : How the World's Longest-Lived People Achieve Everlasting Health--And How You Can Too
by Bradley J. Willcox, D. Craig Willcox, Makoto Suzuki

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 world's 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 book's more than 80 recipes is a start) and learning tai chi to finding time to meditate and relax, developing one's 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 that's meant to get you started. Following "The Way" isn't a free shot at immortality, but it certainly helps stack the deck in your favor

The elders of Okinawa, Japan, are among the leanest and longest-lived people on earth. These Okinawans--many in their eighties, nineties, and beyond--maintain an unprecedented quality of life. More than any other population, older Okinawans are slim and agile, and their minds are clear and lucid. Few suffer the lifestyle-related diseases like heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity that are so common in their western counterparts.

In their New York Times bestseller The Okinawa Program, Drs. Bradley and Craig Willcox and Makoto Suzuki shared important insights about these unique and amazingly healthy people from their landmark twenty-five-year Okinawa Centenarian Study. The latest findings from that study are proving even more surprising: the elders do not gain weight with age.

The secrets behind this discovery are twofold: the Okinawans' calorie-light diet and their active lifestyle, which results in leaner and more "metabolically efficient" bodies that stay slimmer, healthier, and more youthful as they age. In The Okinawa Diet Plan, Drs. Willcox, Willcox, and Suzuki adapt traditional Okinawan dietary principles for a delicious blend of East and West so that anyone can reap these very same benefits. The authors' Caloric Density Index and the Caloric Density Pyramid, developed from the study's latest findings, debunk the myths of trendy diet gurus and provide a revolutionary approach to eating, health, weight loss, and weight maintenance that is easy to follow and simple to maintain. This approach allows Okinawans to eat more food than the typical American diet, and still weigh less--and you can too. With more than 150 delicious recipes that incorporate foods low in caloric density, The Okinawa Diet Plan offers dozens of satisfying meal options. Conveniently divided into three tracks--western, eastern, and fusion--and with healthy options for both vegetarians and meat eaters alike, their program provides all the benefits of calorie restriction without deprivation. With dietary guidelines, cooking techniques, an eight-week turnaround plan, and other unique resources, The Okinawa Diet Plan is a breakthrough concept in healthy weight loss and maintenance.