Longevity Secrets II
Last week, we started a series on being healthy and living long, and  and we discussed the human potential.  The book, The Agebeaters and their Universal Currency for Immortality by Dr. Joel Wallach and Dr. Ma Lan, reveals the common threads of centenarians. They studied the various cultures and people groups throughout the world that had a large number of 100 year olds. These were circled on a map in blue ink, and so these people groups were named "Blue Zones", and are referred to such throughout the book. I want to remind you what Dr. Wallach stated,"All humans can easily reach 100 years of age by simply following certain known and predictable physiological laws." And if they don't, they won't!. The first common thread among 100 year olds is:

Antioxidants
Daily consumption of antioxidant rich foods and drink is a universal feature of those living in Blue Zones and in particular centenarians. Antioxidants are potent carbon compounds which quench or neutralize free radicals. Free radicals attack our cells, cell walls, mitochondria and physiological processes which increase our risk of our risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, dementia, and a host of other diseases as well as speeding up the aging process.

There is a method of predicting the antioxidant power and free radical neutralizing value of foods and drink. It is called the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity or ORAC value. This ORAC value is a method of measuring antioxidant capacities of various foods. Here are the top 20 foods and their ORAC value, listed here are in units of µmol TE/100g (100 grams is about 3.5 ounces):

The main antioxidants that were found to be consumed daily in the Blue Zones were dark fruits and berries, yellow and red vegetables, cocoa, red wine, green tea or coffee. The successful centenarians consumed multiple forms of antioxidants varying according to seasons, and the amount they consumed is drastically more higher than the average. The USDA recommends about 3000 to 5000 ORAC units a day. Yet, based on current studies, we believe that the optimal total daily intake of ORAC points to reach the age of 100 is 20,000 to 25,000 per day. This is a considerable difference, so in order to reach this amount, one will have to purpose to do so.

It can be rather difficult to consume so large an amount of antioxidants every day, but an easy way is to "drink" them. In all of the Blue Zones, they had some form of high antioxidant drink, such as red wine, coffee, green tea, tea, and rice wine. Of course, these were homemade and mostly home-grown with no chemicals. We can similarly drink our antioxidants and add to this list, kombucha, herbal teas, and various other health drinks that are available.

I encourage you to come our meeting, My Journey to Health, where there will be much information to assist you on your own journey to health.