Is the American diet really so bad that it’s time to look to other countries for help?
That’s the premise behind a spate of recent books and Web sites
touting plant-heavy diets of various far-away places. Looking at
traditional diets has become something of a fad in recent years.
Numerous books, including
The Jungle Effect and
The China Study,
have tried to document the link between diet and great health in
various countries and regions. Researchers, for example, are still
trying to understand how a sweet-potato-based diet may boost longevity
on the Japanese island of Okinawa, home to a large population of
centenarians. But you don’t have to wait for the definitive answer–
The Okinawa Diet Plan can be bought right now.
The latest entrant is
The Five Factor World Diet by
celebrity trainer and author Harley Pasternak. During his far-flung
travels with stars like Jessica Simpson and Hillary Duff, Pasternak
noticed that people in many of the countries he visited were slimmer and
ate a more nutritious diet than most Americans. The experience left
Pasternak (who has a master’s degree in exercise physiology and
nutrition) convinced that Americans have a lot to learn from the rest of
the world.
His book lists countries with healthy diets that also have long life
expectancies and low obesity rates. These metrics best capture the
effects of a lifetime of good eating and exercise habits, he argues.
Japan tops his list because it has a 1.5% obesity rate (for men) and an
82-year life expectancy, vs. a 36.5% obesity rate and a 78-year life
expectancy in the United States. South Korea, China and Singapore also
do well. France makes the list with a 6.6% obesity rate and an 81-year
life expectancy, as do Italy, Spain and Greece. Pasternak’s rankings
aren’t scientifically rigorous, but they may shed light on how other
countries eat well and manage to stay healthy.
What virtually all these countries have in common are low-fat diets
rich in fish, lean protein, vegetables, fruits and beans. Plant-based
diets can reduce cholesterol levels, while fruits and vegetables also
contain antioxidants that may protect against cancer. Consumption of
certain omega-3 fatty acids found in fish may reduce heart disease risk.
Many of the traditional diets only include small amounts of red and
processed and salt-cured meats, whose consumption may increase risk of
colorectal and stomach cancers.
Most of the countries in question practice portion control. Although
they indulge in high-fat cheeses, cured pork and condensed milk coffee
drinks, they rarely pig out like Americans. “Whether you adopt one or
multiple things [from these countries] and bring them into your life,”
says Pasternak, “you’ll be healthier and lose weight and keep it off.”
Beyond this common-sense message, science doesn’t have much to say
about which traditional cuisines are the healthiest. It’s impossible to
tell whether the long life expectancies of some countries are actually
the result of better health care systems, not better eating habits. No
researcher has developed a method to accurately measure the comparative
health benefits of one country’s diet vs. another, says Harvard
epidemiologist Dimitrios Trichopoulos. “We have no evidence because we
don’t have a yardstick,” he says. There are indications that Japanese
and Chinese diets, for example, are protective against chronic diseases
and improve longevity, but Trichopoulos says that they haven’t been
studied enough to say that conclusively.
The one exception, he says, is the Mediterranean diet, high in olive
oil, fruits and vegetables, and whole grains. A 2008 meta-analysis of 12
studies of 1.6 million subjects found that people who stick closely to
the Mediterranean diet had a 9% lower death rate than people who ate the
same diet less stringently, according to the results published in the
British Medical Journal. Numerous other studies show it can protect against heart disease.
But pinpointing the most beneficial components of Mediterranean diet
is tough, says David Jenkins, a University of Toronto nutrition
professor. “It could be pasta, bulgur, hummus, fava beans,” he says,
“What we generally mean is a diet with more fruits and vegetables and
less dependence on red meat.”
Trichopoulos says that traditional diets have pitfalls of their own.
The Japanese, for instance, eat lots of nutrient-laden cruciferous
vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, bok choy, and their main sources of
protein are fish and soy. That’s the good news. The downside: Thanks to a
preference for cured foods, they also consume colossal amounts of
sodium, which can lead to high blood pressure and more strokes.
So while it may be useful to borrow dietary tips from other
cultures–whether it’s rye bread from Sweden, buckwheat noodles from
Japan or bok choy from China–it probably doesn’t matter exactly which
things you borrow.
Written by Rebecca Ruiz at:
http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/02/healthy-diet-country-lifestyle-health-soy-vegetables.html
