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Best book!	Customer Rating:
This is such a good book. When I first got it I read much of it to my young children and they loved hearing about the Okinawan life and elders. My 10 year old son wanted us to move there! I have bought more copies of this book than any other because I keep giving mine away. Now I just keep a stash to give. This should become your textbook for living.

A Land of the Immortals, a Shangri-La

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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."

An Escape from America's Toxic Lifestyle

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America isn't a very safe place to live. I'm not talking about crime rates, but about death rates, or more specifically health expectancy rates, which is the length of time a person can expect to live in good health, living independently and productively with a sound mind and body. The United States ranks 24th, dead last among all developed countries. Why? What is so toxic about the American lifestyle? Well, the old saying goes, if you want to spot a counterfeit, go study a genuine dollar bill. Likewise, if you want to spot what's wrong with America, why not go study the healthiest people on Earth? Well, that's what two brothers, one a physician and one an anthropologist, have been doing for the past decade in the islands of Okinawa, studying over 400 centenarians--people over 100 years old. And not decrepit, demented shells over 100 either-- people still living in their homes, gardening, walking to market daily, chatting with friends. Why are they living so long? Why are their bodies on almost every biochemical measure 20 years younger or more than equivalent American bodies? That's the subject of the book The Okinawa Program, and a fascinating read it is. The authors both try to describe the health and lifestyle of the Okinawan culture, try to explain what is healthy about it, and then how to incorporate it into our lifestyle. The distinctives that the authors bring out chapter by chapter are a healthy primarily vegetarian diet, regular exercise, a low-pressure lifestyle, use of meditation and other forms of stress-reduction, a close supportive social network, and their "spirituality" which is mostly positive and optimistic in nature. The book itself is well-written and documented as far as this genre goes. It's only downfall (also common to the genre) is tunnel-vision. The authors' enthusiasm for all things Okinawan rarely points out anything negative at all about the culture, to the point that you wonder how objective they really are. Beyond that, they often downplay the very tenuous nature of drawing conclusions about looking backwards and trying to figure out why things are a certain way-- you can use common sense and a little science to make a good guess that eating foods high in flavinoids may extend life, but limited science plus common sense has led us down the wrong path many a time before. Another major point to be made is that these non-Christian authors cannot perceive the difference between mere religion (which they apparently believe is generically good for both its placebo like effect on the human body and possibly tapping into some generic higher power) vs. a genuine relationship with the genuine God. Of course, this draws a rather brutal line in the sand for those of us who do name the name of Christ. If our lives have truly been touched by the living God, then why are we dying by the droves in our gluttony and physical laziness and frantically paced American lifestyles, while people who do not know the true God over the ocean are living lives which I suspect more closely model what Christ would have us live? Food for thought, and a worthwhile book to read and ponder.

Tay Gay	Customer Rating:
Wonderful Insight to Change Lifestyle and Live a Healthy Long Fulfilling Life.

as advertised	Customer Rating:
as advertised