Week of November 21, 2010
Healthy at 100 (John Robbins, Ballantine Books 2007)Book Review by Michael Ettinger, Attorney at Law |
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Clients often tell me that they don’t want to live to be 100. They simply assume that they would be mentally or physically debilitated at such an advanced age. I never questioned that assumption until a friend recently gave me a copy of Healthy at 100. Just the title causes a shift in your thinking, doesn’t it?
What an eye opener. The first four chapters are devoted to the cultures and lifestyles of those communities in the world that tend to have the longest lived inhabitants – the Abkhazia, where people are healthier at ninety than most of us are at middle age; the Vilcabamba, where heart disease and dementia do not exist; the Hunta, where cancer, diabetes and asthma are unknown, and; the Okinawans, where more people live to 100 than anywhere else in the world.
Not only are the cultures fascinating in themselves, but so are the commonalities they share in diet, exercise and forms of mental stimulation.
The author proceeds to describe the optimum diet for human beings, pretty much the opposite of the American diet. The dangers of eating processed foods are explained in detail, and summed up in the idiom, "the whiter the bread, the sooner you’re dead." Not to mention what excess sugar is doing to us. Then the dangers and results of various fad diets (Dr. Atkins, anyone?) are all examined as well as the phenomenon of why physically fit people sometimes die from heart attacks. This reader was surprised to discover that fitness does not equal health by any means.
All of the author’s claims are backed up by hard science and endorsed by John Rowe, M.D., Professor of Geriatrics at Harvard Medical School and Chair, MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Aging who says, "It’s not just a matter of playing the genetic cards you’re dealt. We have the power to shape our own lives. The reality is a much more optimistic scenario than if it were just a matter of picking the right parents."
The author tells you the steps you can take to a healthful diet, the basics of exercise and why you need it, how to avoid Alzheimer’s and dementia, and the importance of loving relationships in longevity. On the latter point, science has shown us that "those with close social ties and unhealthful lifestyles (such as smoking, obesity and lack of exercise) actually lived longer than those with poor social ties but more healthful living habits".
In the end, the author concludes with a number of useful recommendations for living a joyous, purposeful life – yet another prescription for longevity. I highly recommend this book to all our clients and friends.
It is our sincere wish and desire, as professionals working with aging clients, to share what we know and learn about healthful living, paraphrasing Buzz Lightyear, "To 100, and beyond!"
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Editor’s note: As always, please feel free to share this and other posts of value with your electronic circle of friends. Best wishes for a healthy and happy Thanksgiving.
