Heroes Not Zombies

Another excellent episode of the BBC’s Horizon tonight looked at communities around the world where people live longer and live more healthily.

There were different characteristics in the different communities. The first place the programme focused on was Okinawa and the American doctors who were studying the longevity phenomenon there highlighted the Okinawan’s diet. What immediately grabbed me was the focus on how colourful their diet was. I think that’s a good indicator of a healthy diet. The browner the diet, the poorer it’s likely to be. I don’t know if you’ve ever watched any of the rather awful Gillian McKeith’s programmes about diet, but she gets her victims to observe their entire week’s food piled high on a single table. It’s done in a way that’s designed to disgust and it works, but one thing has always struck me about the unhealthy diets on those tables – they are so BROWN!

So here’s one tip for living longer – have a colourful diet! (Oh, let me make clear, I mean naturally colourful, not food that’s been coloured artificially with chemicals!)