Fall 2001
Volume III, Issue III

Walk Like an Egyptian ‚
Eat Like an Okinawan

by Martin Collis, PhD / Trina Rickert


There's a fashionable new diet that's showing up in the popular press and the Wellness journals. It's been endorsed by our old friend Andrew Weil, by Oprah and by Deepak Chopra (If Oprah married Deepak she'd be Oprah Chopra.). In fact it's not so much a diet, as a lifestyle which is described in the best selling book "The Okinawa Program" by Bradley and Craig Wilcox and Makoto Suzuki. Okinawans reportedly have the longest disability-free life expectancy in the world, and the Japanese Ministry of Health has conducted a 25 year study to examine the secrets of their success.

There are few surprises for people involved in high level wellness. The Okinawans studied ate a diet dominated by vegetables, fruits and grains.

  • 7 servings of vegetables daily
  • 7 servings of grains (noodles, bread, rice)
  • 4 servings of fruit
  • tofu and other forms of soy
  • green tea
  • fish

72% of the diet is made up of fruit, vegetables and grains, 14% seaweed and soy, 11% fish and only 3% meat, poultry and eggs (Where's the beef?). Alcohol intake is very moderate.

So no surprises. Dean Ornish would approve of the diet and it's very similar to the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (D.A.S.H.) diet published in the New England Journal of Medicine and written up in the Berkley Wellness letter, May '99.

One feature of the Okinawan eating style we found interesting is the cultural habit of 'hara hachi bu' where they eat until they feel 80% full. This differs so much from North America where diners tend to stuff themselves to get their 'money's worth' out of a meal.

Younger Okinawans, who have a less traditional lifestyle, and Okinawans who grow up in other countries are at a higher risk than traditional Okinawans and at the same risk as those people in their adopted country for heart disease, cancer and stroke, so we're not looking at genetics.
The rest of the Okinawan Program offers more familiar advice. Stay active. Okinawans have no word for retirement and stay involved in martial arts, dancing, fishing and farming well into their eighties, nineties and beyond. Add in a low stress lifestyle with a strong sense of social integration and you have a tried and true formula for living out our 100 year warranty.

Mother really did know best. 'Eat your fruit and vegetables, go out and play' (and maybe pray). You don't have to move to Japan to live like an Okinawan, just have a low fat diet with plenty of complex carbohydrates and plant based foods, keep moving, love this world and the people around you and you too might enjoy a disease free 100 years in this wonderful and challenging world.
More information on the Okinawa Study can be found at: