The Okinawa Diet comes from a small island of ultracentenarians in southern Japan.

It is renowned for the longevity of its inhabitants, which is largely linked to their diet and lifestyle.

This diet promotes health and longevity through a diet rich in micronutrients and omega-3 fatty acids.

Features of the Okinawa diet

• Rich in vegetables, fruit and oily fish
• True way of life
• Great principle of stopping before satiety
• Promotes health and longevity

The dietary principles

The Okinawa Diet takes its name from an archipelago in Japan where we find the longest life expectancy (86 years for women and 78 years for men) and the highest number of centenarians on the planet.

Okinawa has 400 centenarians in a population of 1.3 million, or 34 centenarians per 100,000 inhabitants.

Not only are Okinawans the most likely to live to be 100, but they are aging in good health.

They live longer in full possession of their faculties.

But what do they do to achieve such results?

How does the Okinawa Diet work?

Japanese cardiologist and gerontologist Makoto Suzuki was one of the first to take an interest in the secret of Okinawa's centenarians.

He went there in the 1970s to set up a clinic.

He was fascinated by the presence of several centenarians despite the lack of adequate health care.

His later analyses showed that the secret of centenarians' longevity was partly due to heredity, but also to a diet low in saturated fat and calories.

More recently, the diet and lifestyle of Okinawa's centenarians has attracted the attention of the medical world and researchers.

It was twins Bradley and Craig Willcox, members of Dr Suzuki's research team, who shared the secret of Okinawan longevity with the rest of the world.

They have published several books on the subject: the first in 2001, The Okinawa Way, and the most recent, not so long ago, The Okinawa Diet Plan.

The latter book offers a Western version of the Okinawa Diet for those who want to lose weight.

How does the Okinawa Diet help you lose weight?

The Okinawa diet is a low-fat, semi-vegetarian diet (less than 25% of total calories).

One of the aims of this diet is to achieve calorie restriction without having to count calories in order to maintain a healthy weight and age well.

To achieve this, it is recommended to eat according to the principle of energy density of foods.

Energy density is the number of calories per 100g of food divided by 100.

This is how the Okinawa diet is recommended:

• any food with an energy density of less than 0.7
• in moderation, foods with an energy density of 0.8 to 1.5
• occasionally, in small quantities, those with an energy density of 1.6 to 3
• rarely, those with an energy density greater than 3

Eating low and very low energy density foods allows you to consume fewer calories due to their high water, fibre or protein content.

These foods make you feel full quickly, so you can stop eating before you feel full. In addition, the calorie restriction induced by eating low and very low energy density foods produces less metabolic waste and therefore less free radicals.

This would make it possible to live longer.

In fact, in the process of converting food into energy, the body produces many free radicals that, over the years, damage the mitochondria (small "factories" inside our cells that produce energy).

According to Dr Jacky Thouin, calorie restriction also reduces the levels of insulin in the blood and oestrogen circulating in the body.

It also increases the immune response and protects against obesity, insulin resistance, hormone-dependent cancers and atherosclerosis.

How long does the Okinawa Diet last?

The Okinawa Diet is more than just a diet.

It is a way of life whose benefits increase over time.

For this reason, there is no time limit.

In fact, it is recommended that you apply the principles of this diet throughout your life to get and stay healthy.