Dr. Shigeaki Hinohara had an extraordinary life for many reasons. For starters, the Japanese physician and longevity expert lived until the age of 105.

When he died, in 2017, Hinohara was chairman emeritus of St. Luke's International University and honorary president of St. Luke's International Hospital, both in Tokyo.

Perhaps best known for his book, "Living Long, Living Good,"Hinohara offered advice that helped make Japan the world leader in longevity. Some were fairly intuitive points, while others were less obvious:

The average retirement age, at least in the U.S., has always hovered at around 65. And, in recent years, many have embraced the FIRE movement (Financial Independence, Retire Early).

ButHinohara viewed things differently. "There is no need to ever retire, but if one must, it should be a lot later than 65," he said in a 2009 interview with The Japan Times. "The current retirement age was set at 65 half a century ago, when the average life expectancy in Japan was 68 years and only 125 Japanese were over 100 years old."

Today, he explained, people are living a lot longer. The life expectancy for U.S. in 2020, for example, is78.93 years, a 0.08% increase from 2019. Therefore, we should be retiring much later in life, too.

Hinohara certainly practiced what he preached:Until a few months before his death, he continued to treat patients, kept an appointment book with space for five more years, and worked up to 18 hours a day.

Hinohara emphasized the importance of regular exercise. "I take two stairs at a time, to get my muscles moving," he said.

He carried his own packages and luggage, and gave 150 lectures a year, usually speaking for 60 to 90 minutes all done standing, he said, "to stay strong."

Hinohara pointed out that people who live an extremely long life have a commonality: They aren't overweight. Indeed, obesity is widely considered one of the mostsignificant risk factorsfor increased morbidity and mortality.

Hinohara's diet was spartan: "For breakfast, I drink coffee, a glass of milk and some orange juice with a tablespoon of olive oil in it." (Studies have found that olive oil offers numerous health benefits, such as keeping your arteries clean and lowering heart disease risk.)

"Lunch ismilk and a few cookies, or nothing when I am too busy to eat," he continued. "I never get hungry because I focus on my work. Dinner is veggies, a bit of fish and rice, and, twice a week, 100 grams of lean meat."

According to Hinohara, not having a full schedule is a surefire way to age faster and die sooner. However, it's important to stay busy not just for the sakeof staying busy, but to be active in activities that help serve a purpose. (The logic is that one can be busy, yet still feel empty and idle on the inside.)

Hinohara found his purpose early on, after his mother's life was saved by the family's doctor.

Janit Kawaguchi, ajournalist who considered Hinohara a mentor,said, "He believed that life is all about contribution, so he had this incredible drive to help people, to wake up early in the morning and do something wonderful for other people. This is what was driving him and what kept him living."

"It's wonderful to live long," Hinohara said in the interview. "Until one is 60 years old, it is easy to work for one's family and to achieve one's goals. But in our later years, we should strive to contribute to society. Since the age of 65, I have worked as a volunteer. I still put in 18 hours seven days a week and love every minute of it."

While he clearly promoted exercise and nutrition as pathways to a longer and healthier life, Hinohara simultaneously maintained that we need not be obsessed with restricting our behaviors.

"We all remember how, as children, when we were having fun, we would forget to eat or sleep," he often said. "I believe we can keep that attitude as adults it is best not to tire the body with too many rules."

Richard Overton, one of America's oldest-surviving World War II veterans, would havemostlikely agreed.Right up until his death at age 112, the supercentenarian smoked cigars, drank whisky and ate fried food and ice cream on a daily basis.

Hinohara might not have approved of Overton's diet, but, to be fair, Overton did credit his longevity to maintaining a "stress-free life and keeping busy."

Hinohara cautioned against always taking the doctor's advice. When a test or surgery is recommended, he advised, "ask whether the doctor would suggest that his or her spouse or children go through such a procedure."

Hinohara insisted that science alone can't help people. It "lumps us all together, but illness is individual. Each person is unique, and diseases are connected to their hearts," he said. "To know the illness and help people, we need liberal and visual arts, not just medical ones."

In fact, Hinohara made sure that St. Luke's catered to the basic need of patients: "To have fun." The hospital provided music, animal therapy and art classes.

"Pain is mysterious, and having fun is the best way to forget it," he said. "If a child has a toothache, and you start playing a game together, he or she immediately forgets the pain."

According to The New York Times, toward the end of his life, Hinohara was unable to eat, but refused a feeding tube. He was discharged and died months later at home.

Instead of trying to fight death, Hinohara found peace in where he was through art. In fact, he credited his contentment and outlook toward life to a poem by Robert Browning, called"Abt Vogler" especially these lines:

There shall never be one lost good! What was, shall live as before;The evil is null, is nought, is silence implying sound;What was good shall be good, with, for evil, so much good more;On the earth the broken arcs; in the heaven a perfect round.

"My father used to read it to me," Hinohara recalled. "It encourages us to make big art, not small scribbles. It says to try to draw a circle so huge that there is no way we can finish it while we are alive. All we see is an arch; the rest is beyond our vision, but it is there in the distance."

Tom Popomaronisis a leadership researcher and vice president of innovation atMassive Alliance.His work has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, Inc., and The Washington Post. In 2014, Tom was named one of the "40 Under 40" by the Baltimore Business Journal. Follow him on LinkedIn.

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Japanese doctor who lived to 105his spartan diet, views on retirement, and other rare longevity tips - CNBC

Casts of two key specimens: Paranthropus aethiopicus (left) and P. boisei (right). Credit: Zeresenay Alemseged

A new study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences documents dietary shifts in herbivores that lived between 1-3 million years ago in Ethiopias Lower Omo Valley. The research team, led by Enquye Negash, a postdoctoral researcher in the George Washington University Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, examined stable isotopes in the fossilized teeth of herbivores such as antelopes and pigs and found a shift away from C3-derived foods, characteristic of woody vegetation, to C4-derived foods, representative of grasses and sedges. The shift happened at two distinct time periods, approximately 2.7 million years ago and 2 million years ago, when the environment of the Lower Omo Valley was transitioning to open savanna.

The study, Dietary trends in herbivores from the Shungura Formation, southwestern Ethiopia, served as a comparative framework to an associated hominin diet study, also published this week, of which Negash was a co-author. The associated study, Isotopic evidence for the timing of the dietary shift towards C4 foods in eastern African Paranthropus, examined carbon isotope data from the fossilized tooth enamel of Paranthropus boisei, a nonancestral hominin relative. Led by Jonathan Wynn, now a program director in the National Science Foundations division of Earth sciences, the research team behind that paper found a profound shift toward the consumption of C4-derived foods approximately 2.37 million years ago, which preceded a morphological shift of P. boiseis skull and jaw. Given the direct evidence provided by the abundant, well-dated fossilized teeth and their chemical composition, the new findings suggest behavioral dietary changes can precede apparent morphological adaptations to new foods.

From the Researchers:

Major dietary shifts that are observed in our study reflect the response of the herbivores to major ecological and environmental changes during this time. This allowed us to better understand the environmental context of similar dietary changes in hominins.

Enquye Negash

Although were interested in how the diets of our immediate and distant ancestors evolved to produce our modern human diet, it is very important to consider these hominins as a small part of an ecosystem that included other plant and animal species that responded to changing environments in an interconnected way. Jonathan Wynn

References:

Dietary trends in herbivores from the Shungura Formation, southwestern Ethiopia by Enquye W. Negash, Zeresenay Alemseged, Ren Bobe, Frederick Grine, Matt Sponheimer and Jonathan G. Wynn, 24 August 2020, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2006982117

Isotopic evidence for the timing of the dietary shift toward C4 foods in eastern African Paranthropus by Jonathan G. Wynn, Zeresenay Alemseged, Ren Bobe, Frederick E. Grine, Enquye W. Negash and Matt Sponheimer, 24 August 2020, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2006221117

This work was supported by National Science Foundation (NSF) award 1252157. Wynn was also supported by an NSF Independent Research and Development (IR/D) program.

Original post:
Changing Landscapes, Changing Diets: Fossilized Teeth Reveal Dietary Shifts in Ancient Herbivores and Hominins - SciTechDaily

Its no secret that eating more veggies is key to a healthy diet. But exactlyhowdedicated to the green stuff do you need to be?

With the growing popularity of eating styles that eschew meat in favor of plants (vegan, vegetarian, plant-based, oh my), you might be wondering if a more is more mentality is the right way to go when it comes to boosting your vegetable intake for the sake of your health.

Thats why we teamed up with Lightlife to get the scoop on all your most pressing plant-based questions (including whether you can eat meat on a plant-based diet), and registered dietitian Vanessa Rissetto, MS, RD, CDN had the answers.

According to Rissetto, eating more plants is, in fact, a ticket to an overall health boost (namely because more plants mean more fiber, more satiety, and more gut support, to name a few benefits), but that doesnt mean you need to ditch animal products entirely.

People think plant based means you cant eat meat, chicken, or fish, Rissetto says. Plant based means eating mostly plants and beans as your source of protein, but high biological value protein (coming from animals) is also allowed.

Okay so some animal products in moderation are still cool (that sound you hear is meat lovers taking a collective sigh of relief), but exactly how much?

A good rule of thumb to follow is to aim for two meatless meals per day.

By Rissettos standards, you can eat meat on a plant-based diet as long as youre making an effort to reduce your intake and opting for plants as your primary fuel source when possible. (Of course, if you want to take your plant-based diet a step further and go vegetarian or vegan, that means youd forgo meat altogether and only allow dairy products if youre vegetarian.)

What that reduction looks like will vary from person to person (and how much meat you eat is ultimately up to youit is your diet after all), but a good rule of thumb is to aim for two meatless meals per day.

For example, if youre eating animal protein at every mealeggs for breakfast, chicken for lunch, steak for dinnerswitch to oats for breakfast and chickpeas and greens for lunch, but keep the meat for dinner, Rissetto says. However, instead of eight ounces [of steak], decrease to three ounces, plus additional greens. To me, then that is considered to be plant-based.

If youre looking to switch up your sources of protein, plant-based proteins can come in clutchespecially if youre hesitant about ditching the ground beef on your taco salad or a juicy burger off the grill. Subbing Lightlife Plant-Based Ground or Burgers gets you 20 grams of protein from real, recognizable ingredients like peas and beets, with all the savory deliciousness your tastebuds crave. So youcanhave your burger and eat it too on a plant-based dietjust as long as its usually a plant-based one.

Top photo: Stocksy/Tatjana Zlatkovic

Sponsored by Lightlife

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Is Going Plant-Based an All-or-Nothing Proposition When It Comes to Quitting Meat? An RD Weighs In - Well+Good

In an article published online on the Cleveland Clinicwebsite, Ohio-based cancer dietician Joseph Dowdell has explained what iscurrently known about the importance of diet in preventing the risk of cancer.

He says, The first things that tend to pop up are lists offoods you should eliminate because they cause cancer to grow. But we shouldntbe fearful of food. Instead, take a step back and look at the big picture. Thatwill allow you to focus on the diet changes that will have the most impact.

In general, food has not been shown to prevent cancer butdiet does play a key role in the prevention of certain cancers.

The American Cancer Society says obesity is one of the riskfactors for many cancers, including breast, colon, endometrial, esophagealcancer, kidney, liver, ovarian cancer, pancreatic, stomach, and thyroidcancers.

It has been found that at least 18% of all cancers and 16%of cancer deaths are due to obesity, physical inactivity, poor nutrition,sedentary lifestyle, and alcohol consumption.

Dowdell says, Food can help prevent many of the chronicconditions that increase your risk of cancer. Genetics and other healthconditions can impact cancer prevalence as well, but those are usually out ofour control. Obesity is something we can control through food and exercise.

So, to reduce the risk of cancer, Dowdell says it isimportant to maintain a healthy weight.

He recommends going Mediterranean, eating at least five to nineservings of fruits and vegetables each day, limiting added sugars, cutting downon alcohol, reducing salt intake, and taking vitamin D supplements.

Dowdell also suggests starting small if your diet iscurrently more fast-food fodder than plant-based paradigm. He adds, Making anychange is difficult. But setting small, achievable goals makes big goals mucheasier to accomplish.

The cancer dietician advises reducing unhealthy foodincrementally. He says, If youre used to drinking four sodas a day, shoot forone a day for the next week, and then the following week, shoot for one everyother day and see how that goes. Slowly cut down even more. You can makedrastic health impacts without feeling deprived.

However, Dowdell says it is important to know thateveryones body reacts to food differently. Whileall of these are healthy guidelines, nutrition should be individualized. If youhave digestive issues, for example, you should seek medical help, he adds.And always use reliable sources of information like the American Academy ofNutrition and Dietetics, the American Heart Association and the American CancerSociety.

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Cancer Dietician Explains the Connection between Diet and Cancer Risk - Myhealthyclick

What the health statistics show no matter if they come from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Journal of the American Medical Association, the American Heart Association, or the Milken Institute for Public Health is beyond disturbing.

The American diet is killing us.

So goes the health care world that new doctors from the UNLV School of Medicine and other medical schools will enter. The numbers show a poor diet is the leading cause of mortality in the United States, causing more than 500,000 deaths yearly. Not consuming the proper amount of 10 dietary factors fruits, vegetables, nuts/seed, whole grains, unprocessed red meats, processed meat, sugar-sweetened beverages, polyunsaturated fats, seafood omega-fats, and sodium is estimated to cause around 1,000 deaths daily from diabetes, stroke, and heart disease alone.

Preliminary analysis also shows that the manifestations of a poor diet can heighten the risk of death from COVID-19.

In an opinion piece published last year in the New York Times Our Food is Killing Too Many of Us Dr. Darius Mozaffarian, dean of the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, and Dan Glickman, a former U.S. secretary of agriculture, pointed out that 75 percent of Americans are overweight or obese and that many of those suffer direct health consequences. Obesitys total economic costs, including lost productivity, is estimated at $1.72 trillion a year, nearly 10 percent of gross domestic product. Because many young Americans are obese, recruiters face difficult challenges staffing our all-volunteer military.

What is making us so sick, and how can we reverse this so we need less health care? the authors asked. The answer is staring us in the face, on average, three times a day: Our food.

It is against this unappetizing backdrop led by non-nutritious processed foods that the UNLV School of Medicine and 55 other academic medical centers across the country are including a Health Meets Food curriculum in their training of physicians and other medical providers. Considered the most comprehensive culinary medicine curriculum for physicians and allied health professionals, the program leads the way in how medical professionals are trained so they can have more meaningful conversations with their patients about food and health.

Dr. Anne Weisman, the UNLV School of Medicines director of wellness and integrative medicine, is overseeing a nine-week program that started this month for 60 first-year students. In September, second-year students begin. On Oct. 2, Dr. Michael Greger, author of the New York Times best-seller How Not to Die, will speak virtually to medical students on the importance of nutrition. He will do a live Q&A with students following his presentation.

Everything we put into our mouths when we eat, can either improve or detract from our health, she noted. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, she said students will attend Health Meets Food classes virtually in their own home kitchens through Zoom. Part of the first session has students making tacos with healthy ingredients, including whole grain tortillas, vegetables, and black beans a departure from the traditional tacos in the U.S. that are high in calories, fat, and sodium where store-bought seasoning and flour tortillas contribute to health concerns.

Over time we can significantly change the health of our community, Weisman said.

Dr. Timothy Harlan, the nations leading catalyst for teaching culinary medicine to students in the health professions, contributed earlier this month to a class taught by UNLV faculty via Zoom. He recently joined the faculty of George Washington University in the nations capital and is now head of the GW Center for Culinary Medicine. Harlan, whos been spreading his food is medicine gospel throughout the world, is a former colleague of UNLV School of Medicine Dean Marc Kahn from when both men worked at the Tulane School of Medicine in New Orleans.

Harlan, a chef and restaurateur before becoming a physician, developed the Health Meets Food curriculum over much of the last decade while executive director of the Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine at Tulane. In addition to providing hands-on training for medical students, the center offers community cooking classes, free and open to the public.Dr. Harlans program is evidence-based, Kahn said.

The curriculum, used by medical students, residents, and clinicians, includes more than 30 content-specific educational modules. They stretch from: guidelines for changes in diet during pregnancy to identifying means of prevention for childhood obesity from the proper nutrition after a cancer diagnosis to nutritional needs for geriatric patients. Each module presents basic and clinical science related to evidence-based nutritional and dietary goals for specific topics such as polycystic ovary syndrome or the impact health care practitioners can have on controlling and managing symptoms of congestive heart failure through diet intervention. There are case presentations, recipes, cooking instructions, quizzes, and discussion questions.

Harlan said for the vast majority of Americans, diet is at the core of their illness. He said illnesses from heart disease, diabetes, and stroke to depression and Alzheimers disease are accelerated by an American diet of highly processed foods. During a recent interview, Harlan said that food-related issues were not that much of a problem until the last 30 to 40 years, when many Americans eschewed cooking with healthy ingredients in favor of buying highly processed foods full of addictive sugar and salt, either from the grocery stores or fast food outlets. Theres been an explosion of calorie-dense processed food, Harlan said.

According to Harlan, with many medical schools now emphasizing the importance of nutrition, the dialogue between physician and patient is being changed from Hey, you need to lose some weight, to action-oriented suggestions that meet best medical practices.

Weisman said that with medical students learning to shop for and prepare nutritious meals, future doctor-patient visits can be much more targeted and helpful when discussions arise about healthy diets. She said that once the pandemic is under control, medical students will go to community centers to teach the benefits of good nutrition. She also envisions a medical school partnership with the William F. Harrah College of Hospitality where the best in kitchens can be used to help teach community members the power of healthy recipes, as has been done at Tulane and George Washington universities.

Were teaching our medical students about the power of good nutrition and then they in turn will teach the community, Weisman said. The reward of good nutrition is better health. Our medical school, our students, will be making real-world positive suggestions that can make a difference.

Excerpt from:
Breaking The Cycle of Poor Diet to Promote Long-Lasting Health - UNLV NewsCenter