Japanese Women's Recipe of Longevity

The elderly citizens are more common than young people in Japan. The population of Japan is comprised of more people over the age of 65 than any other age group since many Japanese live to be well over 100 years old (Cirelli). One factor attributes to their longevity is their low calorie and fat diet. For example, The Okinawans believe that one mixture that they drink can cause them to live longer made of a mix of honey, garlic, aloe vera and turmeric along with a native liquor. Moreover, the diet of Okinawans is mostly vegetarian. This healthy diet helps Japanese citizens maintain a healthy weight, not to mention low cholesterol and blood pressure.

According to Delia Quigley from Care2.com, there are several reasons why Japanese people, especially women achieve longevity in their lives. The ingredients used in a Japanese kitchen are a simple variety of foods eaten on a consistent and daily basis, such as fish, soy, land and sea vegetables, rice, fruit, and green tea. All these ingredients are considered healthy, since they are high in protein, vitamin and minerals, and also low in fat. The second factor of why Japanese people longevity is that they eat more fish that the rest of the world do  and eat 5x more vegetable than Americans.

Japanese people emphasizes greatly on the freshness of their food ingredients. They believe fresh is best, and also they serve food in great display and smaller portions than food in America, because they believe less is more (Quigley). I think what it means that with smaller potion, people try to eat slower and enjoy the savory of their food more. Food preparation is also an important part of keeping the food healthy. Techniques commonly used are steaming, pan grilling, sauté, simmer or quick stir fries in a wok using heart healthy oils and flavored broth to season a dish. And though the meal is light people feel content and satisfied.

In Japan, breakfast is considered the most important and biggest meal of the day. It can consist of a variety of small courses which include green tea, steamed rice, miso soup with tofu and scallions, small sheets of nori seaweed, an egg omelet or piece of fish (Quigley). Emphasizing on breakfast is not exclusive to Japan of course, as it is a common fact that by eating breakfast, people tend to maintain healthier weight, because they keep their next meal proportion moderately.

Moreover, Japanese people is not overly obsessed with dieting and weight loss like many American women do.  They are encourage to try diverse variation food without concerning too much on dieting, but do be careful to keep everything on small portion. I believe that by not concerning too much on dieting, they can actually enjoy they food and reduce stress; therefore, increasing their lifespan.

References
http://seniors.lovetoknow.com/elderly-people-japan
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/10-reasons-japanese-women-dont-get-old-or-fat.html?page=1

Japanese Elderly Women Activities

It has been know that Japanese people have longer life expectancy than most people in the world. One of the secret that they have longer span is that they keep active throughout their life. Japanese people believe that they should as long as they can; some even still work in their 90s ("Elderly People in Japan"). Japanese elders try to make most of their daily life with enriching activities.

It appears that Japanese elderly group does not like not having something to with their  hand in their old days. Many of them prefer to do activities, preferably together in a community where many Japanese in same age range can enjoy various activities. One group of Japanese elderly women developed new hobbies of knitting after they survived the disaster back in 2011. Teddy Swaka started the program Yarn Alive claimed that she could go crazy if she did not have something to do ("Knitting is Helping Elderly Survivors"). Swaka believed knitting would elevated the survivors mood who had lost their loved ones, business, and home.

Knitting is one activity to keep the Japanese's day busy. Some people like to do activities that involves more body movements, such as the Japan Pom Pom. Japan Pom Pom is a group of cheerleaders performed by older Japanese women with the average age of 66, started by Fumie Takino. Even though she was the oldest, Takino is sure know how to have fun, as she is described as very cheerful and playful. Takino explained that everyone gets old, so might as well have some fun from it. ("Cheering on Aging Japan").

I think these women are very inspiring and admirable. They show that people can never really to be too old to do activities they love. Cheerleaders group run by senior citizen is definitely something that people do not see everyday, and it is very unique and inspiring. many of these elderly women refuse to laze around and insist they do some kind of enjoyable activity, which benefits them a lot, as keeping active increase their life span.

References

http://seniors.lovetoknow.com/elderly-people-japan

http://blogs.reuters.com/photographers-blog/2010/05/31/cheering-on-an-aging-japan/

http://underthegables.blogspot.com/2012/03/knitting-is-helping-elderly-survivors.html