How to live longer

The crop of centenarian research over the past decade provides some vital clues to the outlook, diet and lifestyle habits of those who can tick off a century’s worth of New Year’s Day celebrations from their lifetime achievements! Here’s how they got to live to three digits.

1. PRACTISE HARA HACHI BU

The Japanese region of Okinawa is thought to hold the record for the highest percentage of centenarians in the world. The Okinawa Way, by Bradley Wilcox et al (Penguin), details one common mealtime practice – hara hachi bu, which loosely translated means, “eat until you are 80% full”.

And research suggests this could be based on biological fact: it takes the stomach receptors about 20 minutes to contact the brain to signal it’s time to stop eating. So leave a little room after a meal, and 20 minutes later you’ll likely find you don’t need that extra serving after all.

No expensive supplements, fancy treatments or intricate cooking methods required. Just chant “hara hachi bu” at mealtimes to live a longer, leaner life.

2. FAVOUR FISH

The Japanese have long held the privilege of having the highest life expectancy in the world, a fact that many people believe is linked to their high intake of fish.

Near the top of the life-expectancy table are Swedish people, who also feast on fish regularly – and enjoy the lowest rate of senile dementia in the world.

Okinawan elders eat at least three servings of fish a week and have a remarkably low incidence of breast cancer, heart disease and dementia. Fish high in omega-3 fats – such as salmon, mackerel and tuna – can protect the body against all forms of cancer, the second-highest killer in Western countries after cardiovascular disease.

3. OIL UP YOUR HEART

Many centenarians are also found on the Greek island of Crete, where olive oil flows as freely as ouzo. Want to know how much olive oil Cretans consume? About 25kg per person, per year!

A great deal has been written on the heart-saving effects of olive oil. It’s a mono-unsaturated fat (the best type) and contains copious amounts of vitamin E, a very powerful antioxidant. It increases good cholesterol and was also recently found to decrease the levels of “bad” cholesterol in the body’s blood vessels, decreasing your chances of falling prey to one of the major killers – heart disease.