Smog, clog — and HEALTH?

If you read last week’s post on the habits of the healthiest and longest lived cultures on earth – and of course you did! – you may have said to yourself: Sure, those folks who live in isolated villages in the Andes can live healthy lives. They are far from interstates and internet, from mochaccinos and McDonalds, from the toxins and temptations of modern life. Hurray for them. But, really, what can I learn from them? That’s not my life. That’s not me.

Me either. So now I’m going to tell you about extraordinarily health and long lived people who live in the belly of the beast, aka 21st century America. And not just America: California. And not just California: Southern California. That’s right, land of smog and clog, land of freeways and fast food. Yet, the healthiest and longest lived people in all of North American live here.

These folks have a 60% lower (men) and 76% lover (women) death rate from all cancers than the rest of us. Their lung cancer rate is 21% lower, colorectal cancer 62% lower, and breast cancer 85% lower.
Coronary heart disease is 66% lower for men, and 98% lower for women. They suffer far less from type 2 diabetes. They have lower blood pressure, lower body weight, and better lean-to-fat ratios. They report enviable levels of happiness and satisfaction. Oh, and they live longer than the rest of us — 6.2 years (men) and 4.4 years (women).

Who are they?

They are the extensively studied Seventh day Adventists of Loma Linda, California, and there’s a glimpse of the lifestyle that keeps them weller than well:

They exercise.
They avoid alcohol, tobacco and “mind altering substances.” (I’m afraid that means caffeine, but I choose not to think too deeply about this.)
They eat a well-balanced vegetarian diet rich in legumes, nuts, whole grains, fruits and vegetables.
They work to create, nourish and maintain strong relationships.
They are involved in their communities.
They believe that good health is “a gift from a loving God who wants us to live life in its abundance.” (Personally, I could get behind a God like that.)
They believe that “to not take care of our bodies, which is a part of the stewardship of the earth, is an affront to our God.

I’m not proselytizing here. But, come on, these folks are kind of awesome, aren’t they? Here they are, crafting vital, ultra-healthy, meaningful lives right under our noses, living smack-dab in the same age-accelerating, disease-promoting culture we live in.

If you dismissed the health and longevity lessons of the Abkhasians, Vilcabambans, Hunzas and Okinawans I wrote about last week because their cultures and geographies were so very different from our own, you can’t do the same for these southern Californians…can you now?