How do Japanese live this long?

  • If it’s being close to nature, then many countries have beautiful isolated area from modern life.
  • If it’s about diet, then what’s so special? African countries have simple and natural diet too, why doesn’t that work?
  • hoshikarakitaridia@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    If you want a chaotic answer to this, Yes Theory has made 2 episodes specifically on a region in Japan and Italy where people get really old.

    Spoiler: their conclusion was happiness and a little bit of carelessness, but the video included a lot of different aspects.

    • soot_guy@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Stress is the ultimate killer, and I agree with the statement that people who are happy and able to be a little careless will live long lives

    • hardypart@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      Japan has a pretty high suicide rate and they dedicate most of their life to work as far as I know. Doesn’t sound too happy to me.

      • Laticauda@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Japanese corporate culture is actually a relatively modern development, so a lot of older people in Japan have never experienced it.

      • sol@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        It’s possible there’s a regional or generational gap there. If you’re pushing 110 you probably haven’t worked in 40 years. You could even argue that the ones literally working themselves to death are the very ones paying for the older generation’s happy carefree lifestyle.

      • TheWoozy@dmv.social
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        1 year ago

        That’s a more recent phenomenon. These folk were retiring just as that culture was taking off.

      • cobn@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        I wonder more the average life expectancy or even the percentiles. What the max age does 90 percent of the population reach.

  • Matte@feddit.it
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    1 year ago

    first of all, you gotta be a lady

    then they say fish helps a lot apparently

      • ferret@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Hey now, we only know that pfas cause nerological disorders in children and that they don’t go away and are difficult/expensive to filter at scale, maybe they make you live forever, too.

    • CazRaX@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Also the whole missing centenarians thing they have going. 100+ year old people that haven’t been seen or heard from in years or even decades still marked as alive when most are long dead.

  • 2d@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    One theory I saw recently which no one has yet discussed is their higher average step count. Walking is good for you.

  • edric@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    If it’s about diet, then what’s so special? African countries have simple and natural diet too, why doesn’t that work?

    Quality of life in Japan vs an African country isn’t comparable. It’s a combination of a healthier diet and higher standard of living. Also, it isn’t unlikely that some of those people’s ages aren’t accurate.

    • scarabic@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yep everyone will trot out their favorite health gimmick to answer this. Or highlight their favorite narrow aspect of Japanese culture or lifestyle. But genetics is the overwhelming factor, much though that serves no one’s narrative.

  • tiredofsametab@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Historically, a lot of walking and eating home-cooked meals that were high in veggies and fermented foods and probably eating lots of seafood and seaweed with other proteins being less frequent.

    Milk wasn’t even a part of school lunches until after the war, so people still kicking from the pre-war times mostly grew up without it.

    I suspect, though, that life expediencies here are going to drop. Lots of fried food and such these days and I see more and more obese people.

  • randon31415@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I had some relatives that lied about their birth date making them seem older so that they could join the arm forces (strange, if things like that were possible now it would be younger to escape them). Maybe some of these people at 14 suddenly became 18 year Olds to fight in WW2 or the Russian-Japan war before that.

    • agent_flounder@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      So the 112 year old is instead a youthful 108?

      We have folks in the US that also lied about their age. They’re almost all dead now. So… Yeah.

  • Stizzah@feddit.it
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    1 year ago

    the composite last names of both the italians is typical of ancient, rich and maybe noble families, so at least for them it might be money.

  • Mereo@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Simple answer? Their balanced siet. They eat a lot of fish and greens with not too much fat.

  • Izzy@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I wonder what it is about being female. Maybe testosterone makes you stronger, but at the cost of living shorter. ☹️