The Secret of Longevity - Hunza Who?

p>A couple of weeks ago my husband and I wereHunzas.
enjoying an evening with some friends. We wereThe most important question I had about this disease
playing a question and answer game and the questionfree, long living people was WHAT DO THEY EAT?
was asked: "If you could switch places with someone- They consume very little meat (they have minimal
for 1 week, live as they live- who would it be?pastureland) except on rare feast days.
Of course we heard answers like: The President of- Meat and dairy products together constitute only 1
the United States, Bill Gates and even Oprah. Mypercent of their total diet.
answer came to me pretty quick- I was a little- Protein and fat are almost entirely of vegetable
hesitant to share at first because it definitely wasn'torigin.
like the others. I eventually told everyone my- They depend entirely on natural foods rather than
answer- "If I could, I would switch places with aprocessed and manufactured ones.
HUNZA". I received some funny looks, so I did go on- They eat substantial amounts of whole grains:
to explain exactly who a HUNZA is.wheat, barley, millet and buckwheat.
My fascination with the HUNZAS started years ago- Vegetables also play a prominent role, particularly
when I was reading a health book (can't rememberDARK LEAFY GREENS (mustard greens, spinach and
which one) that quickly talked about a group oflettuce) and also root vegetables, beans and legumes
people who live in the northernmost part of Pakistan,that can be sprouted.
where six mountain ranges converge. They live in an- They grow Flaxseeds; almost every meal contains
extraordinary fertile valley that for hundreds of yearsfreshly ground flaxmeal in one form or another.
has been in complete isolation from the rest of the- A large part of their diet is eaten uncooked, in the
world. Until recently, to get to the Hunza Valley wassummer, as much as 80 percent of the food is eaten
near impossible because the only way in was anin its natural state.
extremely dangerous trail winding through the- Vegetables are picked just prior to consumption
mountains and in some places this trail was only twoand almost always eaten raw.
feet wide (it has been called "The most dangerous- In the winter, they soak their lentils and beans and
road in the world").eat them sprouted.
Believe me, the complete isolation and the winding- When vegetables are cooked they are typically
road isn't what made me want to live there for alightly steamed using minimal amount of water.
week...it is the LONGEVITY of this people that- THEY EAT A LOW CALORIE, WHOLE FOOD
intrigues me.PLANT BASED DIET(overall daily calories 1,900)
I read the book "Hunza: Secrets of the World's(All taken from the book- "HEALTHY AT 100")
Healthiest and Oldest Living People" written by JayThe Hunzas grow all their food on fertile terraces
Milton Hoffman. In the 1960's Dr. Jay Hoffman wasalong the mountain side that is watered by the rich
asked by the U.S. National Geriatric Society to go tomineral waters that come down from the mountains-
Hunza and study the health and longevity of thiswhich makes their soil the most fertile in the world.
isolated people. He wrote,They grow a wide variety of fruit and are said to
Down through the ages, adventurers andhave flavor and nutrient value no where else in the
utopia-seeking men have fervently searched theworld..."their apricots have been described as the
world for the Fountain of Youth but didn't find it.most luscious fruits on earth."
However unbelievable as it may seem, a Fountain ofOf course there is more to their LONGEVITY than
Youth does exist high in the Himalayanthe food they eat. Since they live in the middle of
Mountains...Here is a land where people do not havemany mountains- their form of travel (walking) is
common diseases, such as heart ailments, cancermainly straight up or straight down. They are
(cancer is unknown), arthritis, high blood pressure,consistently exercising their bodies- every day of
diabetes, tuberculosis, hay fever, asthma, livertheir lives.
trouble, gall bladder trouble, constipation, or manyUnfortunately, the Hunzas aren't what they were 40
other ailments that plague the rest of the world.years ago. The western world and its influences have
Moreover, there are no hospitals, not insane asylums,invaded their precious landscape, thus disease is not
no drug stores, no saloons, no tobacco stores, nothe unknown anymore.
police, no jails, no crimes, no murders and no beggars.Science has determined that CALORIE
Another Doctor visited this people, Dr. Paul DudleyRESTRICTION can prolong a human's life...but I also
White and tested 25 Hunza men he believed to belike to look at everything else the Hunzas did to allow
90 and 110 years old...not one of them showed athem to live into their 100's- disease free. If you read
single sign of coronary heart disease, high bloodJohn Robbins "Healthy at 100" you can see all the
pressure, or high cholesterol levels. They had 20-20aspects of their life plus he documents more
vision and no tooth decay...no vascular, muscular,long-living people. I know that I can't live exactly like
organic, respiratory, or bone disease.them even if I wanted to- but I can take some of
After having read Dr. Hoffman's book and reallythese tips and try my best!
enjoying what I learned I came across anotherTo be honest, do I really want to live entirely as the
spectacular book that documents this amazing people:Hunzas do- not really. But their way of life truly does
"Healthy at 100" written by John Robbins ( Afterinspire me...and I would really like to try one of their
reading this book it instantly became one of myapricots!
favorites. I was able to learn much more about the