First Posted: 4/1/2015
There’s typically “a story behind the story” in the news business.
Last week, the death of the world’s oldest person, Misao Okawa, 117, of Japan, brought out this interesting tidbit: Japan has the most centenarians in the world with more than 58,000, of which 87 percent are women.
Why is that so?
Well, if you want to live as long as a bunch of Japanese women, you may not like “the story behind the story.” According to the British medical journal The Lancet, it includes diet, lifestyle and a health care system that turns the stomach of many Americans.
The Japanese secret to longevity begins with its grocery list, which doesn’t includes gallons of ice cream, boxes of pastries, bags of chips or a Snickers or Milky Way candy bar. Beer is not even on the list. Instead, the Japanese tend to swallow more vegetables, fish and brown seaweed — the latter to get something called “fucoidans,” which simply put, are one of the kings of dietary fibers. With a diet like that, it stands to reason that the Japanese also eat less than their Western counterparts.
You also won’t catch the Japanese hopping in their cars and driving around the corner for a pork tenderloin from the nearest Happy Daz. Instead, the Japanese would walk or cycle, something of which they do more than Americans. The Lancet attributes this to the crowded island in which the Japanese live.
The Japanese also aren’t as big of slobs as Americans. They pay better attention to hygiene in all aspects of their daily lives.
The Lancet study ends on a political note, pointing out Japan has provided universal health care cost-effectively since 1961. It has amounted to just 8.5 percent of Japan’s gross domestic product, which is around half the proportion the USA spends on private and public health care. Regular checkups are the norm for most Japanese and mass screenings are provided for everyone at school and work or in the community by local government authorities.
If Japan had Democrats, they likely would say those statistics are a testament to Japan’s version of Obamacare. To which the Japanese Republicans would reply, “No, it’s all about lifestyle: People in Japan live a healthier lifestyle so they need less health care.”
Shortly before her death, Misao Okawa was asked what she thought the secret was to living to be 117 years old? She simply replied, “I wonder about that.”
Perhaps it’s a combination of all of the above.
ROSES AND THORNS: For the second straight week a couple married 70 years enjoy a place in the rose garden.
Rose: To Oscar and Evelyn Scheufler, of Lima. Both are 94 years old (Oscar soon will be 95) and they’ve been married 72 years.
Rose: To Lima Police Officer Randy Kohli, who will represent the Jefferson Award winners for volunteerism at this year’s banquet in Washington.
Rose: To the seven other Jefferson Award winners honored Tuesday: Robert Day, of Cridersville; Louis Hohman, of Delphos; Nathan Shaffer, of Spencerville; Steve Montgomery, of Elida; and Angie Clark, Holly Koza and Lonnie Rettig, all of Lima. Rettig also received the Lima Noon Sertoma Club’s Service to Mankind award earlier in the day.
Rose: To Jerry Hoersten, of Delphos, whose idea was featured March 30 in the nationally syndicated comic strip “Pluggers.” Hoersten said, “When a front page story is continued on Page 4, by the time a Plugger gets there, he’s already forgotten what he read on Page 1.”
Thorn: Two men, perhaps hungry for pie, entered the Kewpee on Allentown Road and swiped the pie display case.
Thorn: To Tyler Paxson, 19, of Spencerville, who is back in jail after testing positive for marijuana. Paxson was out on bond for felonious assault charges involving an incident in which he said he was brutally attacked by Lima Police Department officers.
Thorn: During the last six months, Lima Police Department officers responded to 40 calls to the Firehouse Bar on North Main Street, 18 of which involved fights.
PARTING SHOT: Once you realize how valuable you are, you will find it hard to keep the company of those who do not.
