Do you want to live forever - do you? (The Anti-ageing Diet - Sally Beare)

Member Name: LAURALILIA

Product:	The Anti-ageing Diet - Sally Beare
Date:	12/09/09 (73 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some fantastic facts and knowledge that I will act on

Disadvantages: Wish it had been even longer

***The Anti-ageing Diet by Sally Beare***

This is not the sort of book that I would be interested in at first glance, but when I was browsing in Waterstones, I picked it up and looked through it. I quickly realised that this book was not about using diet to avoid botox etc, but was actually about living longer generally. I went home to order the book from the library as I was not prepared to pay £7.99 and found that I could actually buy the book from Amazon Marketplace for around £2.70, so I ordered it.

***What's it all about?***

This book is all about living longer and in particular it looks at five hotspots in the world where people commonly live to an old age and do so healthily. The hotspots it looks at are:

* Okinawa (Japan)
* Symi (Greece)
* Campodimele (Italy)
* Hunza (Pakistan)
* Bama (China)


There then follows a second chapter which outlines the fifteen secrets of living longer. The third chapter is a summary and there is a list of references at the end for further reading.

***Opinion***

I very rarely offer gushing praise, but I loved this book as it was really easy to read and gave out lots of interesting information. The sections outlining each of the five communities looks at their diets, and give a few recipes that would be eaten regularly. There are also a few quotes from the people who live there. The book is full of facts and figures, which I found really interesting. There is a lot of nutritional tips relating to cancer, because in these societies are almost cancer (and disease free). So these people don't just live longer, they live healthy productive lives too.

I found the writing style easy going - it wasn't a difficult read and you could dip in and out of chapters as you wished. I learned alot from the book, and found it interesting how little meat these communities ate. There was also a good section on the benefits of eating as much raw food as possible. I always aim for 5 a day, but again in these communities they are looking at at least 10 portions of mostly vegetables with a couple of fruit choices added in. Another interesting fact I found out about was apricot kernals (cannot be found here - have to be imported!), they contain vitamin B17, which is vital to protect against cancer and in Hunza where these kernals are consumed, there is virtually no incidence of cancer.


It also seems that these communities have a much more relaxed way of life. I really enjoyed finding out about the science behind why what they eat works and some of it seemed like such common sense that I don't know why this knowledge isn't more widespread.

The statistics are also interesting; finding out about how rare certain diseases are in these communities in comparison to the rest of the world. They are presented in a boring way and there are even examples of studies were cancer has been beaten due to a change in diet. Ordinarily I am a bit of a cynic where this sort of book is concerned, but I can really recommend reading it. Two people have bought it on my say so and both say that they are glad that they did, as they have altered certain aspects of their lifestyle and diet.


One thing I would have liked to see would have been more detail about the numbers of people in these communities and their structure. I will probably do more research on the internet to find out more information.

If you want to live forever - well past 100, read the book and give it a go...

Summary: If you seriously want to make changes to your diet for the better - then start here!