A fitness coach who runs a weekly podcast on human health has looked into the reasons behind this population’s longer life expectancy.
Japan boasts a population whose life expectancy is among the highest on the planet: with an average lifespan of 84, according to data collected by the World Bank in 2023, the Asian giant ranks third in the world among nations and territories inhabited by more than a million people.
Japan has the highest life expectancy of all the G7 countries – a group of major advanced economies that also includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Per the World Bank, Japanese people live for six years longer on average than Americans.
According to the online fitness coach Leo Alves, who hosts a weekly podcast on human health, Japan’s long-living population is largely a result of the country’s avoidance of obesity. And there are a number of apparent ways that Japanese people stay trim and live longer, he says.
Alves, who draws on his experience of spending 15 months in the country between 2020 and 2021, pinpoints the following daily habits that he observed:
Alves’ focus on the crucial role of obesity echoes the conclusions of a 2020 paper published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (EJCN), which highlights the impact of Japan’s generally slimline population.
The country’s obesity rate is just 4.5%, per statistics shared by NPR – around 10 times lower than in the U.S.
Written by Dr. Shoichiro Tsugane, the director of Japan’s National Institute of Health and Nutrition, the EJCN paper explains that the Japanese population’s avoidance of obesity contributes to the nation’s reduced mortality from ischemic heart disease and cancer.
Lowering heart disease and cancer rates is key to raising a country’s life expectancy, agrees Dr. Martin Juneau of Canada’s Institut de Cardiologie de Montréal.
Dr. Tsugane and Dr. Juneau both laud the beneficial effects of the Japanese diet, which the latter describes as “unique”. The country’s diet is characterised by “low consumption of red meat, and high consumption of fish and plant foods such as soybeans and tea”, Dr. Juneau says.
As is explained to WebMD by the health expert Naomi Moriyama, Japanese eaters’ avoidance of red meats reduces their intake of “artery-clogging saturated fat”.
Moriyama adds that soy products are an excellent alternative to red meat, as they offer rich sources of protein without the saturated fat.
Meanwhile, commonly-consumed fish such as salmon, herring and mackerel contain plenty of omega-3 fatty acids, which aid heart-health, Moriyama explains.
As is pointed by Alves, Dr. Tsugane also highlights that popular Japanese beverages such as green tea are, crucially, “nonsugar-sweetened”.
According to Dr. Frank Hu, professor of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, excessive sugar consumption can have significant consequences for human health.
“The effects of added sugar intake – higher blood pressure, inflammation, weight gain, diabetes, and fatty liver disease – are all linked to an increased risk for heart attack and stroke,” Dr. Hu says.
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