{"product_id":"healthy-at-100-isbn-9780345490117","title":"Healthy at 100","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eDiet for a New America \u003c\/i\u003eshares the scientifically proven secrets of the world’s healthiest and longest-lived people and shows how understanding their unique lifestyles can influence and improve our own longevity.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e“\u003ci\u003eHealthy at 100\u003c\/i\u003e is a masterpiece.”—Dean Ornish, M.D. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e“This is a remarkably open and heartfelt book full of wisdom and love. John Robbins has created a new vision of aging for American society”—John Mackey, CEO, Whole Foods\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this revolutionary book, bestselling author John Robbins reveals the secrets for living an extended and fulfilling life. He explores the example of four very different cultures that have the distinction of producing some of the world’s healthiest, oldest people: the Abkhasians in the Caucasus south of Russia, the Vilcabambans in the South American Andes, the Hunzans in Central Asia, and the people from the southern Japanese islands of Okinawa. Bringing the traditions of these ancient and vibrantly healthy cultures together with breakthroughs in medical science, Robbins reveals that, remarkably, they both point in the same direction: It is not diet and exercise alone that helps people to live well past one hundred. The quality of personal relationships is enormously significant for our longevity. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eHealthy at 100, \u003c\/i\u003eRobbins isolates the characteristics that will enable us to live long and—more important—joyous lives. With an emphasis on simple, wholesome, yet satisfying fare, a manageable daily exercise routine, and the cultivation of strong, loving relationships, Robbins gives us the tools for making our later years a period of wisdom, vitality, and happiness.“John Robbins has inspired millions of people with his eloquent, clear, compassionate, and insightful guidance on the path to health and fulfillment. \u003ci\u003eHealthy at 100 \u003c\/i\u003emay be his finest work to date. If you are interested in extending your health span as well as your life span, read this book! \u003ci\u003eHealthy at 100\u003c\/i\u003e is a masterpiece.”\u003cb\u003e—Dean Ornish, M.D., president and director of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute, author of \u003ci\u003eDr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This is a remarkably open and heartfelt book full of wisdom and love by an extraordinary man who has been teaching us how to live more healthy and compassionate lives for over twenty years now. John Robbins has created a new vision of aging for American society.”\u003cb\u003e—John Mackey, CEO, \u003ci\u003eWhole Foods\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“John Robbins is one of the most important voices in America today. He cuts through nonsense like no one else does. He gives hope like no one else does. His words are lifelines for both the body and soul. This book can literally save our lives.”\u003cb\u003e—Marianne Williamson, author of \u003ci\u003eA Return to Love \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eA Woman’s Worth\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eHealthy at 100\u003c\/i\u003e is a marvelous blend of wisdom, hope, courage, and common sense. John Robbins gives us caring, science, and inspiration–a beautiful diet for the heart.”\u003cb\u003e—Jack Kornfield, co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society and Spirit Rock, author of \u003ci\u003eA Path with Heart\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“As the low-carb diet craze is gone, John Robbins proposes a far healthier approach that leads not just to a healthy weight but also to a joyful and fulfilled life. \u003ci\u003eHealthy at 100 \u003c\/i\u003eis packed with informed and heartfelt wisdom.”\u003cb\u003e—Jorge Cruise, author of \u003ci\u003eThe 3-Hour Diet\u003c\/i\u003e, creator of JorgeCruise \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“John Robbins inspires me on every page. His unique experiences and viewpoints were the reasons I wanted him to be in my film \u003ci\u003eSuper Size Me.\u003c\/i\u003e This book only reinforces my faith in him as a thought-provoking humanitarian.”\u003cb\u003e—Morgan Spurlock, producer and director of \u003ci\u003eSuper Size Me\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Commonsensical and scientifically sound  . . . Readers seeking that elusive fountain of youth would be wise to listen up.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e “Robbins marshals a great deal of excellent data from reputable  scientific sources to support his arguments.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Roanoke Times\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e “Thought-provoking  . . . highly recommended.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eWidely considered one of the world’s leading experts on the dietary link between the environment and health, John Robbins is the author of the million-copy bestseller \u003ci\u003eDiet for a New America\u003c\/i\u003e. His work has been the subject of cover stories and feature articles in the \u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003ePeople\u003c\/i\u003e. Robbins has been a featured and keynote speaker at hundreds of major conferences including those sponsored by the Sierra Club and UNICEF, and is the recipient of many awards, including the Rachel Carson Award and the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Award. He is the founder of EarthSave International, a nonprofit organization dedicated to healthy food choices, preservation of the environment, and a more compassionate world. Robbins lives with his wife, Deo, their son, Ocean, and daughter-in-law, Michele, and their grand-twins River and Bodhi outside of Santa Cruz, California.1\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Abkhasia: Ancients of the Caucasus\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e      People don’t grow old. When they stop growing, they become old.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    —Anonymous\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    In the early 1970s, National Geographic magazine approached the  world-renowned physician Alexander Leaf, asking him to visit, study, and  write an article about the world’s healthiest and most long-living people.  Dr. Leaf, a professor of clinical medicine at Harvard University and Chief  of Medical Services at Massachusetts General Hospital, had long been a  student of the subject and had already visited and studied some of the  cultures known for the healthy lives of their elderly people. Now,  National Geographic commissioned him to continue these travels and  investigations and to share with the world his observations and  comparisons of those areas of the planet which were famous for the  longevity and health of their inhabitants. It was a time, unlike today,  when these regions and their cultures were still somewhat pristine.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    As a scientist, Dr. Leaf did not believe in a mythical fountain of youth  in which anyone can bathe and be miraculously restored to eternal youth;  nor did he believe in magic potions that can instantly heal all  afflictions. But he did believe it was possible that there existed certain  places on earth where people actually lived longer and healthier lives  than is considered normal in the modern West. His goal was not to identify  the oldest living individual, but rather to locate and study those  societies—if they did in fact exist—where a large percentage of elder  citizens retained their faculties, were vigorous, and enjoyed their lives.  Rather than being interested in mythology or panaceas, his goal was to  understand the key factors that influence human prospects for long and  healthy life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Dr. Leaf undertook a series of journeys that he subsequently described in  an influential series of articles that appeared in National Geographic  magazine beginning in 1973.1 His writings were among the first  authoritative efforts to bring practical medical knowledge and research to  our desire to know what we can do to impact the future of our lives.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    When Dr. Leaf began his study and his travels, three regions of the world  were famous for the longevity of their inhabitants: the valley of  Vilcabamba in Ecuador, the Hunza region of Pakistan, and certain portions  of the Caucasus mountains in what was then the Soviet Union. These three  locales had long been the subject of claims that they were home to the  longest living and healthiest people on earth. According to the stories  swirling around these high mountainous regions, people in these  communities often lived spectacularly long lives in vibrant health.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Dr. Leaf and prizewinning National Geographic photographer John Launois  traveled to these remote areas to meet, photograph, examine, and appraise  for themselves the longevity and health of those who were reputed to be  the world’s oldest and healthiest people.   Dr. Leaf listened to their hearts, took their blood pressure, and studied  their diets and lifestyles. He watched them dance and saw them bathe in  ice-cold mountain streams. He spoke with them about their daily lives,  their hopes, their fears, their life histories. His goal was to separate  fact from fallacy and determine the truth about longevity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    LONGEVITY IN ABKHASIA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    “Certainly no area in the world,” Leaf wrote, “has the reputation for  long-lived people to match that of the Caucasus in southern Russia.”2 And  in all the Caucasus, the area most renowned for its extraordinary number  of healthy centenarians (people above the age of 100) was Abkhasia  (pronounced “ab-KAY-zha”). A 1970 census had established Abkhasia, then an  autonomous region within Soviet Georgia, as the longevity capital of the  world. “We were eager to see the centenarians,” Leaf said, “and Abkhasia  seemed to be the place to do so.”3\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Abkhasia covers three thousand square miles between the eastern shores of  the Black Sea and the crestline of the main Caucasus range. It is bordered  on the north by Russia, and on the south by Georgia.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Prior to Dr. Leaf’s visit, claims had been widely circulated for life  spans reaching 150 years among the Abkhasians. Just a few years earlier,  Life magazine had run an article with photos of Shirali Muslimov, said to  be 161 years old.4 In one of the photos, Muslimov was shown with his third  wife. He told the reporter that he had married her when he was 110, that  his parents had both lived to be over 100, and that his brother had died  at the age of 134.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Muslimov had passed away by the time of Leaf’s studies. But a woman named  Khfaf Lasuria had also been featured in the Life article. Leaf wanted to  meet her, and he found her in the Abkhasian village of Kutol, where she  sang in a choir made up entirely, he was told, of Abkhasian centenarians.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    I had a long talk with this diminutive—she stands not five feet  tall—sprightly woman who claimed to be 141 years old. . . .   Although she carried a handsomely carved wooden walking   stick, her nimbleness belied need of it. Her memory seemed excellent. . .  . She spoke lucidly and easily about events recent and past. At the age of  75 to 80 as a midwife she assisted more than 100 babies into the world. .  . . She described the life of women: “Women had a very difficult time  before the Revolution; we were practically slaves.” And she ended our talk  with a toast, “I want to drink to women all over the world . . . for them  not to work too hard and to be happy with their families.”5\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Though he was greatly impressed by this elderly lady’s charm and spirit,  Leaf did not simply take her word for her age. To the contrary, he went to  significant efforts to assess it objectively. Such a task is harder than  it might sound, for there are no signs in the human body, like the annual  rings of a tree, that tell us a person’s age.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    After laborious investigations, Leaf concluded that Mrs. Lasuria was close  to 130 years old. He wasn’t certain about that, saying only that he had  arrived at a degree of confidence and this was his best estimate. But he  was sure of one thing. She was one of the oldest persons he had ever met.6\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Everywhere he went in Abkhasia, Leaf met elders in remarkable health. The  area seemed to warrant its reputation as the mecca of superlongevity. Like  others who have studied the elders of Abkhasia, Leaf had colorful stories  to tell. He wrote of one elder, nearly 100, whose hearing was still good  and whose vision was still superb.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    “Have you ever been sick?” Leaf asked.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    The elder thought for some time, then replied, “Yes, I recall once having  a fever, a long time ago.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    “Do you ever see a doctor?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    The old man was surprised by the question, and replied, “Why should I?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Leaf examined him and found his blood pressure to be normal at 118\/60 and  his pulse to be regular at 70 beats per minute.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    “What was the happiest period of your life?” Leaf asked.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    “I feel joy all my life. But I was happiest when my daughter was born. And  saddest when my son died at the age of one year from dysentery.”7\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Among the others Leaf met were a delightful trio of gentlemen who, like  many elderly Abkhasians, were still working despite their advanced age.  They were Markhti Tarkhil, whom Leaf believed to be 104; Temur Tarba, who  was apparently 100; and Tikhed Gunba, a mere youngster at 98. All were  born locally. Temur said his father died at 110, his mother at 104, and an  older brother just that year at 109. After a short exam, Leaf said that  Temur’s blood pressure was a youthful 120\/84, and his pulse was regular at  a rate of 69.8\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    The old fellows clowned around constantly, joking and teasing each other  and Leaf. While he was checking pulses and blood pressures the other two  would shake their heads in mock sadness at the one being examined, saying  “Bad, very bad!” They never seemed to tire of friendly joking, always  finding new ways to have fun. Leaf was impressed by their sharp minds,  high spirits, and relentless sense of humor.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Like many of the elders in Abkhasia, regardless of the weather, these men  swam daily in cold mountain streams. One day, Leaf accompanied Markhti  Tarkhil on his morning plunge and was astonished by the vitality and  physical agility of the 104-year-old.9 It was a steep and rugged half-mile  climb down from the road to the river, but Markhti moved with confident  speed and agility. Seeing Markhti take off down the slope, Leaf, a  physician coming from a society where elders have thin and fragile bones,  was concerned that the older man might fall, and thought he should  accompany Markhti down the hill and see to it that he didn’t slip. But he  was unable to do so, because he couldn’t keep up with the pace of the far  older man, who as it turned out never lost his footing. Later, Leaf  learned from the regional doctor that there is no osteoporosis among the  active elders, and that fractures are rare.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    When Markhti arrived at the riverbank, he stripped and waded out into the  stream, immersing his entire body in the cold water. A young guide Leaf  had brought with him from Moscow also stripped and began wading into the  water, but immediately jumped out, exclaiming that the water was far too  cold.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    After bathing in the cold water for some time, Markhti got out, dried  himself off, put on his clothes, and proceeded to climb swiftly back up  the rugged slope, with Leaf, who was a half-century younger and who  considered himself physically fit, once again struggling to keep up.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    ARE THEY REALLY THAT OLD?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    After Leaf’s articles in National Geographic appeared, however, a heated  controversy developed over the validity of the ages claimed by some  Abkhasians. When people say they are 140 or 150 years old, this naturally  raises eyebrows. When the Soviet press announced that Shirali Muslimov was  168 years old, and the government commemorated the assertion by putting  his face on a postage stamp, knowledgeable scientists around the world  were skeptical. There is a reason that, until recently, The Guinness Book  of World Records introduced its section on longevity with the warning: “No  single subject is more obscured by vanity, deceit, falsehood and  deliberate fraud than the extremes of human longevity.” Currently, the  longest fully documented and irrefutably authenticated age ever reached by  a human being is 122, by a Frenchwoman named Jeanne Louise Calment.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    How old, in fact, are the oldest Abkhasians? No one knows with absolute  certainty. In the days when these elders were born, probably less than  one-tenth of 1 percent of the world’s population was keeping written birth  records. When birth records are lacking or questionable, as they are in  almost all cases of people born prior to 1920 in regions like the  Caucasus, contemporary researchers have had to be creative in developing  methods to appraise the ages of elders. Many volumes have been written  about the enterprising techniques that have been employed in the effort,  and probably an equal number of scholarly volumes have been written  critiquing these techniques. It has been a difficult task.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Probably the foremost skeptic about the extremely old ages sometimes  claimed for elders in the Caucasus was a geneticist from Soviet Georgia  named Zhores A. Medvedev, an expert in the methodologies used in the  effort to arrive at accurate age verifications in Abkhasia and elsewhere  in the Caucasus. Medvedev’s articles expressing his doubts received a  great deal of attention when they were published in the scientific journal  The Gerontologist shortly after Leaf’s articles appeared in National  Geographic. (Gerontology is the study of the changes and associated  problems in the mind and body that accompany aging.) In these articles,  Medvedev presented convincing evidence that the claims that people were  regularly living past the age of 120 were not to be trusted.10 At the same  time, though, he recognized that unusual longevity in the region was a  genuine reality, and that the area was indeed home to an inordinate number  of extremely healthy elders.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    As the controversy was unfolding, the legend of extraordinarily healthy  and long-lived people in the Caucasus was being heavily promoted by U.S.  corporations that manufactured and sold yogurt, attempting to connect the  phenomenal longevity of people in the region to their consumption of  yogurt. The Dannon yogurt company marketed a widely seen commercial  showing a 110-year-old mother pinching the cheek of her 89-year-old son  and telling him to eat his yogurt. This clever ad and others featuring  Soviet centenarians were fabulously successful in the American market.  They produced a generation of Americans who associated yogurt with extreme  longevity, and who naïvely believed that people regularly lived to 140 and  beyond in the Caucasus.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Unfortunately, it was the inflated claims for supercentenarians living to  extreme ages that got most of the attention in the 1970s and 1980s. What  made Abkhasians so interesting to the Western world at the time was not  their lifestyle and the wondrously healthy way they aged, but the exotic  phenomenon of people supposedly living to unbelievable ages. When these  extreme claims for superlongevity were found to be false, there was a  regrettable tendency to dismiss everything about Abkhasian longevity as a  hoax.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    My interest in longevity in Abkhasia, however, doesn’t depend on whether  any specific individuals have reached ages beyond 120. Perhaps none have,  but I don’t find the question to be particularly important. What makes  these people fascinating to me is the fact that an extraordinary  percentage of Abkhasians have lived to ripe old ages while retaining their  full health and vigor. What I find remarkable is the high degree of  physical and mental fitness commonly found among the elders in Abkhasia,  and their obvious joy in life.","brand":"Ballantine Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46300078014693,"sku":"NP9780345490117","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780345490117.jpg?v=1767728823","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/healthy-at-100-isbn-9780345490117","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}