In a small island off the coast of Japan, locals are consistently living long lives, with many even making it past a century, and the secret might come down to one superfood.
Author Dan Buettner has been on a mission for decades to try and discover why people living in a small group of countries around the world are living longer than other populations.
During his travels, he came across Okinawa, Japan where there is a disproportionate amount of locals making it to the 100 mark, and he believes that he might have just found one major reason why.
While they’re known to lead all round healthy and active lives, one particular food makes up most of their daily calorie intake, Beni Imo, or as it’s known in English, purple sweet potato.
The vegetable is so loved by local residents in fact, that it makes up a huge 67 per cent of their caloric intake, meanwhile in the rest of the country it only accounts for three per cent.
Revealing why the food is so crucial, speaking on his Netflix series, Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones, Dan said: “These sweet potatoes are full of complex carbohydrates and fibre, and they even have 150 per cent more of the active anti-oxidants than blueberries do.”
As he tried to set out why Okinawans are so fascinated with the superfood, he said: “Perhaps the main reasons Okinawans ate so much Beni Imo is because sweet potatoes are typhoon proof, the Beni Imo was safe underground.”
Meanwhile, Yukie Miyaguni, a diet expert from Okinawa even claimed that the superfood ‘saved’ people living on the island: “Well, Okinawa had a period of food shortage, and we were saved by these potatoes.”
She also pointed towards the importance of other superfoods that locals make full use of saying that Mulberry leaves are used to heal sore throats while squid ink soup is used as a detox.
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