Japanese longevity

The feature about ikigai and Japanese longevity (in particular Okinawa, December 5) is most interesting and useful. Ikigai is essentially about maintaining a positive mental attitude, physical and mental activity and avoiding overeating.

Japan remains at the top of human longevity league while Sardinia is said to be home to the highest percentage of European centenarians. A recent British study of this Sardinian phenomenon claims these long-lived individuals live in hilltop villages, are active most of the day, do not make much use of cars, their diet is mainly vegetables and goat cheese based, and are free from chronic disputes and anger.

Japanese longevity is not just related to ikigai but also to their traditional diet of fish, vegetables, green tea and no animal meats and dairy produce. Several decades ago, US medical statistics identified that, whereas Japanese living in Japan had low rates of heart disease, breast and prostate cancer, compared to the US, Japanese residents in America acquired similar disease patterns to other Americans within two generations. This suggested the diet in Japan was an important factor in Japan residents longevity.

Two important dietary factors contributing to Japanese longevity are thought to be fish and a fermented soya product. Fish, particularly from cold waters, is rich in omega-3 fat, which has anti-inflammatory and anti-coagulant properties besides lowering blood triglycerides levels (the worst factor in cholesterol tests). Fermented soya, which the Japanese call natto, has blood clot loosening properties.

The dietary combination of fish and natto would, therefore, be expected to be just as an effective (if not superior and safer) alternative to aspirin and cholesterol-lowering pharmaceuticals (statins). In the West, if one is not eating fish on a daily basis, one can replicate this Japanese dietary pattern with pure fish oil (marine omega-3) and nattokinase capsules.

Nattokinase is natto in capsule form and, if not available locally, can be purchased online from European suppliers.

In the 1970s and 1980s, US laboratory animal studies and a combined US and Chinese university field study in China produced evidence incriminating excessive animal-derived foods as the main promoter of cancer.

The traditional Japanese diet, containing little or no animal-derived food, probably also contributes to their longevity by lowering cancer risk. Furthermore, soya beans (and all beans and lentils) contain substances which lower breast and prostate cancer risk.

ALBERT CILIA-VINCENTI former European Medicines Agency scientific delegate, Attard

In the run-up to the Christmas season, or holiday festivities, if you will, a shadow has been cast that temporarily diminished the sparkle of led lights and Christmas cheer. The European Commissioner for Equality, Helena Dalli sought to issue some sugar-coated equality guidelines which were, fortunately, withdrawn following scathing criticism from various quarters within the European Union.

This move coming from Dalli takes me to revisit one of my favourite movies, The Nightmare Before Christmas. In Tim Burtons stop-motion animated masterpiece, the grotesque but charismatic character Jack Skellington naively tries to fuse Halloween with Christmas, going so far as to send his minions to capture Father Christmas and replacing presents with Halloween versions, which shock and terrify children and parents.

After realising his folly, Jack the Pumpkin King sets things right by reversing his actions and restores Christmas to its normal state.

Dalli has, likewise, attempted to distort the meaning of Christmas and its symbolism to suit her vision of equality but retracted her steps because of the negative backlash. However, while Skellingtons motivations may have been comical and well-intentioned, those of the commissioner could be different.

I distinctly recall, a few years back, the first draft of the Equality Bill, issued when Dalli was a minister for equality in Malta, which included a rather sinister definition of pregnancy: the state of a person who has within the ovary or womb an implanted embryo, which gradually becomes developed in the latter receptacle.

After the social partners protested against this mad scientist definition of pregnancy, which, underhandedly, attempted to separate the mother from the child, the definition was later changed to a more humane woman with child. Yet, the attempt to strip the concept of a pregnancy of any human element was evident, understood and exposed.

More recently, Dalli bragged about how she deceived the electorate by disguising the true intentions of the Labour Party electoral manifesto through the use of obscure terminology. It seems to me that Dalli harbours opinions to which she is perfectly entitled but would go to any lengths to see these ideas imposed on the rest of society, even by stealth and Macchiavellian tactics.

The proposed guidelines by the European Commission also tried to dissuade the use of names like Mary because of their Christian connotations, under the guise of promoting multiculturalism. Why my mothers name, which Leonard Bernstein in the classic West Side Story describes as all the beautiful sounds of the world in a single word, should have the effect of brandishing a crucifix to a vampire on some people eludes me.

Multiculturalism should be all-embracing. If Frank Zappa chose to name his daughter Moon Unit, I love his music no less, though I still prefer the name Mary to Moon Unit.

The EU has to grapple with striking a balance between its historical and cultural roots and a rapidly changing sociocultural environment. Yet, there is no need to resort to a sledgehammer approach to accept the new by obscuring the history and traditions that unite the countries within the Union.

The branding of the Union its flag is also an affirmation of predominantly Christian culture and values, even if the Union and member states are secular. The blue background and yellow stars are a direct reference to the biblical Mary, not Moon Unit.

In time, this may be challenged by the likes of Commissioner Dalli. Who knows, in future, we may remove the 12 yellow stars that can represent the apostles, the zodiac or the 12 labours of Hercules and replace them with a deconstructed foetus as a symbol of equality!

JOSEPH FARRUGIA Attard

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Letters to the editor - December 12, 2021 - Times of Malta