Okinawa, Japan Has the World’s Highest Rate of Centenarians

You might want to think about relocating to Okinawa if you want to live to be 100. The city holds the distinction of having the largest percentage of centenarians anywhere on earth. 68 people out of every 100,000 people in the population are above 100 years old. That is more than three times as many centenarians as you would find in US cities of comparable size.

Science has undoubtedly made an effort to determine why Okinawans in particular appear to live longer than everyone else in the world. The inhabitants' diet, which is often low in protein and somewhat high in carbohydrates, may be a contributing factor. An Okinawan diet has a ratio of roughly 10 to 1. Which is essentially the opposite of what many contemporary, Western diets recommend, with 10 times as much carbohydrates as protein. The majority of their calories come from sweet potatoes, and there is also a lot of shell ginger. Many of the people are in good health far into their hundreds, so it seems to be working well.