Q: Dear Tom: I really enjoy your articles and the frankness with which they are written -very refreshing. I have been able to draw much inspiration from you and my level of understanding what it is I am trying to attain and how I am meant to do it has improved ten fold.

My question comes out of pure curiosity. Here I am fighting the fat fight every day and then you have the guys who live in the polar regions who have little to no access to green vegetables. In fact they live off seal andwhale meat/blubber. Yuk but awesome!

a) Is it true that they have longest longevity of all us earthlings?
b) Why do you reckon that is?

Phyllis
Zimbabwe

A: Last time I did any research on this subject, it was the okinawans and sardinians who had the claim to the greatest longevity, not the eskimos. Interestingly though, the okinawans – like the eskimos – also eat a great deal of fish (and yes, eskimos do eat whale blubber), and they not only seem to suffer no health consequences, but are healthier than most people on a typical “Western” or “Americanized” diet

Fish seems to have a great cardio protective effectand fish oil is the darling supplement of the naturalhealth as well as the fitness communities today

Eskimos have surely adapted to their environmentover many generations and developed a genetic code asprotein and fat types (read William Wolcott’s “Metabolic Typing Diet” for more information on this… Weston Price’s “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration” is also an interesting read on the subject and chapter 5 even includes a discussion of “Isolated and Modern Eskimos” and explains what happens when modern food is introduced to native populations).

This also makes a case for the idea that saturated fat and cholesterolalone may not be the “evils” that they have been said to be…and that it is manmade processed food that isreally the problem, and perhaps not eating right for your particular body type, genotype, genetic code, metabolic type, “constitution” or whatever you want to call it.

Im sure if you fed the native eskimos, sardinians, okinawans or any other long lived and healthy population a typical westerndiet of high carbs, processed fats and refined foodstheir health and longevity would quicly take a nosedive

Perhaps its not a “fight against fat” we should be engagingin but rather a fight against refined, processed, packagedmodern “convenience” foods and a modern sedentary (lazy) lifestyle.

Although you don’t have to run out looking for whale blubber, increasing your fish intake- especially fatty fish such as Salmon – is a great idea

And hey – don’t forget the exercise!