Longevity and Old Europe

We often travel to see the old, the ancient. But where will you find the oldest people in Europe? Try the island between Africa and Europe called Sardinia.

According to Emma Bird, in Growing Healthy in Sardinia, "five of the world’s 40 oldest people live in Sardinia and some 135 people per million live to see their 100th birthday, while the western average is nearer 75."

What's the secret? Shepherds wander long distances with their sheep, from interior grassland to the sea. People are always on the move. Their isolation from the commercial world of unreal food shows in their diets of meat and cheese "healthier than the standard non-grass-fed American Saran-wrapped varieties, because the emphasis on natural grazing methods heightens the concentration of heart-healthy omega 3 and conjugated linoleic acids." Indeed, Sardinia supplies Italy with two-thirds of its organic food. [How to Live Forever]

But Bird points to a genetic factor as well: in centenarians, the incidence of G6PD deficiency, a deficiency commonly known as favism, is is on average double in centenarians. Favism means that eating fava beans, a Sardinian favorite, can cause a severe reaction, including death. But despite this negative aspect, favism also confers a resistance to malaria, and much of the south of Sardinia consisted of malarial swamps before the Romans drained them. Still, malaria persisted in Sardinia until the Allies sprayed the area with DDT during the second world war. The observant traveler may notice that many of the stenciled notices in English on wooden storeroom doors in Sardinia's interior are still clearly readable.

So why not go to one of my favorite islands and explore Sardinia's bronze age towers, ancient people, Orgosolo's political murals, and taste some of that casu marzu, or, in Italian, formaggio con vermini, the famous maggot cheese of the island. You never know, maybe you'll live longer.