Inspired By Iceland
Iceland is home to the world’s longest-living population
Iceland, an island, no larger than Kentucky, in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, is home to one of the world’s longest-living population. These people not only outlive their American counterparts by nearly five years, but also have seemingly been spared many of the debilitating and deadly diseases that plague other western cultures, with lower instances of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis, Alzheimer, dementia, stroke and sudden death.
As a result, the Icelandic people have become a sort of medical marvel, if you will. Its population has long been the focus of countless studies, all seeking a scientific explanation as to why Icelanders live longer and healthier than most of the rest of the world.
The Icelandic Secret?
Fish, a century-old staple of the Icelandic diet, best explains the population’s widespread health, studies found. Iceland’s waters are full of nutrition-packed fish, such as cod, salmon, trout, tuna and mackerel. These wild fish that the Icelandic eat so religiously are rich with omega 3, a required nutrient, which most of the Western world does not consume enough of.
The problem with our diets
Much of the world is fat. In almost half of developed countries, one out of every two people is overweight or obese. Many of these people have high-fat and high-processed diets; diets that fall short in providing adequate amounts of essential omega 3 fatty acids.
On the other end of the scale (literally), these overweight nations are also home to regular dieters. Oftentimes, these groups of people, in a quest to escape the same fate as the overweight, adopt low-fat, calorie-counting diets--diets that deprive them of essential omega 3 fatty acids.
Whether or not you fit in one of the aforementioned categories, chances are, you still are not getting the suggested amounts of omega 3s. Unless one consumes mass amounts of fish (which has become a questionable practice because of mercury and other contaminants), the average western diet simply does not provide adequate amounts of omega 3s. While, the amounts and ratios of recommended omega 3 vary by age and conditions, few experts doubt that most of us need more.
