In previous Columns, we have made repeated reference to the ‘Blue Zones’, areas in Greece, Sardinia, Costa Rica, and Okinawa and the Seventh Day Adventist community in Loma Linda, California where populations have an unusually high proportion of centenarians (people that live to be 100 or more). 

Medical research has clearly established that it is the plant-based diet commonly consumed by these centenarians that hold the secret to their extended longevity, their long life. Extensive research over decades has firmly established that strict vegetarians live on average 10 years longer than ‘omnivores’, those that eat mostly animal-based foods. However, the big question: ‘Why does plant-based nutrition increase longevity?’ still remained unanswered. 

Before we go any further, we have to explain first about these –almost magical- structures that are found in every cell of our body: chromosomes and genes. What is so important about these chromosomes? It is that they contain our genes. As we explained in an earlier Column, our genes contain instructions that tell our cells to make molecules called proteins. These proteins perform various functions in our body to keep us healthy. Each gene carries instructions that determine some of our features, such as eye or hair colour, height etc. 

Humans have a total of about 20,000 genes: scientists have discovered where exactly they are located on the chromosomes, which are tightly packed inside every single cell. There are 23 pairs of chromosomes in each cell. Let’s return to our story, why people, following a plant-based diet, live longer than meat eaters. 

Well, finally, in 2009, we got the answer. It was when the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was jointly awarded to an Australian, Elizabeth Blackburn, and two Americans, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak for their discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres, which in turn are controlled by the enzyme telomerase. Elizabeth Blackburn and Jack Szostak discovered why the telomeres protect the chromosomes from degradation. Carol Greider and Elizabeth Blackburn identified telomerase, the enzyme that makes telomeres grow. 

These discoveries explained how the ends of the chromosomes are protected by the telomeres, which are built through the action of telomerase. The telomeres being the end caps that protect our chromosomes have been compared to the plastic tips of a shoelace. When these plastic tips get damaged, the shoelaces become frayed and can no longer do their job well. It is normal that telomeres are shortened every time our cells divide and multiply. 

So, over time, under normal conditions, after repeated cell divisions, the telomeres naturally shorten as we age. But as recent research has shown, this is not a one-way street. There are conditions that will make the telomeres shorten and others that will allow the telomeres to grow! They can be shortened by an unhealthy lifestyle: poor diet, lack of exercise and sleep, smoking, obesity and stress. But then research found out that one actually can grow one’s telomeres by following a plant-based diet!

In a 2013 article in The Lancet, Drs Blackburn and Dean Ornish (one of the pioneers of the lifestyle medicine movement) joined forces and studied the effect of a low-fat, plant-based diet on the progression of low-risk prostate cancer. The diet reversed the progress of cancer but also resulted in a 10 per cent lengthening of the telomeres!   In the control group however, for those that consumed an animal-based diet, the telomeres got shorter and had a 3 per cent reduction in length over a 5-year period! The researchers further found that the lengthening of the telomeres was caused by an increase in the production in the body of the enzyme telomerase. 

In the conclusion of the article, they spelled out the needed lifestyle changes to allow the telomeres to grow. They include a low-fat, plant-based diet (what we call the whole food, plant-based diet), moderate daily exercise, stress management and social support. We apologise to the readers for the rather complicated information we have provided in this Column. On the other hand, is it not great to be able to know how you can prolong your life? 

In our next Column, we will highlight what are the top foods you should consume regularly to keep your telomeres long and your chromosomes safe. In the meantime, we invite you to visit METI’s Healthy Living Clinic at House No. 51 at Motootua (across from the Kokobanana Restaurant) to become further acquainted with METI’s whole food plant-based diet and Lifestyle Change programs. Or call us at 30550. Learning how to follow these Programs might be your ‘game changer’!