Low-carb diets are all the rage these days.
Keto, Paleo, Primal, Atkins, LCHF, or anything else you want to call it. They are all close low-carb cousins.
But here’s the thing: the longest-lived people in the world don’t eat a low-carb diet.
In the Blue Zones — the places around the world where people live the longest — they actually eat a HIGH-carb diet.
That’s right, carbs are the predominant macronutrient among the world’s centenarians. To be exact, about 65% of their food intake comes from carbs, 20% from fat, and only 15% from protein.
But we’re not talking about simple refined carbs.
The bulk of their diet is made up of complex carbs in the form of beans, greens, sweet potatoes, whole grains, fruits, nuts, and seeds.
Beans are their superfood, which serves as a microcosm for their diet overall — after all, beans are made up of 77% complex carbohydrates (along with 21% protein and only a small percentage of fat).
This certainly isn’t an excuse to binge on pizza and donuts in the name of longevity.
People in the Blue Zones consume no more than 7 teaspoons of added sugar per day (which is about a fifth as much added sugar as North Americans eat). They reserve sweets, cookies, and cakes for special…
