The Beautiful Land Of Hunza
There
are, of course, many theories about why the people of Hunzaland live so long.
Patrick Flanagan, the founder of Micro Cluster technology believes that the
water is the secret along with hundreds of other people who have been using his
products.
The King of Hunza Land was asked why their people live so long and he said "It's the Water."
The lifestyle and diet likely play an important role but their water is very different then water in other parts of the world. However, the author of the following article has her own theories.
The article does provide a good picture of the superior health of the inhabitants of Hunzaland. I found the following article at:
Death Rides A Slow Bus
In Hunza
by Jane Kinderlehrer
How would you like to live in a land where cancer has not yet been invented?
A land where an optometrist discovers to his amazement that everyone has perfect
20-20 vision? A land where cardiologists cannot find a single trace of coronary
heart disease? How would you like to live in a land where no one ever gets
ulcers, appendicitis or gout? A land where men of 80 and 90 father children, and
there's nothing unusual about men and women enjoying vigorous life at the age of
100 or 120?
We see a lot of hands going up. Fine. But first, you have to answer a few
more questions before setting out for a place called Hunza, a tiny country
hidden in the mountain passes of northwest Pakistan.
Are you willing to live 20,000 feet up in the mountains, almost completely
out of touch with the rest of the world? Are you ready to go outside in every
kind of weather to tend your small mountainside garden, while keeping you ears
open for an impending avalanche? Are you prepared to give up not only every
luxury of civilization, but even reading and writing?
We see a lot of hands going down. But if you want the benefits of the pure
air that whips by the icy cathedrals of the Himalayan Mountains, the pure water
that trickles down from glaciers formed at 25,000 feet, and the mental and
spiritual peace that comes from living in a land where there is no crime, taxes,
social striving or generation gaps, no banks or stores-in fact,-no money- where
are you going to find it outside of Hunza?
But don't give up! Not yet, because there is still one more question to be
answered. That is: are you prepared to eat the kind of food the Hunzas eat? If
you are, then you can rightfully expect to give yourself at least some measure
of the super health and resistance to degenerative disease which the Hunzakuts
have enjoyed for 2,000 years.
What kind of exotic, ill-tasting grub do these Hunza people eat, you are
wondering. Strange as it may sound, virtually everything the Hunzakuts eat is
delectable to the western palate, and is readily available in the United
States-at least if you shopping horizons do not begin and end at the
supermarket.
Not only is the Hunza diet not exotic, but there's really nothing terribly
mysterious about its health-promoting qualities, Everything we know about food
and health, gathered both from clinical studies and the observation of
scientists who have traveled throughout the world observing dietary practices
and their relationship to health, tells us that it is to be expected that the
Hunza diet will go a long way towards improving the total health of anyone,
anywhere. The Hunza story is only on of the more dramatic examples of the
miraculous health produced by a diet of fresh, natural unprocessed and
unadulterated food.
All systems "Go" At 20,000 Feet
Maybe you're wondering: are the Hunzas really all that healthy? That was the
question on the mind of cardiologists Dr. Paul D. White and Dr. Edward G.
Toomey, who made the difficult trip up the mountain paths to Hunza, toting along
with them a portable, battery-operated electrocardiograph. In the American Heart
Journal for December, 1964, the doctors say they used the equipment to study 25
Hunza men, who were, "on fairly good evidence, between 90 and 110 years old."
Blood pressure and cholesterol levels were also tested. They reported that not
one of these men showed a single sign of coronary heart disease, high blood
pressure or high cholesterol.
An optometrist, Dr. Allen E. Banik, also made the journey to Hunza to see
for himself if the people were as healthy as they were reputed to be, and
published his report in Hunza Land (Whitehorn Publishing Co., 1960). "It wasn't
long before I discovered that everything that I had read about perpetual life
and health in this tiny country is true, "Dr. Banik declared. "I examined the
eyes of some of Hunza's oldest citizens and found them to be perfect."
Beyond more freedom from disease, many observers have been startled by the
positive side of Hunza health. Dr. Banik, for example, relates that "many Hunza
people are so strong that in the winter they exercise by breaking holes in the
ice-covered streams and take a swim down under the ice." Other intrepid visitors
who have been there report their amazement at seeing men 80,90,and 100 years old
repairing the always-crumbling rocky roads, and lifting large stones and boulders
to repair the retaining walls around their terrace gardens. The oldsters think
nothing of playing a competitive game of volleyball in the hot sun against men
50 years their junior, and even take part in wild games of polo that are so
violent they would make an ice hockey fan shudder.
The energy and endurance of the Hunzakuts can probably be credited as much
to what they don't eat as what they do eat. First of all, they don't eat a great
deal of anything. The United States Department of Agriculture estimates that the
average daily food intake for Americans of all ages amounts to 3,300 calories,
with 100 grams of protein, 157 grams of fat and 380 grams of carbohydrates, In
contrast, studies by Pakistani doctors show that adult males of Hunza consume a
little more than 1.900 calories daily, with only 50 grams of protein, 36 grams
of fat, and 354 grams of carbohydrates. Both the protein and fat are largely of
vegetable origin (Dr. Alexander Leaf, National Geographic, January, 1973).
That amounts to just half the protein , one-third the fat, but about the
same amount of carbohydrates that we Americans eat. Of course, the carbohydrate
that the Hunzakuts eat is undefined or complex carbohydrate found in fruits,
vegetables and grains, while we Americans largely eat our carbohydrates in the
form of nutrition less white sugar and refined flour.
Needless to say, the Hunzakuts eat no processed food. Everything is as fresh
as it can possibly be, and in its original unsalted state. The only "processing"
consists of drying some fresh fruits in the the sun, and making butter and
cheese out of milk. No chemicals or artificial fertilizers are used in their
gardens. In fact, it is against the law of Hunza to spray gardens with
pesticides. Renee Taylor, in her book, Hunza Health Secrets( Prentice-Hall 1964)
says that the Mir, or ruler of Hunza, was recently instructed by Pakistani
authorities to spray the orchards of Hunza with pesticide, to protect them from
an expected invasion of insects. But the Hunzas would have none of it. They
refused to use the toxic pesticide, and instead sprayed their trees with a
mixture of water and ashes, which adequately protected the trees without
poisoning the fruit and the entire environment. In a word, the Hunzas eat as
they live -organically.
Apricots Are Hunza Gold
Of all their organically-grown food, perhaps their favorite, and one of
their dietary mainstays, is the apricot. Apricot orchards are seen everywhere in
Hunza, and a family's economic stability is measured by the number of trees they
have under cultivation.
They eat their apricots fresh in season, and dry a great deal more in the
sun for eating throughout the long cold winter. They puree the dried apricots
and mix them with snow to make ice cream. Like their apricot jam, this ice cream
needs no sugar because the apricots are so sweet naturally. But that is only the
beginning. The Hunzas cut the pits from the fruits, crack them, and remove the
almond-like nuts. The women hand grind these kernels with stone mortars, then
squeeze the meal between a hand stone and a flat rock to express the oil. The
oil is used in cooking, for fuel,as a salad dressing on fresh garden greens, and
even as a facial lotion ( Renee Taylor says Hunza women have beautiful
complexions).
The Apricot Kernel Anti-Cancer Theory
Do these kernels have important protective powers which in some way play an important role in the extraordinary health and longevity of the Hunza people? The evidence suggest they very well might. Cancer and arthritis are both very rare among the Taos (New Mexico) Pueblo Indians. Their traditional beverages is made from the group kernels of cherries, peaches and apricots. Robert G. Houston told PREVENTION that he enjoyed this beverage when he was in New Mexico gathering material for a book dealing with blender shakes based on an Indian recipe. Into a glass of milk or juice, he mixed a tablespoon of honey with freshly ground apricot kernels (1/4 of an ounce or two dozen kernels) which had been roasted for 10 minutes at 300.
It is vitally impotent to roast the kernels
first. Houston points out, "in order to insure safety when you are using the
pits in such quantities." roasting destroys enzymes which could upset your
stomach if you eat too many at on time. In any event the drink was so delicious
that Houston kept having it daily. On the third day of drinking this concoction,
Houston says that a funny thing happened. Two little benign skin growths on his
arm , which formerly were pink had turned brown. The next day, he noticed that
the growths were black and shriveled. On the seventh morning, the smaller more
recent growths had vanished completely and the larger one. about the size of a
grain of rice, had simply fallen off.
Houston says that two of his friends have since tried the apricot shakes and
report similar elimination of benign skin growths in one or two weeks. What is
there in apricot pits that could produce this remarkable effect? some foods,
especially the kernels of certain fruits and grains, contain elements known as
the nitrilosides (also known as amygdalin or vitamin B 17) says Dr. Ernst T.
Krebs, Jr., biochemist and co-discoverer of Laetrile, a controversial cancer
treatment ( Laetrile is the proprietary name for one nitriloside) Nitrilosides,
says Dr. Krebs, are non-toxic water-soluble, accessory food factors found in
abundance in the seeds of almost all fruits. They are also found in over 100
other plants. Wherever primitive people have been found to have exceptional
health, with marked absence of malignant or degenerative disease, their diet has
been shown to be high in the naturally occurring nitrilosides, Dr. Krebs
maintains.
"These nitrilosides just might be to cancer what vitamin C is to scurvy,
what niacin is to pellagra, what vitamin B12 and folic acid are to pernicious
anemia," says Dr. Krebs (Cancer News Journal, May/August, 1970).
There are other common foods (all seeds) which provide a goodly supply of
this protective factor. Millet and buckwheat, both of which the Hunzakuts eat in
abundance, are two. Lentils, Mung beans and alfalfa, when sprouted, provide 50
times more nitriloside than does the mature plant, Dr. Krebs points out. And the
Hunzas, as you might expect, spout all of their seeds, as well as using them in
other ways. Since other essential protective elements are increased in the
sprouting of such seeds, young sprouts are excellent foods which give us more
life-giving values than most of us realize.
Apricots Rich in vitamin A and Iron
Aside from whatever anti-cancer properties the seeds of apricots may offer,
the fruit itself is exceptional in its own right. There is probably no fruit
which is as nourishing as the apricot. When they are dried, and most of the
moisture removed, the concentration of nutrients becomes even greater. A
generous handful of dried apricots (3 1/2 ounces) is packed with nearly 11,000
units of vitamin A, or more than twice the recommended daily allowance. In fact,
if this much vitamin A was put into a capsule the FDA would arrest the person
selling it. Because they consider this amount both "useless" and "potentially
dangerous." The Hunzas eat it every day. Dried apricots also contain a great
deal of iron, potassium and natural food fiber.
The Style For Longer and Better Life
Besides apricots, the Hunzas also grow and enjoy apples, pears, peaches,
mulberries, black and red cherries, and grapes. From these fruits, the Hunzas
get all the vitamin C they need, as well as the other nutritional richness of
fresh fruit, including energy from the fruit sugars. From the grapes, they also
make a light red wine that helps make their simple fare into more of a real
"meal".
The World's Freshest Bread
The bread which accompanies each meal enjoyed by the Hunzas, and sometimes
forms the mainstay of the meal, is called "chappati" - and is quite different
from any bread that we are used to. The grain is kept intact as long as
possible, and is ground at the very last moment, the housewife grinds only as
much as she needs for the next meal, and kneads again and again with water- no
yeast! She then beats it into very thin, flat pancakes similar to the tortillas
of the Mexican Indians, Chappatis can be made form wheat, barley, buckwheat of
millet, So although chappati is something new to us, the ingredients are all
familiar and easily available. Sometimes the flours are mixed together and baked
in several shapes, small or large, depending on the occasion.
While bread baking at home in our country is practically a lost art because
of the time involved, a surprising feature about chappatis is the incredibly
short "baking time", if you can call it baking at all. The dough is simply
placed on the grill for hardly more than a moment and it is finished.
"Just long enough to grow warm and no longer taste raw". Dr. Ralph Bircher noted in his book on Hunzas published by Huber in Bernie, Switzerland. "No more effective method of preserving the health value of the grain exists and the taste is excellent even without butter or jam, " Dr. Bircher notes.
