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LIVING CLOSE TO WAY GOD FASHIONED NATURE SEEMS KEY TO PEOPLE WITH ALLEGEDLY EXTRAORDINARY LONGEVITY

We never heard of the Hunzas. Have you?

Didn't think so. Perhaps some of you have. But we doubt the vast majority.

These are a people in the Himalayas, about thirty thousand of them, at the extreme northern part of India where China and Afghanistan also converge. What makes them interesting is that some researchers believe the Hunzas (pronounced hoonzas) are the oldest people on earth. They're at least up there with people from long-lived places like Okinawa (Japan) and Ikaria (Greece).

The ages reported seem extreme and are not as well documented as places like Japan where the oldest woman (at least according to verifiable records) just passed on at the ripe age of 117.

That's old, but the Hunzas, it's said, get to be 120 or 130 on a regular basis, and don't really consider someone who is ninety to be old.

Most live to be a hundred -- it's alleged. Diabetes, cancer, and heart disease are said to be rare. It's claimed some have lived to 140.

Whatever the credibility of Hunza numbers, they are a phenomenally long-lived folks. Their secret?

It's what we hear time and again: Exercise. Plenty of physical activity. Much walking and hiking and lifting. Good sleep. No stress (the clock does not really exist for them). Seven times as much food intake in vegetables (most raw) than meat, though they do eat pork, chicken, and goat a couple of times a week. A lot of fruit. Not a single item in their universe is processed. They use very little salt. There's no refined sugar or flour (never mind high-fructose corn syrup).

They pray. They mediate. To repeat: they are very active physically. This may be the single biggest key.

People who have visited them say they are relaxed and yet very enthusiastic and energetic and happy.

One credo for them: chew your food dozens of times before swallowing and don't stuff yourself; eat only until you are eighty percent full. Their preferred vegetables include potatoes, string beans, peas, carrots, turnip, squash, spinach, apples, pears, peaches, cherries, blackberries, blueberries, and especially: apricot kernels. Some think this last one is their most important "secret." Chicken is their most common animal protein (organic, of course; animals they raise themselves, with no chemicals or hormones or antibiotics whatsoever). Grains? Barley, millet, buckwheat -- whole grains.

They say that after visiting with Hunzas, those returning to the U.S. feel like entering a hospital ward; our fittest folks are nearly sickly by comparison.

We're not sure of all those ages in the Bible (while Moses was 120, some like Noah were vastly older, causing scholars to wonder if a different way of calculation was in operation, back then, in measuring age). But in biblical times people in the Middle East would have been living and eating and "working out" like the Hunzas. (Very active outside in the sun, which is getting a bad rap these days.) Perhaps many did live well past a hundred.

Nuts? Yes. Yogurt? A staple. Their bread is called chapatti. Minerals from the sea are in the ground, which was once inundated. They drink pure water that is highly mineralized. They do use some sea salt. They work very hard physically but don't need to eat right away (that's a "habit" of the West). Often they don't take a meal until mid-day -- putting that idea of starting off with a "good" breakfast (in America that means bacon and donuts) to the lie.

They also fast once a week, which not only leads to weight loss but cleanses the system.

When they do eat, it's two light meals a day (while we in the West often take in three times the calories we actually need). These folks know how to relax. They hum and whistle. They know about quality time, visiting. They speak in positive ways. They take naps and breaks. A ten-mile walk is nothing for a Hunza.

It's interesting stuff. Perhaps some is overwrought. And let's say this: there are different strokes for different folks: some areas of longevity have somewhat different regimens. There is no one secret formula. And this idea that they are so old? We don't know. 120? 140? They say Hunza women at eighty often look like an American woman at forty. Some women reportedly get pregnant after fifty or sixty.

This reminds us of how Isaac married Rebekah at age forty, became a father of twins at age sixty, and was one hundred when Esau was married. (He died, it was said, at age 180.)

An interesting concept: that one hundred should be our average age -- interesting because the longevity of many animals is five times the age of maturity.

In other words, a dog is fully mature at one-and-a-half years old and lives anywhere to eight years and beyond. A horse matures at four and on average lives to be twenty. Humans mature at twenty, which would take us to the magic "hundred" number.

Pray about what you should eat. Go out this spring and walk and appreciate the peace and rhythm of God's Creation. Get away as much as you can from what is artificial.

You can do it. It's not too late. It's not over until it's over -- and of course even then (not to become too obsessed with physical life) we live forever.

Mary Undoer of Knots plus The Holy Cloak novena, $7.25

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