Just yesterday, I was talking to my sister Leslie about how much less people rely on cars here in Japan Tokyo than they do in the states – as an example, I told her how I had seen on old man making deliveries for a Chinese restaurant. He was in his seventies and made his deliveries by bicycle. He had a half-dozen bowls of soup in ceramic bowls balanced on a wooden tray, balanced on his shoulder, on a bicycle.
Today at lunch, I saw a much younger delivery guy with a couple of bowls and I happened to have my camera ready, so I got this picture:
It’s not uncommon to see a woman with two or three children on a bike, or perhaps a business man with an umbrella riding in the rain. Police, of course, do most of their patrolling by bike.
I wonder if that has anything to do with the longer average lifespan in Japan?
People living outside Tokyo actually rely on cars. The longer lifespan in Japan may have something to do with our food habit.
November 14, 2003 @ 2:16 pmWhen cells are deprived of food, stress pathways are activated and the cells are forced to derive energy from alternative substrates. This produced alterations in oxygen consumption, which in turn affects the ratio of oxidized to reduced forms of NAD:NADH or the concentration of its derivative nicotinamide. NAD stimulates the activity of Sir2, which in turn chemically modifies several proteins that are involved in cellular processes affecting longevity. Plant polyphenols directly activate Sir2 (Nature 425, 132-133).
Eat less and drink lots of wine!