How Diet and Lifestyle Shape the Health of a Family—and a Whole Region

My father's side of the family generally eats very lightly; their diet is basically vegetarian, with little animal-source food, and my aunt is a complete vegetarian. This may be related to the family ethos of my great-grandparents and grandparents.

My eldest uncle is now 86, the next is 85, my aunt is 84, and my father himself is 79; all these elders are still alive. My eldest uncle still insists on farming; judging by his condition, living past 90 should not be a problem.

Only my third uncle passed away this year from colorectal cancer, but he was already 75, older than many ordinary people; moreover, if he had not had that final chemotherapy, he probably would have lived another two or three years.

The final chemotherapy (a newly changed regimen) directly crushed his body. Before that chemotherapy, my third uncle was still robust; after it he took to his bed and could not get up. In the final stage, the old man gave up treatment.

Influenced by my family's eating habits, I myself have long eaten mainly vegetarian food. Obesity is essentially unknown in my father's family. But my aunt, uncles, and father all have mild anemia, mainly caused by insufficient protein and iron intake from food—an unavoidable problem for those on a largely vegetarian diet.

I used to urge my parents' generation to modify their diet a little, but in recent years I have gradually shut my mouth, mainly because one by one they are not only living to great ages but are also physically strong in their later years. Although they have anemia and a low heart rate, none of them has hypertension, hyperlipidemia, or hyperglycemia.

I can tell from their physical examination reports that they indeed have all sorts of problems, but I cannot guarantee that I myself will live as long as they have. Their physical condition even makes me doubt much of the medical knowledge I have learned. Some markers being on the low side may bring certain health problems, yet may benefit health in other ways; it is hard simply to weigh the pros and cons by the textbook.

My mother's side of the family, by contrast, generally eats very salty food. My mother, while alive, also cooked very salty dishes, and I went to great lengths to correct this habit. When I ate at my aunts' homes, the food was always too salty for me to lift my chopsticks. I remember that, as a child, when eating my grandmother's cooking, it was so salty that I ate only rice and refused the dishes. Several of my aunts and my mother all have hypertension, and my eldest aunt and my mother both had strokes.

My father-in-law's family eats greasy and salty food; influenced by her family, my wife also has this problem in her cooking. Since marrying me, I have been steadily negotiating with her, and we have gradually reached a middle ground in eating habits. But when I cook for myself, I still keep the dietary habits of my father's family, which are hard to change once formed in early childhood. My wife's relatives easily become obese and most have hypertension; my father-in-law also died of a stroke.

In certain regions of China—for example, Linzhou in Henan, Xingtai in Hebei, and other residents of the Taihang Mountains—the incidence of esophageal cancer is markedly higher than in other areas. This is related to the local preference for salty and scalding food. Certain coastal areas, such as Qidong in Jiangsu, Tong'an in Fujian, and Shunde in Guangdong, are also high-incidence areas for liver cancer in China; this is related to excessive local dampness, which makes food susceptible to aflatoxin contamination.

Looking at the bigger picture, the authoritative medical journal The Lancet once published a study on diet and health in more than 100 countries worldwide, which showed that the Chinese diet ranks first globally in mortality. This result may surprise many, because we Chinese habitually believe our own diet is the healthiest and that Western fast food is junk food. But statistics are objective and cold, carrying no national sentiment; if we want to be healthier and live longer, we really ought to change our eating habits.

Besides eating a vegetarian diet, my father is also extremely frugal. Although the allowance I give him for living expenses is ample, he still lives with extreme simplicity, spending almost nothing; even his belt is replaced by a cloth string. On essential daily necessities I have to buy them for him myself, or he would simply go without. Now I only dare to buy him things that ensure his safety, because buying too much else gets me scolded by my father.

My father's life philosophy is "plain tea and simple food, enough to eat and enough to wear, asking for nothing more." I could not fully accept this philosophy in the past, but now I have become the same kind of person he is. Such a life, besides lightening the body's burden, also leaves the spirit in a very relaxed state.

The minimum standard of living is always easy to achieve; the reason people feel tired is, in most cases, simply that their desires are too high. I think the reason these elders on my father's side all live long is related to this life philosophy. The blessings one can enjoy in a lifetime are limited; overdraw them excessively, and one must report to the King of Hell ahead of time.