Abbey Normal
Senior Member
NEW YORK -- There's an old Sardinian saying, "A Kent' Annos," which means "may you live to be 100."
That's not so rare in Sardinia. The large, mountainous island in the Mediterranean, which is part of Italy, has one of the world's highest percentages of people over 100.
At least 220 of Sardinia's current population of around 1.6 million have reached 100, twice the average in the rest of the world. Sardinian men and women share this longevity equally; globally, women centenarians outnumber men about 4 to 1. Scientists believe Sardinian men share a genetic trait passed from father to son that makes them less likely than the general population to die from heart disease or stroke.
"Scientists think about Sardinia like it was Atlantis," chef Raffael Solinas commented. Solinas, a Sardinian who is only 37 and operates two restaurants in New York City, feels the longevity is genetic "because there were not so many outsiders."
Sardinia is 120 miles from the Italian peninsula and for centuries islanders tended to live in the mountains to protect themselves from invaders who preyed on their shores, so there was little intermarrying with non-natives. The island is full of prehistoric ruins and even human remains dating from 150,000 B.C.
While researchers look for genetic clues to such long life, the people of Sardinia like to attribute this phenomenon to their unpolluted air, lack of stress, and the terrific food.
The Sardinian diet, like most Mediterranean diets, includes fresh fish and game as well as seasonal produce. And they don't use butter in their cooking, Solinas pointed out.
Talking about favorite ingredients at an interview in Osteria del Sole, one of his restaurants in downtown Manhattan, he says he thinks the artichokes (carciofi) grown on Sardinia are different from those grown elsewhere.
"The outside is greener and it's whiter inside. It gets black unless you put it in lemon water." On Sardinia, "we eat them all the time in winter, from February until April."
According to Solinas, fresh fish practically swim into the cooking pots. Sardines are especially plentiful "because tuna chase them through the Atlantic right to the shores of Sardinia," said Solinas, who is from the northwest region of the island.
(Despite the similar name, Sardinia was not named after the sardines in its waters -- it may have been the other way around; a Greek word for "fish" is the root of both words.)
Goat and sheep breeding are economic mainstays on the island, and a respected variety of cheese, Sardinian pecorino (pecorino sarda), is made here from sheep's milk...
Balance of article:
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050921/LIFE05/509200362/1005/NEWS
That's not so rare in Sardinia. The large, mountainous island in the Mediterranean, which is part of Italy, has one of the world's highest percentages of people over 100.
At least 220 of Sardinia's current population of around 1.6 million have reached 100, twice the average in the rest of the world. Sardinian men and women share this longevity equally; globally, women centenarians outnumber men about 4 to 1. Scientists believe Sardinian men share a genetic trait passed from father to son that makes them less likely than the general population to die from heart disease or stroke.
"Scientists think about Sardinia like it was Atlantis," chef Raffael Solinas commented. Solinas, a Sardinian who is only 37 and operates two restaurants in New York City, feels the longevity is genetic "because there were not so many outsiders."
Sardinia is 120 miles from the Italian peninsula and for centuries islanders tended to live in the mountains to protect themselves from invaders who preyed on their shores, so there was little intermarrying with non-natives. The island is full of prehistoric ruins and even human remains dating from 150,000 B.C.
While researchers look for genetic clues to such long life, the people of Sardinia like to attribute this phenomenon to their unpolluted air, lack of stress, and the terrific food.
The Sardinian diet, like most Mediterranean diets, includes fresh fish and game as well as seasonal produce. And they don't use butter in their cooking, Solinas pointed out.
Talking about favorite ingredients at an interview in Osteria del Sole, one of his restaurants in downtown Manhattan, he says he thinks the artichokes (carciofi) grown on Sardinia are different from those grown elsewhere.
"The outside is greener and it's whiter inside. It gets black unless you put it in lemon water." On Sardinia, "we eat them all the time in winter, from February until April."
According to Solinas, fresh fish practically swim into the cooking pots. Sardines are especially plentiful "because tuna chase them through the Atlantic right to the shores of Sardinia," said Solinas, who is from the northwest region of the island.
(Despite the similar name, Sardinia was not named after the sardines in its waters -- it may have been the other way around; a Greek word for "fish" is the root of both words.)
Goat and sheep breeding are economic mainstays on the island, and a respected variety of cheese, Sardinian pecorino (pecorino sarda), is made here from sheep's milk...
Balance of article:
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050921/LIFE05/509200362/1005/NEWS
