Secrets of the Hunza Valley

by: OrganicLives - Friday, December 09, 2011

The Hunza Valley is one of the most miraculous places on earth. It is an area of northern Pakistan where the people live long, age gracefully, and flourish in happiness. Find out what they're doing right, what you can learn, and how to sneak a bite of what they're eating.

A Little Background

In the 1970s, when the Karakoman Highway was built through the Hunza Valley tracing the old silk routes from Pakistan to China, National Geographic featured the civilization residing there as one of the longest living in the world. Until this time, the light-eyed, fair-skinned Hunzakuts were quite isolated in the pristine Pakistani mountain tops and claimed to be lost descendants of Alexander's army as he invaded India. 

Why Care?

What interested researchers when they arrived was how fit, healthy, and happy their elderly population was. Since the civilization had no hospitals, doctors, police, or history records, the researchers could not determine exactly how old they were by a birth certificate. The Hunzakuts are estimated to live, on average, to about 115 years old. This was astonishing considering average life span was so much older than some of our civilizations oldest - with healthy bodies and minds to boot! 

Food For Thought

Almost everything the Hunzakuts feast on is readily available at most North American supermarkets. The only difference? They eat it fresh, unprocessed, and in season. Most importantly, they eat fresh and dried fruits abundantly - year round. On top of their diets, Hunzakuts exercise daily, walking and working amongst their mountainous landscape. Researchers call their diet lacto-vegetarian. The majority of this diet consists of drinking glacier water, raw, unpasteurized milk, and eat leafy green or root vegetables. 
They eat these vegetables raw when they can, including young green corn, leafy greens, carrots, and turnips. They also sprout pulse/grain when possible. If they do cook vegetables, they put them in a pot with very little water - similar to our steaming process.  

What's in the water?

The Romanian Nobel Prize Winner on fluid dynamics, Dr. Henri Coanda, spent sixty years studying the Hunza Valley water in order to determine it's buffering effects against disease. Coming from the glacial waters of the Hunza peaks, Dr. Coanda discovered it had different viscosity and surface tension with a noted high alkaline pH, high levels of active hydrogen (hydrogen with an extra electron), negative Redox potential, and a high colloidal mineral content. These same water properties can be found in other remote unpolluted places in areas of China (in the Shin Chan ares), the Andes mountains, and near Azerbaijan. To find out more on how to make your own Alkaline Water - click here! 

Bottom Line

Eat raw, fresh, organic food, drink alkaline water, and exercise daily in order to fully experience the benefits of this incredible culture. Just by adapting to these three simple habits can foster long life and prevent age-related diseases. Treat yourself and learn more about how to integrate these practices in your lifestyle, watch out for OrganicLives workshops.