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| Recipe for Long Life: Wine and Cannabis |
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Posted by FoM on April 22, 2002 at 11:08:22 PT By Damien McElroy in Bama, Southern China Source: Daily Telegraph UK 
High in the hills of a remote part of southern China, the villagers claim to have discovered the secret of long life: rice wine, drunk more or less all day long; snake wine; and a soup made from the oily seeds of the cannabis plant.Bama county is so cut off by the hills that surround it that the motor car has yet to penetrate. It has a population of just over 300,000, yet it has 73 centenarians, one of the highest ratios in the world. Scores more nonagenarians display the carefree air of people who know their time is not yet up, while octogenarians toil under the Chinese burden of deferring to their elders. Villages such as Bapin are a six-hour drive from Nanning, the capital of Guangxi Zhuang region, followed by a two-hour hike along a rocky path. They are - for now, at least - remote from the cares of the modern world. The local government, though, is keen to capitalise on Bama's growing reputation for longevity and tranquillity. To the dismay of residents, it has drawn up plans for a China Longevity Tour, aimed at attracting tourists to the region from across the nation. In the town of Fenghuang, Ye Kaiyuan, the son-in-law of Xiao Jin, a 99-year-old Bapin resident, hates the thought of his area becoming a tourist attraction. "There are too many tourists and government officials visiting here already," he says. "People like granny have become like something in the zoo - stared at, shouted at and poked at." Ms Xiao, a veteran of the communist revolutionaries' Long March, is a model of geriatric rude health. Her life has proved almost as epic as that of the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, whom she remembers as a comrade-in-arms. "I fought with him in 1927 in the battle of Baisi as part of the Eighth Route Army," she recalls. Today, sloshing rice wine from her glazed bowl, which is filled at 8am and continually replenished until she retires at nightfall, Ms Xiao demands that visitors match her glass for glass. "I drink this wine every day - at least two glasses," she says with a wink. "It keeps me as healthy and well as you young people." Another staple of the local diet is houmayou - soup that is made with oils from hemp seeds and is traditionally eaten twice a day. The oldest villager in Bapin - at a sprightly 104 - is Xiao Yuanying. She is very proud that she still has three teeth with which to chew. She swears by drinks such as rice and snake wine - bottled with real snakes preserved in the alcohol - that keep her going. "I've never been to a doctor, you know," says the elder Ms Xiao. "I worked in the rice paddies until I was 91. Now I leave that to my son and daughter." Most of the centenarians in Bama county remain active. Some help on the farm or assist with household chores. A few hardy men hunt or dabble in archery. Those with their wits about them play mahjong and chess and enjoy calligraphy and singing. Wei Puming, 102, is renowned as a hunter, while Huang Jiaxiang, 103, weaves bamboo that sells well in the local market. Three centenarian sisters, Lu Dihua, Lu Dimei and Lu Dixiao, are said to be models of self-reliance - refusing relatives' pleas for them to slow down in their twilight years. Bama sits at an altitude of 4,500 feet, and the still, clear air and clean water of the Paiyang river also help to prolong life, says Professor Xiao Zhenyu, a senior fellow at the Old Age Science Research Centre in Beijing. "Villagers lead harmonious lives," he says. "Sometimes there are four or five generations under one roof, and disputes are rare among neighbours. They normally labour until old age, and even centenarians can be seen working in the hills. Locals also take an unusually serene view of death - taking it in their stride." Ultimately, however, he believes that it is the unusual - to Western eyes - diet that puts Bama county at the top of China's longevity league. Complete Title: Chinese Reveal Their Recipe for Long Life: Wine and Cannabis Source: Daily Telegraph (UK) CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archives Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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Comment #9 posted by Jose Melendez on April 24, 2002 at 05:12:34 PT:
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| My ex-girlfriend is from Wisconsin, and for a while I toyed with the idea of buying the rights to the Rens Hemp Company, and suing to restore that business. Not sure if I have enough funds to make it happen.... see: [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #8 posted by SWAMPIE on April 24, 2002 at 02:27:11 PT |
| Thank God for West-By-God-Virginia!!!Our family has quite a bit of land there,and it is only about a 4 hour ride to there.My wife,bro-in-law and myself were just talking about it Sunday.I can't wait to tell them the news.There are 2 inactive but operable farms there that if we talk nicely to the elders,maybe we can get the ball rolling.It sure would be nice to breathe some fresh air again!Akron,Ohigho isn't so clean anymore.(screw you anti's!)We all need the ability to turn this polluted area into a usable area.The farming industry is being gobbled up by housing developments here,and the air is really getting bad.Every time we have gone down there we come back feeling great.If I wanted to grow marihuana,I'd do it indoors.We need money.The answer could be this.How do you jump through the hoops,though?Do I hear any to/akers?????I also have a close friend who purchases textiles for rags through the textile companies,and he is hemp-friendly.Maybe he can get a foot in the door.Anyong got a used"decorticator"???
Onward through the fog!!!!!! SWAMPIE [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #7 posted by Jose Melendez on April 23, 2002 at 05:37:00 PT:
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| from: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n778/a10.html?397 Staples office supply stores, in an effort to find environmental alternatives for wasteful paper production, recently announced they will begin carrying hemp/flax paper in more than 1,000 stores by Earth Day this year. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #6 posted by firedog on April 22, 2002 at 13:44:22 PT |
| Take a look at the nutrition information on http://www.kenkuhl.com/fastfood/fastfacts.shtml if you want to see how much saturated fat is in the standard American diet. And they're claiming that hemp foods should be illegal?!?!?! [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #5 posted by FoM on April 22, 2002 at 13:09:05 PT |
| If you see the video posted before I do please post it or email it to me. Guess what? You don't need to guess. I bought a two way satellite. Direct Way it's called. It will take up to a month to get it installed but I'll be able to do so much more and surf and learn and I won't know how to act. Maybe I'll be able to get some real work done then! I'll be able to listen and watch video and audio too! Wow! It will be nice. [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #4 posted by Ethan Russo MD on April 22, 2002 at 12:51:49 PT:
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| I had a great time at the conference, and my talk was well received by an enthusiastic and supportive crowd. A video feed will probably be posted at the maps.org WWW site in the near future. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #3 posted by FoM on April 22, 2002 at 12:39:48 PT |
| I liked this article. Hope you had a good time at the NORML Conference. We didn't have any audio or video so we don't know what went on. Good to have you back! [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #2 posted by Patrick on April 22, 2002 at 12:38:45 PT |
| I was just reading about the need for Omega-3 fat in my diet. Seems sardines, salmon, mackerel and herring are the fish sources while the plant sources are walnuts, flax seeds, and hemp seeds. Yep that's right kiddies and supreme court justices, hemp! Makes you wonder just why hemp is illegal to grow and tobacco is not? Oh yeah, I remember now, the government is looking out for personal health. [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #1 posted by Ethan Russo MD on April 22, 2002 at 12:30:14 PT:
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| History and modern ethnobotany provide hundreds of references to cannabis as food, fiber and pharmaceutical. The War on Cannabis is a War against Nature. [ Post Comment ] |
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