According to the Chicago Tribune and Dr. Mercola,

"A leading theory is that Hispanics who manage to immigrate to the U.S. are among the healthiest from their countries.

… An estimated 40 percent of them are immigrants, who in some cases arrived after arduous journeys to do taxing manual labor.

… However, experts say that immigrant hardiness diminishes within a couple of generations of living here. Many believe it's because the children of immigrants take up smoking, fast-food diets and other habits blamed for wrecking the health of other ethnic populations."

I'd say they more or less hit the nail on the head with that last statement.

First generation American Hispanics live longer because they're eating a FAR more natural diet, and they're typically far more physically active than Americans in general.

But it only takes a generation or two to lose many of the healthful customs that are the cornerstones of good health.

These statistics really speak to the power of an unprocessed diet and an active lifestyle. What good does money do if you spend a majority of it on denatured, chemical-laden, processed foods?

Want to Live Longer? Eat Natural Foods!

The concept of "native diets" being superior to the processed diets of the modern, Western world goes back nearly 100 years.

Dr. Weston A. Price was a dentist and dental researcher around 1900 who went on an investigation that spanned the globe to determine why native populations, who ate traditional foods, exhibited perfect physical health well into old age.

What he discovered, and wrote about in depth in his classic book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, was that as populations adopted industrially processed foods, veering away from natural fare, their health started to decline.

Modern food processing actually began in the early part of 1800, when vacuum bottling was invented, followed by tinning and canning technology in 1810. Back then, lead-containing cans wrought health problems on those who consumed it.

In 1862, pasteurization was discovered, and with it came the destruction of one of Earth's most nutritious food groups – raw dairy. The major shift toward a diet consisting of more processed food occurred in the 1920's, right around the time Dr. Price published his book.

Price's research took him to remote tribal communities -- Swiss, Eskimos, Polynesians, Africans, New Zealanders, and more -- and what he discovered made him one of the foremost authorities on the role of foods in their natural form, and the development of degenerative illnesses as a result of processed foods. (For more information about Price and details of his research, please see this link.)

Clearly, the Western diet has deteriorated significantly since then. More denaturing and harmful food processing methods have followed, and we're seeing the ramifications of this unnatural food culture in our skyrocketing disease statistics.

Here is a summary of the most important and most effective dietary and lifestyle measures I know of:

• Eat at least
• Avoid processed foods and all artificial flavorings, colorings, and artificial sweeteners. Instead, seek out that are in-season
• Enjoy fermented foods like kefir and cultured veggies
• Make sure you eat healthy fats, including those from animal sources like omega-3 fat, and reduce your intake of omega-6 from vegetable oils
• Drink plenty of pure, clean water
• Manage your stress levels
• Exercise regularly. For optimal health benefits and longevity, make sure you incorporate high-intensity, sprint-type exercises, such as Peak 8
• Optimize your vitamin D levels, ideally through appropriate exposure to sunshine. Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to a vast array of diseases, and has been shown to increase your risk of death from any cause by 150 percent!
• Limit your exposure to toxins
• Get plenty of good sleep

Following these guidelines is a powerful way to avoid premature aging and disease of all kinds, so that you can far exceed the U.S. national average life expectancy, regardless of your financial- and educational status, or your racial heritage.