"The Hispanic Paradox: Why do Latinos Live Longer?"
Hispanics living in the United States
tend to have less education,
a higher poverty rate
and worse access to health care.
They represent like the ultimate paradigm
of healthcare disparities.
The highest rate on uninsured,
the lowest rates of health screening and counseling
and the poorest levels of blood pressure
and blood sugar control
and other measures of deficient quality of care.
So, Hispanics living in the U.S.
must just have dismal public health statistics, right?
According to the latest national data,
the life expectancy of white men and women
was 76 and 81.
The lives of black men and women
are cut short by years.
How do Hispanics do?
Amazingly, they beat out everyone!
Hispanics live the longest.
This has been called the Hispanic Paradox.
Hispanics have 24% lower risk of premature death
and lower risks of nine out of the leading 15 causes of death,
notably less cancer and heart disease.
This was first noticed 30 years ago,
but understandably met with great criticism.
Maybe the data was unreliable?
No, that did not seem to be it.
Maybe only the healthiest people migrate?
Turns out the opposite may be true.
Then there’s always the salmon bias theory,
proposing that maybe Latinos return
to their home country to die
and so aren’t counted in our death statistics.
But that theory didn’t pan out either.
Systematic reviews confirmed the existence of this Hispanic paradox,
and so given the strong evidence
it might be time to accept it and move on to figuring out,
"Well, wait a second! Why do they live so long?"
And figure out the cause.
The very existence of the Hispanic Paradox
could represent a major opportunity to identify
a protective factor for cardiovascular disease
applicable to the rest of the population.
After all, whatever is going on is strong enough
to overcome the disadvantaging effects of poverty,
language barriers, low levels of education,
health literacy, quality of healthcare,
and insurance coverage.
Before we get our hopes up too much, though,
maybe it’s just genetic?
No, because as foreign- born Hispanics
acculturate to the United States,
as they embrace the American way of life,
their mortality rates go up.
So, what positive health behaviors
may account for Hispanic longevity?
Maybe they exercise more?
No, Hispanics appear to be even more sedentary.
Hispanics do smoke less,
however the paradox persists
even after taking that into account.
Maybe it’s their diet.
As they acculturate they start eating
more processed foods, and animal foods, and fewer plant foods,
and perhaps one plant food in particular– beans.
Maybe a reason Hispanics live longer
is because they eat more beans.
Although Hispanics only represent about 10% of the population,
they eat a third of the beans in the United States
individually eating 4 to 5 times more beans per capita,
a few pounds a month
as opposed to a few pounds per year.
And that may help explain the Hispanic Paradox,
because legumes, beans, split peas, chickpeas, and lentils,
cool down systemic inflammation.
This is the mechanism they propose in terms of lung health.
While cigarette smoking and air pollution
cause lung inflammation,
which increases the risk for emphysema and lung cancer,
when we eat beans, the good bacteria in our gut
take the fiber and resistant starch
and form small chain fatty acids
that are absorbed back into our system
and decrease systemic inflammation,
which not only inhibits lung cancer development,
but also other cancers throughout the body.
Here’s the lung data with Hispanics (in red) having the lower rates
of COPD and lung cancer,
and also tending to have lower rates of bladder cancer,
throat cancer, colorectal cancer
for both men and women.
This whole systemic inflammation concept
is also supported by the fact that when Hispanics
do get lung cancer or colon cancer, or breast cancer,
they have improved survival rates,
and maybe same with heart attack and stroke survival.
Decreasing whole body inflammation
may be important for both prevention and survival.
Now Asian Americans (here in green) appear to have some protection too,
which may be because they eat more beans too,
in the form of tofu and other soy foods,
as soy intake is associated with
both lung cancer prevention
and lung cancer survival.
Now Hispanics also eat more corn, tomatoes, and chili peppers.
A quarter of the diet in Mexico
is made up of corn tortillas,
and Mexican-Americans born in Mexico,
and Mexican-Americans born in the U.S.
continue to eat more than the general population.
Looking at cancer rates around the world,
not only was bean consumption associated with
less colon, breast, and prostate cancer,
but also rice and corn consumption appear to be protectively correlated as well.
Of course since NAFTA, the Mexican diet has changed
to incorporate more soda, processed, and animal foods,
and their obesity rates are fast catching up to ours.
In the U.S., Hispanics eat more fruits and vegetables
than other groups, about 6 or 7 servings a day,
but still don’t even make the recommended minimum
of 9 servings, though.
So their diet could stand some improvement.
Yes, Hispanics may only have half the odds
of dying from heart disease,
but it’s still the #1 cause of death among Hispanics.
Therefore, the current results should not be misinterpreted
to mean that cardiovascular disease is rare among Hispanics.
So, ideally they’d be eating even more whole plant foods.
But one thing everyone can learn from the Hispanic experience
is that along with a shift towards a more plant-based diet , in general,
beans may be potent tools
in the prevention and treatment of chronic disease.