Age-defying people live to 100 after adding £2 superfood to diet

A tiny island off the south coast of Japan has become a hotbed for people living over 100, and one food may hold the secret for their longevity.

Dan Buettner, a longevity researcher and author has been searching for answers as to why people in a select few parts of the world are living to a considerably older age than others around the globe.

One of his latest voyages took him to the island of Okinawa, Japan where statistics show a staggering amount of locals making it to 100, and he found one food that could play a huge part.

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While residents have quite healthy lives to start with, they also make sure to keep a balanced diet, but one food makes up the majority of their diet, Beni Imo, or purple sweet potato as it's known in English.

In actual fact, the vegetable accounts for a staggering 67 per cent of their diet, which to put it into context, only makes up three per cent of the rest of the country's caloric intake.

Speaking on his Netflix series, Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones, Dan tried to explain why the food is so important to their health: "These sweet potatoes are full of complex carbohydrates and fibre, and they even have 150 per cent more of the active anti-oxidants than blueberries do."

Trying to make sense of why locals became so keen on the superfood, he provided one particularly interesting explanation: "Perhaps the main reasons Okinawans ate so much Beni Imo is because sweet potatoes are typhoon proof, the Beni Imo was safe underground."

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Meanwhile, a local diet expert, Yukie Miyaguni, didn't hold back in saying how important the food is to Okinawans: "Well, Okinawa had a period of food shortage, and we were saved by these potatoes."

She also highlighted the importance of other superfoods that locals look to keep in their diet, saying that Mulberry leaves are used to heal sore throats while squid ink soup is used as a detox.