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There are, as I'm sure people know, many concerns about the environmental impact of bottled water. Billions of plastic bottles are sold around the world every day and only a tiny proportion are recycled.

Here are a some of the more ridiculous examples I've come across.

1) Bama Water (巴马丽琅 bā mǎ lì láng)

Bama is a tiny village in the west of Guangxi which has a notably high number of centenarians - a well known longevity cluster. The inhabitants are mainly subsistence farmers and lead a very simple life and follow a simple diet with very little meat, salt or sugar. Organically grown corn, rice, millet, sweet potato, and soy bean are their main foods. They also eat pumpkin seedlings, sweet potato leaves, pak choi, mushroom, and bamboo shoots. The main cooking oil, used sparsely, is colza oil (a relative of rapeseed or canola oil).

In recent years, the government has decided to cash in on the reputation of Bama as a "healthy place", building hotels and encouraging tourism. They have even gone so far as to suggest making the place a "Longevity Theme Park".

Scores have people have come running thinking that it will increase their longevity to hang out there for a weekend or longer. They are totally ignoring the fact that most scientists attribute the longevity mainly to genetic factors.

An alternative theory for the long life comes from one of the inhabitants, 104-year-old Xiao Yuanying. She puts her age down to the two ‘cups’ of rice wine she drinks every day. Of course, it isn’t your average supermarket ‘baijiu’, but home made ‘snake wine’ – bottles of rice wine in which a couple of snakes are suspended. (Being long, things like snakes and noodles are associated with longevity in China).
 

Not content with their alcohol consumption, the locals are also partial to a bit of cannabis. Not to smoke. They use the oil, euphemistically referred to as ‘hemp oil’ in most English reports, but openly labelled on the local brand. This is used in dips and in a soup eaten twice a day. (At least that’s what they tell nosy researchers.)

One thing for sure: drinking this water ain't going to make you life to 112.

(In addition we've been hit by Bama eggs and Bama sesame oil. Naturally at double to triple the normal prices.)

(Parts of this post have been copied from my blog here, which has more details about Bama.)

There are, as I'm sure people know, many concerns about the environmental impact of bottled water. Billions of plastic bottles are sold around the world every day and only a tiny proportion are recycled.

Here are a some of the more ridiculous examples I've come across.

1) Bama Water (巴马丽琅 bā mǎ lì láng)

Bama is a tiny village in the west of Guangxi which has a notably high number of centenarians - a well known longevity cluster. The inhabitants are mainly subsistence farmers and lead a very simple life and follow a simple diet with very little meat, salt or sugar. Organically grown corn, rice, millet, sweet potato, and soy bean are their main foods. They also eat pumpkin seedlings, sweet potato leaves, pak choi, mushroom, and bamboo shoots. The main cooking oil, used sparsely, is colza oil (a relative of rapeseed or canola oil).

In recent years, the government has decided to cash in on the reputation of Bama as a "healthy place", building hotels and encouraging tourism. They have even gone so far as to suggest making the place a "Longevity Theme Park".

Scores have people have come running thinking that it will increase their longevity to hang out there for a weekend of longer. They are totally ignoring the fact that most scientists attribute the longevity mainly to genetic factors.

An alternative theory for the long life comes from one of the inhabitants, 104-year-old Xiao Yuanying. She puts her age down to the two ‘cups’ of rice wine she drinks every day. Of course, it isn’t your average supermarket ‘baijiu’, but home made ‘snake wine’ – bottles of rice wine in which a couple of snakes are suspended. (Being long, things like snakes and noodles are associated with longevity in China).
 

Not content with their alcohol consumption, the locals are also partial to a bit of cannabis. Not to smoke. They use the oil – euphemistically referred to as ‘hemp oil’ in most English reports, but openly labelled on the local brand. This is used in dips and in a soup eaten twice a day. (At least that’s what they tell nosy researchers.)

One thing for sure drinking this water ain't going to make you life to 112.

(In addition we've been hit by Bama eggs and Bama sesame oil. Naturally at double to triple the normal prices.)

(Parts of this post have been copied from my blog here, which has more details about Bama.)

There are, as I'm sure people know, many concerns about the environmental impact of bottled water. Billions of plastic bottles are sold around the world every day and only a tiny proportion are recycled.

Here are a some of the more ridiculous examples I've come across.

1) Bama Water (巴马丽琅 bā mǎ lì láng)

Bama is a tiny village in the west of Guangxi which has a notably high number of centenarians - a well known longevity cluster. The inhabitants are mainly subsistence farmers and lead a very simple life and follow a simple diet with very little meat, salt or sugar. Organically grown corn, rice, millet, sweet potato, and soy bean are their main foods. They also eat pumpkin seedlings, sweet potato leaves, pak choi, mushroom, and bamboo shoots. The main cooking oil, used sparsely, is colza oil (a relative of rapeseed or canola oil).

In recent years, the government has decided to cash in on the reputation of Bama as a "healthy place", building hotels and encouraging tourism. They have even gone so far as to suggest making the place a "Longevity Theme Park".

Scores have people have come running thinking that it will increase their longevity to hang out there for a weekend of longer. They are totally ignoring the fact that most scientists attribute the longevity mainly to genetic factors.

An alternative theory for the long life comes from one of the inhabitants, 104-year-old Xiao Yuanying. She puts her age down to the two ‘cups’ of rice wine she drinks every day. Of course, it isn’t your average supermarket ‘baijiu’, but home made ‘snake wine’ – bottles of rice wine in which a couple of snakes are suspended. (Being long, things like snakes and noodles are associated with longevity in China).
 

Not content with their alcohol consumption, the locals are also partial to a bit of cannabis. Not to smoke. They use the oil – euphemistically referred to as ‘hemp oil’ in most English reports, but openly labelled on the local brand. This is used in dips and in a soup eaten twice a day. (At least that’s what they tell nosy researchers.)

One thing for sure drinking this water ain't going to make you life to 112.

(In addition we've been hit by Bama eggs and Bama sesame oil. Naturally at double to triple the normal prices.)