Visit to Seville sheds light on why Spaniards live longer

People young and old flock to a former fish market along the riverfront for tastes of Seville including the iconic tapas, fried fish and Iberico ham. Janet Podolak

Olives stuffed with everything from anchovies to pimentos and ham are a great choice for nibbling. Janet Podolak

A variety of fresh tapas are displayed for hungry visitors to Seville wanting to sample what's available. Janet Podolak

Patrons ned to wait until 8pm, when a variety of fresh fish is quickly fried and available for carryout. Janet Podolak

During a recent week’s vacation in sunny Seville, in the south of Spain, I gained lots of insight into why the Spanish are on target for having the longest lifespan in the world. It’s the way they eat, for the most part, and I ate that way all week.

And the prices were great.

The most two of us spent for a meal was 22 euro (about $25 U.S.), and that was with two drinks each. I drank wine, my friend drank beer, and the tip was included in our bill. We ate tapas all week — choosing flavorful small bites instead of three-course meals typical in America.

A study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle, released last week, predicted people in Spain will have an average lifespan of 85.8 year by 2040.

It’s apparently the Mediterranean diet, along with a lifestyle that puts life’s emphasis on family and friends, gets credit for that longer lifespan.

Fruits and vegetables are the major ingredient in diets in Spain. The country ls has a free healthcare system, which likely helps people live longer than in other countries. The single-payer system, ranked by the World Health Organization as seventh-best in the world, offers universal coverage as a constitutionally guaranteed right and comes no out-of-pocket expenses aside from prescription drugs.

Fruits and vegetables, which grow year-round in much of Spain, are available in many public markets in Seville. And tapas, those small full-flavored bites of deliciousness, were served everywhere.

On every one of my half-dozen visits to Spain, I’ve noticed that older people are a major part of daily life. They’re always among others in the cities, walking and taking the subways and buses to their destinations, often with other people their own age but also with younger folks and family members.

Like it or not, I’m now in my seventh decade and guess I’m now among those elders. And as my friend and I traveled around Seville on foot and by its great public transportation system, there was always someone to offer us a seat in every standing-room-only scenario. The city has plenty of escalators and elevators between levels on its metro, so it is easy to negotiate even for those, like me, with weak knees.

Long late lunches are the tradition in southern Spain, where people go home for siestas in the heat of the day. Restaurants close their kitchens about 4 p.m. and don’t reopen until 8 at night, when dinnertime begins for the natives. The eating, drinking and talking goes on into the night, but people are rarely drunk or rowdy.

Dinner at 8 was a difficult concept for me, because I am an early riser and usually in bed well before 10 p.m. But my friend and I found plenty of places in the old Santa Cruz neighborhood serving tapas starting at 5 p.m.

One of my favorites was the Mercado Lonja del Barranco, a former fish market along the riverside now housing dozens of small restaurants and bars, serving everything from traditional tapas to sushi, paper cones filled with jamon Iberico (thinly sliced ham), and paper plates of quickly fried fresh fish.

Like most of Seville’s restaurants, the fried fish concession didn’t begin serving until 8 p.m., but we had plenty of other foods, including a mind-boggling array of stuffed olives, to choose among as we waited.

My favorite food of that evening was a creamy blue cheese mixture on a small toast topped with anchovies.

It’s certainly not for everyone, but its assertive flavors will always remind me of Seville and its healthy eating.