Blue Zones - Global longevity hotspots where people live to 100
A National Geographic explorer discovered the places on the earth that have the most people who live a century. Can you do what they do? Yes.
What are blue zones?
According to a Wikipedia footnote a Blue Zone is “a region in the world where people are claimed to have exceptionally long lives beyond the age of 80 due to a lifestyle combining physical activity, low stress, rich social interactions, a local whole-foods diet, and low disease incidence.”
Dan Buettner, a National Geographic explorer and best selling author is credited with discovering and subsequently visiting most blue zones. In his Netflix series, “Live to 100” Buettner adds 20 years to Wikipedia’s blue zone life span. In this remarkable documentary he explores why so many people who reside in these locations are able to achieve a full century of quality living.
Where are the Blue Zones?
Ikaria, Greece
Okinawa, Japan
Sardinia, Italy
Loma Linda, California
Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica
What do they eat?
According to Buettner, the longest lived people in blue zones eat predominantly vegetarian, whole food diets. Processed foods are not ingested. Still, it’s not like they don’t know how to have fun. Wine, bread and a few other unexpected foods are on the menu.
Buettner’s zone by zone breakdown:
Ikaria: Fresh grown herbal teas, raw honey, a classic Mediterranean diet and wine that’s been made the same way for hundreds of years.
Nicoya Peninsula: A mostly vegetarian diet including corn, beans and squash. According to Buettner these three foods, eaten together, provide the nine essential amino acids that the human body requires.
Okinawa: They consume just 2000 calories a day. Before they eat they remind themselves of the 8 out of 10 concept; stop eating when your stomach is 80% full. Purple potatoes, mulberry leaves, squid soup, Goya (bitter melon) and tofu are staples.
Loma Linda: Located in a California suburb, this blue zone is a religious community. Members are Seventh-day Adventists who believe that proper nutrition is a spiritual requirement. Those interviewed in Buettner’s documentary say that they eat a plant based diet that includes fruits, nuts, legumes and vegetables.
Sardinia: Fresh made sourdough bread, leavened with lactobacillus. Whole grains, greens and beans are all on the menu and minestrone soup is a daily staple.
What don’t they do?
Blue zone seniors don’t sit around all day. They walk, they bend, they sit and they stand. They socialize with family and friends all the time. According to Buettner, decades of movement and socialization contribute to their longevity.
What do they do?
Okinawa: Buettner says that the houses have “no real furniture”. Everyone sits on the floor, event the older folks. They get up and down at least 30 times a day. Everyone has a garden. They bend, sit and stand for hours each day tending to their fruits and vegetables. This low intensity physical activity helps the elders maintain balance and stability. They also participate in moai, groups of older people who pool their financial resources. They socialize frequently, singing, dancing and playing instruments with one another.
Ikaria: According to BlueZone.com most Ikarian’s, even those into their 90’s, have very few cases of dementia or chronic disease. They nurture relationships. “They enjoy strong red wine, late night domino games and a relaxed pace that ignores clocks,” BlueZone.com says. They walk through mountain villages to visit friends and family and garden extensively.
Nicoya Peninsula: They live according to Plan de Vida, a concept that suggests that you know what your purpose in life is, what you’re getting up for in the morning and what you want to do each day. They still do many things by hand like washing dishes and sweeping the floors. They slow down to make time for things that matter to them.
Loma Linda: Here, exercise is a faith-based requirement. If you’re into a particular religion and that religion says that exercise is a divine activity, you’re likely to show up at the gym. They frequently volunteer and they surround themselves with like minded people. Sure, Loma Linda isn’t going to work for you if you’re not a Seventh-day Adventist, but, if you spend a lot time with people who have healthy habits that promote longevity, you’re more likely to adopt those same qualities.
Sardinia: Buettner says that Sardinians walk everywhere and that that their villages are steep. They move naturally all day long. An elderly woman interviewed for the documentary said that she walks uphill, everyday, to go to church. There are no nursing homes in Sardinia. Families care for older relatives. Also, most men work as Shepards. They put in a full day’s effort, but take time to nap. By dinner time, they’re hanging out with friends and family. They experience very little chronic stress.
Do blue zones really work?
According to Wikipedia the effectiveness of the Blue Zone lifestyle has its critics. “The concept of blue zone communities having exceptional longevity has been challenged by the absence of evidence-based information,” Wikipedia reports. Recent analysis of life expectancy decline in the twenty first century in Okinawa has been well documented.
In his Netflix series Buettner points out that the blue zone in Nicoya is disappearing. Convenience stores and fast food joints are popping up all over town. He also says that Okinawa has changed and now has the same obesity rates as the rest of Japan.
Our Thoughts
Although Ritu and I look at many wellness movements with a healthy dose of objective skepticism, at least until we try them out for ourselves, it’s hard to find anything wrong or potentially detrimental in the lifestyles of blue zone, senior residents.
Even if current blue zones don’t last forever and if researchers never prove that the blue zone lifestyle guarantees 100 years, it would be silly to argue that it’s not really good for you.
What’s going on in our culture?
Here in the United States, we actively nurture a culture of slothful unhealthiness. It’s as destructive as it is absurd. Spend just a bit of time reviewing the contents of most supermarket aisles and you’ll instantly see what I mean. Nearly every shelf in almost every aisle is overstuffed with colorfully marketed, artificially processed products.
Most of these products are, at best, nutritionally deficient and at worst, downright harmful. Many, even some of the most egregious, are labeled healthy foods. Unless you take time to educate yourself, and time to shop smart, the odds are stacked against you at the supermarket.
We also nurture overwork culture. Working hard, excessively and most of the time is considered a badge of honor and those who try to balance work with a healthy lifestyle are accused of having a poor work ethic and are considered lazy and unambitious.
We take great pride in the fact that we don’t sleep enough. We sacrifice precious hours of rest for the sake of our jobs, our families and a host of other preconceived obligations.
Instead of improving the quality of our lifestyles to promote wellness, so many of us consume a seemingly inexhaustible supply of overpriced medications. The drugs dumb down misunderstood symptoms and manage potentially preventable diseases.
Our corporate healthcare systems, often disguised as not-for-profit organizations are intentionally designed to generate revenue. A healthy population isn’t a functional profit center for hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and insurance behemoths.
The harsh reality is that many, if not most Americans are overweight, overworked, undernourished, overtired, over-medicated and just plain miserable…and we’re highly encouraged and rewarded to stay that way.
Create your own blue zone
Just because our culture has achieved a self created, almost laughable level of physical and emotional unfitness, doesn’t mean that you have to continue to play the same, self destructive game. Fortunately, there’s a quiet health, fitness and wellness revolution in progress and there are no shortages of effective approaches to wellbeing.
Creating your own blue zone is certainly a viable option. Maybe your own personal blue zone won’t guarantee that you live a century, but it will improve your quality of life.
If you opt to completely mimic the Okinawan life style, replete with imported purple potatoes, a life long passion for gardening and a furniture-free living room, go for it. If you prefer to take it one step at a time, gradually discovering, implementing and nurturing your own personal blue zone, all the better.
Either way, Buettner’s research is an invaluable contribution to the self improvement ecosystem. It provides a roadmap to a potentially long healthy life. It also reminds us that we’re not necessarily victims of the passage of time, helpless prisoners destined to age miserably and suffer immeasurably. We have options. We have choices.
The Synergy newsletter is powered by Envisage Wellness. At Envisage Wellness, Ritu Chib-Eiven and Mitch Eiven approach psychotherapy and coaching a little differently. In both areas our objective is to give you the tools to empower you to discover your own healing or your own path toward achievement. This newsletter is designed to be an extension of that effort. We’ll keep it short and helpful.