Blue Zones: How to Implement the Findings in Our Lives
We’ve always been fascinated with the ‘blue zones’ throughout the world. It all started in November 2005 when author, Dan Buettner, published an article in National Geographic in which he identified areas around the world that were linked to human longevity. He was especially interested in places that had a high number of people over 100 years old, as well as groups of people who didn’t have heart disease, obesity, cancer, or diabetes despite their old age. In his book The Blue Zones Solution, Dan Buettner takes a deep dive into his findings and explores the steps we can all take to live more like the people living in the blue zones in order to live longer, healthier lives.
What surprised us the most (& what gave us hope for our own longevity) was that there wasn’t one single answer that links all of the blue zones; rather, the blue zones breed longevity through a combination of things that we can all implement in our daily lives. With that said, we love that he’s used his research to partner with city governments throughout the United States to foster environments that will eventually become blue zones through the changes that are made now [insider].
Pulling from many publications that you’ll see linked throughout this blog post, we rounded up a comprehensive lesson about the blue zones and how we can all live more like the people within them.
Where Are The five Blue Zones?
Ogliastra Region, Sardinia via Jürgen Scheeff
OGLIASTRA REGION, SARDINIA
Sardinia is an Italian island in the Mediterranean Sea. The Ogliastra region is the most mountainous province in Sardinia & the least populated in all of Italy. Once again, diet is also a key factor in its peoples’ longevity. Their low-protein diet has been associated with lower rates of diabetes, cancer & death in people under the age of 65 [National Geographic]. It just goes to show that we need to take societal diet advice with a grain of salt considering America tends to be all about taking in tons of protein.
In this blue zone, the men are the most surprising! The ratio of men to women who are over 100 years old is 1:1. This is quite telling because the ratio of people living to be over 100 in the rest of the world is typically 5:1 – five women to one man [npr].
Ikaria, Greece
Ikaria is a Greek island that lies in the Aegean Sea & it’s actually closer to Turkey than mainland Greece. Research links its peoples’ longevity with their Mediterranean diet that includes mostly vegetables and healthy fats, in addition to small amounts of dairy & meat products [National Geographic]. Greece has been on our travel bucket list for years & we love Mediterranean food, so this locale is especially exciting to us.
Okinawa, Japan
Okinawa is a Japanese island in the South China Sea between Japan & Taiwan. Similar to Ikaria, research links its peoples’ longevity with their diet as well. The Okinawan diet includes vegetarian ingredients like Okinawan sweet potatoes, soybeans, mugwort, turmeric, and goya [National Geographic]. We have to admit that mugwort & goya were completely new foods to us but definitely two worthy of trying out!
LOMA LINDA, CALIFORNIA
Loma Linda is a city in California that lies east of Los Angeles near San Bernadino. You’ve definitely passed through it on your drive to & from Palm Springs. The city has the highest concentration of Seventh-day Adventists in the United States, and their longevity is also linked to their diet since the community abides by a biblical, vegetarian diet of grains, fruits, nuts & vegetables. In fact, research has found that some residents have ten more years of healthy living compared to the average American citizen [National Geographic].
NICOYA PENINSULA, COSTA RICA
The Nicoya Peninsula is located on the western, Pacific coast of Costa Rica. Apart from the other blue zones that find longevity mainly due to their diets, the residents of the Nicoya Peninsula live longer, healthier lives due to their strong faith & communities, social networks, and regular low-intensity physical activity [National Geographic]. More on that if you keep reading.
How to implement blue zone findings
The question now becomes how we can reap the same effects of a long life without needing to move to a blue zone and adopt all of their same exact practices? The key is abiding by all five key lessons learned from observing the five blue zones.
Okinawa, Japan via Jeremy Manoto
Lesson One: Maintain a Healthy Diet
follow the 80% Rule
You may have heard of the 80/20 rule before. It has its place in business practices, sales, and more, but on the topic of blue zones, the 80-percent rule has everything to do with diet. Okinawans repeat a 2500-year old Confucian mantra, “Hara hachi bu,” before meals to remind them to stop eating when their stomachs are 80% full. By doing so, they maintain a healthy weight by feeling content & not being hungry, but also not being full. Research also found that contrary to the “big dinner” mentality that most people seem to abide by, people living in the blue zones eat their smallest meal in the late afternoon or early evening [Blue Zones]. If you’re interested, this is a recent article by Dan Buettner that details more.
eat Primarily Plant-based Foods
Eating plant-based foods are key to a long, happy life. Meat should be eaten rarely & in small portions of 3-4 ounces. In fact, most Blue Zoners eat small portions of meet only five times per month, on average [npr]. But how will you get enough protein? We’ve heard this so many times as lifelong vegetarians, but it’s a valid question! It turns out that beans, including fava, black, soy and lentils, have been dubbed the cornerstone of most centenarian diets [Blue Zones].
Drink Wine in Moderation
For all of us wine lovers, this one may come as a pleasant shock. In four out of five blue zones (Loma Linda’s Seventh Day Adventists being the exception), people drink alcohol moderately & regularly. We’re talking 1-2 glasses of wine per day, either paired with socialization or food. In fact, moderate drinkers in these regions live longer than non-drinkers [Blue Zones]. Extra points if you decide to sip on Cannonau di Sardegna, a sweet, red grenache wine from Sardinia.
More Food Secrets By blue zone
In Costa Rica, the people eat a diet of primarily beans, corn & squash. They also include papayas, yams, bananas & peach palms [npr].
In Ikaria, Greece, the people don’t utilize lamb in their diets like the rest of their Greek counterparts, although they will eat goat meat on rare occassions. Instead of lamb, they primarily eat potatoes, goat’s milk, honey, wild greens, fruit, small quantities of fish & legumes like garbanzo beans, black-eyed peas & lentils. They also love lemons, feta cheese & herbs like sage & marjoram, which are typically brewed in their daily tea [npr]. Now this is a diet we can totally get behind!
In Okinawa, the people make an effort to eat something from the land & sea every day. The foods you should be adding to your grocery list in order to eat like the Okinawans are bitter melons, tofu, garlic, brown rice, green tea & shitake mushrooms. [npr]
In Sardinia, the people who live the longest tend to include shepherds. In addition to the great exercise they get (more on that later), they eat a lot of goat’s milk & sheep’s cheese. And by a lot, we mean roughly 15 pounds per year. If you like carbs as much as we do, you’ll be thrilled to find out that they pair their cheese with carbs like flat bread, sourdough bread, and barley. It’s not only carbs & cheese though. The Sardinians who live the longest also tend to eat foods including fennel, fava beans, chickpeas, tomatoes, almonds, milk thistle tea and, of course, wine [npr].
In Loma Linda, the Seventh Day Adventists subscribe to a diet that includes grains, fruits, nuts & vegetables. Most are vegetarian, although some do eat minimal amounts of meat & fish. The top items on their grocery lists? Avocados, salmon (if they’re not vegetarian), nuts, beans, oatmeal, whole wheat bread & soy milk. They drink only water & avoid sugar. In order to get their sweets, they opt for natural sources of sugar found in fruit like dates & figs [npr].
Lesson Two: Become Part of a Community
Have Faith
In his study, Dan Buettner found that 98% of the centenarians interviewed, regardless of denomination, belonged to a faith-based community [Blue Zones].
Spend Time With Family
All centenarians made family a priority in their lives. Whether that meant sharing a home or living near aging parents & grandparents, investing time & love in their children, or committing to a life partner [Blue Zones].
Surround yourself with good people
You’ve probably heard the phrase, “You become like the five people you spend the most time with…choose carefully” & it’s true. Research shows that habits & emotions like smoking, obesity, happiness & loneliness are contagious, and the social groups of centenarians help shape their behaviors in a healthy way. In fact, this concept is acted upon in Okinawa where they’ve created groups of five friends who commit to each other for life – known as moais [Blue Zones].
Lesson Three: Keep Moving
We’re told in our society to exercise at least 30 minutes a day in order to maintain our health, and I bet most people picture themselves working out in a gym when told this. But you won’t see people in the blue zones staying fit by exercising in the way we tend to think. Rather, they happen to live in environments that allow them to move without thinking anything of it. Instead of lifting weights or spending an hour on the treadmill, they’re tending their gardens, doing house & yard work without modern mechanics, and they’re walking up & down hills to get from place to place [Blue Zones].
Lesson Four: Better Your MENTAL STATE
Have A Purpose
It’s not a coincidence that both Okinawans & Nicoyans have a word for it – “Ikigai” & “plan de vida,” respectively. Translated to “why I wake up in the morning,” both cultures put a major emphasis on their sense of purpose. Knowing what your sense of purpose is can add up to seven years to your life. If that’s not a wake-up call to think about your purpose every morning instead of checking your phone right away, we don’t know what is.
Down Shift
Stress is eating many of us alive. And although people in the Blue Zones still experience stress (they’re human after all), they do their best to relieve that stress. As we all know, stress is bad for us. It leads to chronic inflammation in the body which is associated with pretty much every major disease that comes with age. Rather than wallow in stress, the centenarians in Blue Zones have routines in their daily life that combat their stress. They either take a few moments each day to remember their ancestors (Okinawa), pray (Loma Linda), take a nap (Ikaria), or gather with loved ones for happy hour (Sardinia) [Blue Zones].
Lesson Five: Consistency is Key
Like with any life-changing habit, nothing is going to happen if you’re not doing it long-term. Following the suggestions above for the next week, month, or year might help in the short-term, but it’s not going to add years to your life. Instead, subscribe to the idea of these lifestyle changes & continue to do the ones you choose for years & decades to come [insider]. While that might seem hard, we’re planning to make small changes that we know we can stick to & then add on as those become habit. We hope you’ll join us!!
Let us know which lessons you’re planning to implement on your path to living your best, longest life in the comments below! We’re already vegetarians & love our red wine, so we’re going to focus on following the 80% rule, trying out some new centenarian food staples & walking every day.
Be sure to check out our favorite vegetarian lunch sandwich (with centenarian-approved goat cheese!), our go-to weekly workout routine & a list of 10 ways to become a happier person.