The Blue Zones
A New York TimesBestseller! With the right lifestyle, experts say, chances are that you may live up to a decade longer. What's the prescription for success? National Geographic Explorer Dan Buettner has traveled the globe to uncover the best strategies for longevity found in the Blue Zones: places in the world where higher percentages of people enjoy remarkably long, full lives. And in this dynamic book he discloses the recipe, blending this unique lifestyle formula with the latest scientific findings to inspire easy, lasting change that may add years to your life. Buettner's colossal research effort, funded in part by the National Institute on Aging, has taken him from Costa Rica to Italy to Japan and beyond. In the societies he visits, it's no coincidence that the way people interact with each other, shed stress, nourish their bodies, and view their world yields more good years of life. You'll meet a 94-year-old farmer and self-confessed "ladies man" in Costa Rica, an 102-year-old grandmother in Okinawa, a 102-year-old Sardinian who hikes at least six miles a day, and others. By observing their lifestyles, Buettner's teams have identified critical everyday choices that correspond with the cutting edge of longevity research--and distilled them into a few simple but powerful habits that anyone can embrace.
Stats for nerds
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What Hacker News says
- No, the author, Dan Buettner has a consulting practice around helping companies, orgs, municipalities implement the lessons from Blue Zones to help build healthier environments. https://www.bluezones.com/ Where the Blue came from I'm not sure.
- "They are called Blue Zones because when Buettner and his colleagues were searching for these areas, they drew blue circles around them on a map." [1]
- Blue Zones LLC is mentioned at the very beginning of the article.
> In 2004, Dan Buettner, CEO of Blue Zones LLC, was determined to uncover the specific aspects of lifestyle and environment that led to longevity.
You could have just read that
- The problem with the evidence and research around the "plant based diet" is that there is an ulterior motive for most of the research (legitimate ethical concerns around meat eating) which taints a lot of the data.
For example, Dan Buettner (the author of Blue Zones) suggests that Okinawans eat a 98% plant based diet which is...I won't say "fraudulent" because I think it's possible it's an honest mistake but it's definitely not "correct" at all. It's based off of some sketchy anecdotal accounts of WWII starvation diets where the only ate potatoes. Western centenarian researchers and health gurus repeated that factoid a bunch and it became "the okinawan diet is basically a potato-heavy vegan diet" in some twisted game of telephone.
In actuality both modern and ancient Okinawans have the highest meat consumption in Japan. Lard is the go-to frying oil even for vegetable dishes. The largest proportion of calories come from animal products. The Okinawan diet is a high fat, high carb, moderately high meat diet whose main "secret" is conscious portion restriction (the local "eat until you are 80% full" mantra). They do eat plenty of fish too, just not as much as the mainlanders (the idea that the okinawan diet is low in fish is crazy because the okinawans have a super unique and proud local history of fishing and seafood foraging traditions).
- The second half of this article is what makes it most interesting:
Buettner, author of The Blue Zones: 9 Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who've Lived the Longest, says the people in areas around the world with the longest life spans stay healthy through moving naturally, rather than hiving off fitness as a separate part of their day.
"[Blue Zone residents] live in environments that nudge them into physical activity every 20 minutes or so"
- Blue zone: «a demographic and/or geographic area of the world where people live measurably longer lives.»
«Characteristics: The people inhabiting Blue Zones share common lifestyle characteristics that contribute to their longevity. ... Buettner in his book provide a list of nine lessons, covering the lifestyle of blue zones people: ... 6. Moderate alcohol intake ...»
