Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings April 2014, Volume 27, Number 2 | Page 100

since the time of Christ. The people there maintain not only their
genetic features, but also their economic isolation and traditional
social values, such as respect for elders, the importance of family, and the presence of unwritten laws. Genetic and cultural
isolation appear to go hand in hand. Most male Sardinians are
farmers or shepherds, and they can burn up to nearly 500 calories an hour. In the USA, only about 1 male in 20,000 reaches
age 100. The chance of two centenarians in the same family is
astronomically unlikely. In Sardinia, seeing more than one family
member aged 100 or more is not an uncommon occurrence. The
author found in the Sardinia Blue Zone 47 men and 44 women
who lived past their 100th birthday in a population of just under
18,000, a rate of centenarians that exceeds that in the US by a
factor of 30. More men than women lived to 100.
The diet of the shepherds and peasants in Sardinia is simple.
Bread is by far the main food. Peasants leave early in the morning with a kilogram of bread in their saddlebag. At noon their
meal consists only of bread with some cheese, occasionally an
onion, a little fennel, or a bunch of radanelli. At dinner, the
reunited family meal consists of vegetable soup (minestrone)
with or without some pasta. Families eat meat about once a
week, on Sunday. Fish does not figure prominently in their
diet. The shepherds drink wine daily, usually only at the evening
meal and no more than one quarter of the bottle. The wine is
usually made from Cannonau grapes, &W7V