OGLIASTRA , SARDINIA , ITALY
© Jurgen Scheeff / Unsplash
CALIFORNIA BEACH © Tyler Nix / Unsplash
NICOYA PENINSULA , COSTA RICA © Eelco Böhtlingk / Unsplash
On top of this practical day-to-day grind , sadly there ’ s no way to sugar-coat the fact that chronic diseases are becoming increasingly more common in old age . But , there are lifestyle choices , as well as small changes and behaviours , that can help counterbalance the trials and tribulations of life , namely Blue Zone living – a not new , but still relatively undiscovered concept based on the population of areas of the world called Blue Zones .
Although there ’ s no denying that genetics play a part in lifespan and predisposition to certain illnesses , it ’ s widely considered that lifestyle plays a bigger part in sustaining health and wellbeing . Which is where the globe ’ s Blue Zones - geographic areas in which people have low rates of chronic disease and live longer than anywhere else – come into play . A non-scientific term , the phrase Blue Zone was first used by the author Dan Buettner , who was studying areas of the world in which people live exceptionally long lives . The five areas he identified are named as such because when Buettner and his colleagues were searching for these areas , they drew blue circles around them on a map .
So , where are the five Blue Zones and what determines the behaviour of the long-living populations there ?
Icaria , Greece : Icaria is an island in Greece where people eat a Mediterranean diet rich in olive oil , red wine and homegrown vegetables .
Ogliastra , Sardinia , Italy : The Ogliastra region of Sardinia is home to some of the oldest men in the world . They live in mountainous regions where they typically work on farms and drink lots of red wine .
Okinawa , Japan : Okinawa is home to the world ’ s oldest women , who eat a lot of soybased foods and practice tai chi , a meditative form of exercise .
Nicoya Peninsula , Costa Rica : The Nicoyan diet is based around beans and corn tortillas . The people of this area regularly perform physical jobs well into old age and have a sense of life purpose that they call as ‘ plan de vida ’, meaning ‘ soul ’ s purpose ’, which translates as ‘ why I wake up in the morning ’. They believe , like our fingerprint , that we each are assigned a unique reason for existence at birth and our soul ’ s purpose is to figure out what that is and set about creating a life that will fulfil this destiny .
The Seventh-day Adventists in Loma Linda , California , USA : The Seventh-day Adventists are a very religious group of people . They ’ re strict vegetarians and live in tightknit communities .
Although these are the only locations discussed by Buettner is his book , The Blue Zone : Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who ' ve Lived the Longest , there may well be unidentified areas in the world that could also be considered Blue Zones , but multiple supporting studies have found that these particular areas contain unusually high rates of nonagenarians and centenarians ; people who live over 90 and 100 , respectively .
Additional findings confirm that genetics account for around 20 – 30 % of longevity , so environmental influences alongside diet and lifestyle play a huge role in determining your lifespan . Typically , the seemingly miraculous inhabitants of each Blue Zone share the following diet and lifestyle factors .
People that live in Blue Zones :
Eat a diet full of whole plant foods
Although most groups are not strict vegetarians , they only tend to eat meat around once a week and primarily eat a 95 % plantbased diet . Cutting back considerably on the consumption of meat has been proven to reduce the risk of death from heart disease and cancer specifically , so diets in the Blue Zones are rich in vegetables , legumes and whole grains for fibre and protein , and nuts for polyunsaturated and monounsaturated ‘ good ’ fats . Eating fish , a great source of heartand brain-health boosting omega-3 fats , is also associated with slower brain decline in old age and reduced heart disease and is a staple of the Icarian and Sardinian diets .
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