The Blue Zones: 9 Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest

by Dan Buettner

In 1550, Italian Luigi Cornaro wrote one of the first longevity best sellers. His book, The Art of Living Long,

moderation.

Most vitamin requirements are best achieved by eating six to nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

Then there are exercises designed to improve your balance. Tai Chi is one people talk about, or yoga.

The Sardinian Blue Zone Where Women Are Strong, Family Comes First, and Health Springs from the Rugged Hills

As he zeroed in on municipalities that had the greatest numbers of long-lived people, he circled the area on a map with blue ink—giving rise to the term “Blue Zone,” which was later adopted by demographers.

One Barbagia proverb said it all about foreigners: Furat chie benit dae su mare (He who comes from the sea is here to steal).

The original Sardinians, in fact, did not keep their ancient Nuraghic languages. The Romans had subjugated them long enough that by the time they escaped to the mountains they had adopted Latin, which has survived the centuries remarkably intact. In the Sardinian dialect spoken in the Blue Zone, for example, the word for house is still the Latin word domus. Their pronunciation more closely resembles Latin too. The English word sky is cielo in Italian but it is kelu in Sardinian, preserving the hard K sound as it was pronounced in the original Latin caelum (ka-AY-lum). The same goes for sentence structure. A modern-day Italian says io bevo vino (I drink wine) but Sardinians would say it as an ancient Roman would have, io vino bevo (I wine drink). What does this have to do with longevity?

(akea is a Sardinian greeting that means roughly “may you live to be 100”)

Everyday hikes taken by Sardinian shepherds can burn up to 490 calories an hour; to get the equivalent, try 120 minutes of brisk walking (about 3.5 mph), 90 minutes of gardening, 2 hours of bowling, or 120 minutes of golfing (be sure to carry your bag).

Sardinian red wine isn’t the only place to find flavonoids. Brightly colored fruits and vegetables and dark chocolate also contain them. Studies have shown that a diet high in flavonoids is associated with a reduced incidence of certain cancers and heart disease.

Sardinian men seem to possess a temperament that enables them to shed stress. They are at once grumpy and likable, and often joke at the expense of one another. (It’s probably no coincidence

that the word sardonic has its roots on this island.) The things they have in common, according to physician Gianni Pes, are strong will, high self-esteem, and great stubbornness. “This is actually the national character of Sardinian men,” he says, “and may well explain their success in surviving in unfavorable circumstances.”

Meanwhile, Sardinian wives were more sedentary. Women here tended to stay home caring for children, doing home repairs, managing household finances, and worrying about their husband’s safety. Unlike marriages in many Mediterranean cultures, Sardinian women wore the pants. They bore more than their share of the marital stress load, which, perhaps, enabled their husbands to live longer.

The Sardinian diet was lean and largely plant-based with an emphasis on beans, whole wheat, and garden vegetables, often washed down with flavonoid-rich Cannonau wine. Goat’s milk and mastic oil, common in the diet 30 years ago, may also have provided powerful compounds.

Eat a lean, plant-based diet accented with meat.

Laugh with friends. Men in this Blue Zone are famous for their sardonic sense of humor. They gather in the street each afternoon to laugh with

and at each other. Laughter reduces stress, which can lower one’s risk of cardiovascular disease.

The Blue Zone in Okinawa Sunshine, Spirituality, and Sweet Potatoes

Things improved a little in 1605 when

an Okinawan brought

the sweet potato back with him from China. This hardy miracle tuber thrived just fine in Okinawa’s stingy soil and weathered its typhoons and monsoons. It was a boon for peasants, quickly becoming a staple. Boiled, it also provided food for livestock, so even the poorest Okinawan could now afford meat—alb...

Okinawans got 80 percent of their calories from...

Sweet potatoes are a delicious way to pack in vitamins and minerals. High in fiber, vitamin A, potassium, vitamin C, and folic acid, “sweets” are also easy to prepare. Prick one with a fork, microwave it for about five minutes, and just season with salt and pepper.

“I think the fact that she still retains her duties as a noro is very important,” he replied. “Roles are very important here in Okinawa. They call it ikigai—the reason for waking up in the morning. A sudden loss of a person’s traditional role can have a measurable effect on mortality. We see this especially among teachers and policemen who die very soon after they quit working. Police and teachers have very clear senses of purpose and relatively high status. Once they retire, they lose both of those qualities and they tend to decline rapidly. I believe the reverse is true too. Kamada remains functioning longer because she feels needed.”

“It’s vitamin S,” he said. “You smile in the morning and it fortifies you all day long.”

OKINAWA’S LONGEVITY LESSONS Among the centenarians in Okinawa’s Blue Zone, these practices are common. Embrace an ikigai. Older Okinawans can readily articulate the reason they get up in the morning. Their purpose-imbued lives gives them clear roles of responsibility and feelings of being needed well into their 100s. Rely on a plant-based diet. Older Okinawans have eaten a plant-based diet most of their lives. Their meals of stir-fried vegetables, sweet potatoes, and tofu are high in nutrients and low in

calories. Goya, with

its antioxidants and compounds that lower blood sugar, is of particular interest. While centenarian Okinawans do eat some pork, it is traditionally reserved only for infrequent ceremonial occasions and taken only in small amounts. Get gardening. Almost all Okinawan centenarians grow or once grew a garden. It’s a source of daily physical activity that exercises the body with a wide range of motion and helps reduce stress. It’s also a near-constant source of fresh vegetables. Eat more soy. The Okinawan diet is rich foods made with soy, like tofu and miso soup. Flavonoids in tofu may help protect the hearts and guard against breast cancer. Fermented soy foods contribute to a healthy intestinal ecology and offer even better nutritional benefits. Maintain a moai. The Okinawan tradition of forming a moai provides secure social networks. These safety nets lend financial and emotional support in times of need and give all of their members the stress-shedding security of knowing that there is always someone there for them. Enjoy the sunshine. Vitamin D, produced by the body when it’s exposed on a regular basis to sunlight, promotes stronger bones and healthier bodies. Spending time outsi...

“So now everybody’s asking, what is it about nuts?” Fraser said. “I’m not sure we have all the answers, but one thing certainly is that they have an effect on lower blood cholesterol.”

it is very clear that men who drank five or six glasses of water a day had a substantial reduction in the risk of a fatal heart attack—60, 70 percent less—compared to those who drank considerably less water.

“First, vegetarian status will get you about two years,” Fraser said. “Not eating meat is clearly important, and our studies have shown us it is because it seems to have an impact on heart disease and some cancers. “Second, we found that nut eaters also had a two-year advantage, which seemed to relate largely to heart disease. Of course there are causes of death not related to cancer and heart disease, and we suspect some of these behaviors might also be protective for some of those causes.” “Third is being a smoker,” added Fraser. “Or even a past smoker, as we found among the Adventists. If you have ever been a smoker, it has a moderately strong impact on lung cancer and some impact on heart disease.” “Fourth is physical activity,” he continued, “which again accounted for an extra couple of years, and that seems to run very clearly to heart disease and to certain cancers like breast and colon cancer. The evidence is fairly clear that most of this benefit comes from modest but regular physical activity. It really flattens out once you get to the marathoner level, which is not necessary for longevity.” The fifth and final recommendation is to maintain a fairly normal body weight, an increasingly important issue in the United States. “It turns out a lot of the very active chemicals that relate to inflammation probably have some impact on increasing the likelihood of cancer developing,” Fraser said. “Those chemicals could well come from fat cells. One huge advantage of a vege...

While experimenting with shredded wheat cereal, Kellogg and his brother, W. K. Kellogg, accidentally discovered the process for creating flaked cereal. W. K. formed the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company in 1906. Kellogg was also convinced by his younger brother Will to market his new breakfast foods in what became the wildly successful Kellogg Company, still one of the largest employers in Battle Creek.

Looking for a way to get a daily serving of nuts? Add toasted whole walnuts or pecans to a green salad. Try roasted cashews in a chicken salad. Finely chopped nuts can also make a delicious coating for fish filets, but popping them right in your mouth works, too.

A combination of four types of exercise will keep the body balanced and strong. Endurance: Activities like walking, hiking, swimming, and cycling improve the health of the cardiovascular system. Strength: Lifting weights builds up and maintains muscles. Flexibility: Stretching keeps us limber and flexible. Balance: Practicing balance through activities like yoga will help avoid falls.

Studies have found that a belly laugh a day may keep the doctor away. In 2005, researchers at the University of Maryland showed that laughter helped relax blood vessels, linking it to healthier function and a possible decreased risk of heart attack. Others have found that laughter may lower blood pressure and increase the amount of disease-fighting cells found in the body.

LOMA LINDA’S BLUE ZONE SECRETS

Try these tactics practiced by America’s longevity all-stars. Find a sanctuary in time. A weekly break from the rigors of daily life, the 24-hour Sabbath provides a time to focus on family, God, camaraderie, and nature. Adventists claim this relieves their stress, strengthens social networks, and provides consistent exercise. Maintain a healthy body mass index (BMI). Adventists with healthy BMIs (meaning they have an appropriate weight for their heights) who keep active and eat meat sparingly, if at all, have lower blood pressure, lower blood cholesterol, and less cardiovascular disease than heavier Americans with higher BMIs. Get regular, moderate exercise. The Adventist Health Survey (AHS) shows that you don’t need to be a marathoner to maximize your life expectancy. Getting regular, low-intensity exercise like daily walks appears to help reduce your chances of having heart disease and certain cancers. Spend time with like-minded friends. Adventists tend to spend lots of time with other Adventists. They find well-being by sharing values and supporting each other’s habits. Snack on nuts. Adventists who consume nuts at least five times a week have about half the risk of heart disease and live about two years longer

than those who don’t. At least four major studies have confirmed that eating nuts has an impact on health and life expectancy. Give something back. Like many faiths, the Seventh-day Adventist Church encourages and provides opportunities for its members to volunteer. People like centenarian Marge Jetton stay active, find sense of purpose, and stave off depression by focusing on helping others. Eat meat in moderation. Many Adventists follow a vegetarian diet. The AHS shows that consuming fruits and vegetables and whole grains seems to be protective against a wide variety of cancers. For those who prefer to eat some meat, Adventists recommend small portions served as a side dish rather than as the main meal. Eat an early, light dinner. “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper,” American nutritionist Adelle Davis is said to have recommended—an attitude also reflected in Adventist practices. A light dinner early in the evening avoids flooding the body with calories during the inactive parts of the day. It seems to promote better sleep and a lower BMI. Put more plants in your diet. Nonsmoking Adventists who ate 2 or more servings of fruit per day had a...

Comparing these findings with data from developed countries, Luis figured that a Costa Rican man at age 60 had about twice the chance of reaching age 90 as did a man living in the United States, France, or even Japan. He also found that if a male reached 90, he could expect, on average, another 4.4 years of life—again a life expectancy higher than in most developed countries. If Rosero-Bixby’s numbers were correct, it was an extraordinary find. Costa Rica spends only 15 percent of what America does on health care, yet its people appeared to be living longer, seemingly healthier lives than people in any other country on Earth.

Rafael Ángel Leon Leon, 100, who lived at the top of the winding road in the hills above Nicoya. Behind his basic wooden farmhouse, he still grew a garden, harvested his own corn and beans, and kept some livestock. He played the guitar, had an excellent voice, and true to Luis’s observation, fancied himself a lady’s man. He’d had several lovers before he finally married an Indian woman 40 years his junior—when he was 94. • Ofelia Gómez Gómez, who lived with her daughter, son-in-law, and two grandchildren. At 102, she recited from memory a six-minute poem by Pablo Neruda. • Francesca Castillo (Panchita), who was 99 the first time we met her, lived alone outside Hojancha, cut her own wood, and twice a week walked a mile into town (once to attend Sunday Mass and a second time to go to the market).

“This is a great success!” he announced triumphantly. There was no ambiguity: Nicoya, Costa Rica, was—along with the Sardinian Blue Zone—an area with one of the longest-lived populations in the world. But the question remained: Why?

SLEEP TIGHT

Getting enough sleep keeps the immune system functioning smoothly, decreases the risk of heart attack, and recharges the brain. Adults both young and old need between 7 to 9 hours per night. To help get it, go to bed at the same time every night and wake up the same time each morning; keep your bedroom dark, quiet, and cool; and use a comfortable mattress and pillows.

“We notice that the most highly functioning people over 90 in Nicoya have a few common traits,” she told me. “One of them is that they feel a strong sense of service to others or care for their family. We see that as soon as they lose this, the switch goes off. They die very quickly if they don’t feel needed.” Indeed, in every Blue Zone, centenarians possess a strong sense of purpose. In Okinawa it was ikigai—the reason to wake up in the morning. Here, said Fernández, the Costa Ricans called it plan de vida.

“Aureliano led me into the garden behind his home with a machete in hand, whacking weeds, pruning trees, and chasing away vermin. The garden had dozens of fruit trees,” she said, clicking through images of banana, lemon, and orange trees. “But then he showed me these wildly exotic fruits.” There was the marañón, a red-orange fruit five times richer in vitamin C than oranges; anona, which looks like a misshapen, thick-skinned pear known to have selective toxicity against various types of cancer cells; and wild ginger, a great source of vitamin B6, magnesium, and manganese. “All of these are antioxidant powerhouses associated with disease prevention and longer life,” Eliza informed us.

study done in rural Poland showing that every daughter increases a man’s life expectancy by 75 weeks.

ORANGES One of the most popular fruits consumed in Costa Rica’s Blue Zone is one of the easiest to find at home—the orange. Suppliers of vitamin C, fiber, potassium, and folate, oranges have been credited with helping prevent heart disease, cancer, and stroke.

CALCIUM Nicoya’s drinking water is richly packed with calcium, giving the locals an easy supply of this important mineral. Calcium is the most abundant mineral found in the human body and vital to keeping bones strong. For those without calcium-rich water, yogurt, milk, and cheese are great natural sources of calcium. For dairy alternatives, try sardines, kale, and broccoli.

“It’s like this, Papi. Those who honor their parents are rewarded by God.”