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

by Dan Buettner

local diet. Ikarians eat a version of the Mediterranean diet, a menu rich in olive oil and vegetables, low in dairy and meat, with some alcohol daily. On Ikaria, it also includes an abundance of potatoes (which grow well in the rocky soil), goat milk, beans, and some fruit. Also, Ikarians seasonally gather many of the more than 150 varieties of greens that grow wild in Greece for salads or to bake into pies. Some of these greens contain more than ten times as many antioxidants as red wine. In the villages, they drink “mountain tea” every day, sometimes as a medicine but mostly as an end-of-the-day cocktail, usually made from whatever herbs r greens happen to be in season. Although they love fresh fish, Ikarians eat relatively little of it, perhaps because the journey to the mountains from the sea traditionally took over a day. So when the fishmonger arrived, his produce smelled like, well, day-old fish.