This is an encouraging and inspiring book. It relates how the author visited those parts of the world where people live long, healthy lives; he calls these places “Blue Zones”. Subsequently, he started making parts of the U.S. blue zones.

By visiting these places in the world, Dan finds out what people eat there, and describes their life style. It was a wonderful idea of his to begin to communicate to Americans, and to all of us, the details of these optimal diets and life-styles so they too could/can begin to live longer, healthier and happier lives.

It is no secret that obesity is a considerable problem in the U.S., one of the causes being that many Americans live on n unhealthy diet of processed foods.

Dan visits the following five places:

The island of IKARIA, Greece, which has “one of the world’s lowest rates of middle-age mortality and the lowest rates of dementia”.

Okinawa, Japan, home to the world’s longest-lived women.

Ogliastra Region, Sardinia - “the mountainous highlands of an Italian island that boasts the world’s highest concentration of centenarian men”.

Loma Linda, California – a community with the highest concentration of Seventh-day Adventists in the USA, where some residents live ten more healthy years than the average American.

Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica - “A place in this central American country where residents have the world’s lowest rates of middle-age mortality and the second highest concentration of male centenarians”.

Dan made 20 or so trips to these Blue Zones and spent time sitting with 100-year-olds listening to their stories. He watched them prepare their meals and ate what they ate. Wherever he found long-lived populations, he found similar habits and practices.

The basics of what Dan and his team of experts found were as follows:

The longest-lived people move naturally. They don’t go to gyms or run marathons. What they do every day “nudges” them into moving. They grow gardens and don’t have “mechanical conveniences”. Every trip to work or a friend’s house occasions a walk.

Purpose. The Okinawans call it “ikigai” and the Nicoyans call it “plan de vida” and for both it translates to “why I wake up in the morning”. Research has shown that knowing your sense of purpose is worth up to seven years of extra life expectancy.

Downshift. Even people in the Blue Zones experience stress, which leads to chronic inflammation. But the Blue Zones inhabitants have routines to get rid of this stress. Okinawans remember their ancestors for a few moments, adventists pray, Ikarians take a nap, and Sardinians “do happy hour”, whatever that means.

80 Percent Rule. Okinawans say a mantra reminding them to stop eating when their stomachs are 80 percent full. Those in the Blue Zones eat their smallest meal in the late afternoon or early evening, and then don’t eat any more for the rest of the day.

Beans, including fava, black, soy and lentil are the cornerstone of most centenarian diets. Meat, mostly pork, is eaten on average only five times a month, in a serving of three to four ounces.

People in all Blue Zones (even some Adventists) drink alcohol moderately and regularly. Moderate drinkers outlive nondrinkers. They drink one or two glasses a day with friends and/or with food.

Their social circles support healthy behaviours. Okinawans create moais – groups of five friends that commit to each other for life.

All but 5 of the 263 centenarians interviewed belonged to a “faith-based” community. Attending faith-based services four times a month was shown to add 4 to 14 years of life expectancy.

Aging parents and grandparents are kept nearby or in the home. They commit to a life partner (which can add up to three years of life expectancy) and they “invest in their children with time and love”.

The author states that “the path to a long, healthy life comes from creating an environment around yourself, your family, and your community that nudges you into following the right behaviours easily and relentlessly”.

IKARIA

The traditional Ikarian diet included lots of vegetables, olive oil, small amounts of dairy and meat products and moderate amounts of alcohol. What set it apart from other places in the region was its emphasis on potatoes, goat’s milk, honey, legumes (especially garbanzo beans, black-eyed peas, and lentils), wild greens, some fruit, and relatively small amounts of fish.

Each of these foods has been linked to increased longevity.

Top longevity foods from Ikaria are:

Extra virgin olive oil, which may protect Ikarians from heart disease; a typical amount taken is four tablespoons of oil a day.

Wild greens such as purslane (?), dandelion and arugula. More than 150 varieties of wild greens grow all over the island. Eating a cup of greens daily seemed to be one of the keys to a long life in Ikaria.

Potatoes. These are eaten almost daily and offer significant health benefits. As long as they’re not fried or loaded with sour cream and butter, they can help reduce blood pressure, prevent inflammation and fight diabetes

Feta cheese. Made by fermenting goat’s milk with rennin, which they get from goat’s stomachs.

Black-eyed peas (which are actually beans) contain some of the strongest anticancer, anti-diabetes and heart-protective substances to be found.

Chickpeas. Nearly ll of their fat is unsaturated. Eaten like a snack on Ikaria.

Lemons. Ikarians put lemon juice on everything. They eat the whole fruit, skin and all. The high acidity of lemon peel may have a beneficial impact on blood glucose, helping to control or prevent diabetes.

Mediterranean herbs . Daily teas made from sage, rosemary, marjoram and mint may explain Ikaria’s low dementia.

Two to three cups a day of Turkish-style coffee have been shown to reduce mortality rates for both men and women in recent studies. They like their coffeee strong in Ikaria.

Honey. Ikarians take dark, rich Ikarian honey as a medicine and take it neat,



OKINAWA

Dan talked to a 104-year-old woman in Okinawa, Japan. She showed him one supercharged supplement with carotenoids, flavonoids and saponins and one that fights breast cancer by reducing blood estrogen.

She showed him a supplement that maintains low blood pressure, treats gallstones and works as a prophylactic against hangovers. One lowers blood sugar and three had anti-ageing properties.

These supplements were in her kitchen garden. They included Okinawan sweet potatoes, soybeans, mugwort, turmeric and goya (bitter melon).

Top longevity foods from Okinawa:

Bitter melons 2) Tofu 3) Sweet potatoes 4) Garlic 5) Turmeric 6) Brown Rice 7) Green Tea 8) Shiitake mushrooms 7) Seaweeds (Kombu and Wakame)

I won’t go into detail about all the places Dan visited where people lived longer, but will move on to the American cities/regions he turned into Blue Zones.

Albert Lea, Minnesota, with a population of 18,500 people, used to be a meat-packing town but the plant burned down so things changed.

There was a “forest” of fast food restaurants in Albert Lea.

An expert the author hired, Wansink, asked the restaurants to help people eat less.

They could offer healthy sides” such as vegetables, fruits, or salads as a default, offering “fries or chips” only on request.

They could promote half-size portions of top-selling entrées. They could leave a pitcher of water on the table. They could serve bread before meals only if requested. They could add fresh fruit as a dessert option.

30 or so food establishments signed up with the campaign. One restaurant started offering fruit or salad as a side dish instead of french fries.

At one grocery store, the community dietician identified longevity foods such as beans, sunflower seeds, and green tea and bagged them with labels that stuck out from the shelves. She began holding cooking classes to show residents how to include more fish, fruits and vegetables in their diets.

Monthly sales figures for some 30 items tagged with longevity labels later showed an average increase of 46 percent compared to the previous year.

Customers could choose a specially designated Blue Zones checkpoint lane with display racks offering only healthy foods such as nuts, sweet potato chips, hummus, applesauce, diced peaches and dried fruit rather than chewing gum and sweets.

Lytle, the other co-director, was meeting with school administrators to lobby for healthy food choices in schools.

It had been shown that physical activity, nutrition education and healthy food choices could prevent childhood obesity.

People were encouraged to move daily, socialize more, and reconnect with their spiritual sides.

The community was going to have to change itself.

1,300 people turned up to hear about the Blue Zones concept.

People were asked to take a pledge to try at least 4 of the 14 activities listed to improve their health and happiness.

Some of the suggestions were 1) Buy plant-based foods 2) Switch to smaller bowls and dinner plates at home 3) Grow a garden 4) Volunteer.

“Walking moais” were introduced – small groups that would get together on a regular basis . They were not just about walking but about forging long-term relationships.

Before long more than 800 individuals were taking part in small walking moais. They were building hundreds of new friendships as well as contributing to the well-being of Albert Lea by generating more than 2,200 hours of community service.

They instigated “walking school buses” where a group of children woudl walk together to school, accompanied by parents, grandparents, teachers or other adults.

The programme lasted 10 months. Participants lost an average of 2.88 pounds. They were eating more vegetables and seafood, and experiencing fewer days of depression,

New bike paths were planned on city streets and around the lakes.

People felt healthier, were eating healthier foods and had made new friends.

About 4,000 people, a fourth of all adults in the town, had signed the Blue Zones pledge.

At least 800 people had joined some 70 walking mouais.

More than 80 children attending five different schools went to school and back again as part of a walking school bus.

Another place they launched a Blue Zones project was the Beach Cities, three cities in the Los Angeles area – Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach

.A healthcare company offered to support the Blue Zones team financially, if they could transform one or more communities in a way that could be measured and confirmed scientifically.

Residents compared favorably with averages for California or the USA but there was room for improvement in key areas such as body weight and emotional health.

60% of Beach Cities residents were overweight. Half of them said they were feeling stress or anger, or had worries in their lives.

In fact, the Beach Cities ranked near the bottom for anger and worrying.

The Blue Zones gave the community a way to become who they wanted to be.

At a diner in Redondo Beach, known for its big portions, they decided to offer half-size portions of many dishes as well as making fruits and salads side dishes instead of fries.

“Purpose workshops” were held where residents could “take stock of their gifts and aspirations to increase their satisfaction with life”.

The author had discovered that a sense of purpose was essential to achieving a long, healthy life.

As a result of the team’s lobbying, smoking at beaches or other indoors areas were banned.

Bike paths were greatly expanded, Restaurants created healthier meals, children walked to school every day and people made new friends and got together to eat, walk and work together as volunteers.

In Autumn 2013, towards the end of their three-year effort in the Beach Cities, they initiated a final community health checkup.

The Beach Cities had experienced a 14 percent drop in obesity since 2010.

They’d seen a 30 percent drop in the smoking rate (from 11 percent to 7 percent of the population).

The number of residents exercising regularly had risen 10 percent. Diabetes was down, high blood pressure was down.

The life evaluation score of the Beach Cities jumped “way up”.Their level of satisfaction with life increased about eight percentage points. By comprison, the US average want up only about half of one percentage point.

A Blue Zones project was initiated in ( )

This is a nice variety of advice for health and happiness, which I found interesting and enjoyable. ( )

This is a great book. The messages here are smart: live a wholesome life, stay active and eat right. And the book provides examples of how people have done that and how we all can too.

It's a shame that the Blue Zones projects haven't taken off more and that culure is so hard to change. If more people followed this advice and changed our environments to promite better health, our society would be way better off. ( )

I found this book to be fascinating! It includes the worlds' oldest women and the worlds' longest living men - and the best longevity diet from Costa Rica! It also includes many recipes to try at home. It is a real eye-opener! ( )

The Blue Zones solution, eating and living like the world's healthiest people by Dan Buettner
As we know use a Med diet it's always interesting to learn what else we can do to make our lives last longer by being more healthier.
Love all the new information, love to learn to new things for making our daily foods.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device). ( )