Where Are the Blue Zones?
In 2004, Dan Buettner and a team of scientists interviewed hundreds of 100-year-olds to explore what they had in common. Looking at the data, they identified 5 communities around the world where people reach age 100 at 10 times greater rate than the United States. They named them the Blue Zones and they are Ikaria, Greece; Okinawa, Japan; Ogliastra Region, Sardinia; Loma Linda, California; and Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica.
What Is the Blue Zones Diet?
There isn’t actually a single Blue Zones diet, or even one way of eating. As varied as the locations are, so are the diets. Here’s a summary of the common diet in each of the Blue Zones.
Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica: Here it’s the ’three sisters’ that are most common in the diet—beans, corn, and squash. Plus, papayas, yams, bananas and peach palms (a small Central American oval fruit).Loma Linda, California: The residents here are Seventh Day Adventists and, thus, are vegetarian. They follow a biblical diet, which is predominately grains, fruits, nuts, and vegetables. Their most common foods are avocados, nuts, beans, oatmeal, whole wheat bread, soy milk, and salmon, if they eat fish or meat (some do eat small amounts of fish). They only drink water.Sardinia, Italy: Their diet is heavy in goat’s milk and sheep’s cheeses, eating around 15 pounds of cheese per year. They also eat a fair amount of carbs—sourdough bread, flatbread, barley, as well as fennel, beans, tomatoes, almonds, milk thistle tea, and wine.Okinawa, Japan: Their so-called “longevity foods” are bitter melon, tofu, garlic, brown rice, green tea, and shiitake mushrooms.Ikaria, Greece: Another community that eats a version of the Mediterranean diet. Their diet focuses on lots of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans, potatoes, and olive oil.
Although there are variations in their diets, there are four foods they all ate, and four they all avoided.
The Four Foods Every Blue Zone Eats
If we were going so far as to say these are the foods that make up the Blue Zones diet, this is what would be included.
The Four Foods Every Blue Zone Avoids
If we were to put together a list of foods forbidden on a so-called Blue Zones diet, these would be the foods that are off-limits. When researchers studied the Blue Zones, they found—as you now might expect—that it wasn’t just what the residents of those communities ate, but the lifestyles they lived, too. The Blue Zones shared 9 characteristics, which scientists dubbed the Power 9. Of those “Power 9,” these are the three characteristics that apply to diet.
How to Eat Like You Live in the Blue Zones
The experts behind the Blue Zones findings pulled together tips on how you, too, can eat as if you lived in one of the Blue Zones and lengthen your life. Here are their tips.
