Lessons From The Blue Zones

I recently read a most interesting book, The Blue Zones. I've always felt that it's not how long you live, but how well you live. This fascinating book taught me about the four blue zones, or longevity zones, of the world, and gave some possible reasons why these people outlive the average man. Most importantly, the book gave me ways to live a longer, healthier, more productive life. I will share with you here a portion of the many lessons I learned from The Blue Zones.

Author Dan Buettner identified 4 global blue zones, or areas where individuals lived disproportionately longer than other people, in most cases a decade or so longer. The 4 zones are Okinawa, Japan, Sardinia, Italy, Loma Linda, California, and Nicoya, Costa Rica. Is it genetic? Is it climate? What exactly makes these people live so long? No, it is not genetic or climatic. It's a lot of what we already know leads to good health. First, in all these areas, people had a purpose in life, a reason for getting up every morning. They cleaned, shopped, took care of children or worked. They did something, and they knew when they rose each day that there was purpose to their life. They also had a positive attitude. There were very few grouches among the centenarians that Buettner studied. Second, most of these cultures ate a mainly vegetarian diet. Meat was an occasional addition to the diet for holidays or special occasions, but most of their food was plant based fruits, vegetables, grains and beans. Most of these cultures had gardens, and the people worked in and maintained their own garden for decades. Exercise was key to all these cultures. None of these people were triathletes, but they got plenty of exercise just performing their daily tasks. From working in the garden, to walking to town, to cleaning their house, the blue zone cultures incorporated exercise into their daily life.. All of these centenarians were hard working people, many of them farmers, who had worked their entire lives. Hard work never killed anyone. On the contrary, hard work is good for the heart and good for the soul. Another common denominator of the 4 blue zones was a spiritual time each day. It wasn't that these people were deeply religious, but they had a few moments for meditation or contemplation every day. Finally, each of the cultures studied had a strong network of friends and family that they relied on and spent time with every day.

I enjoyed this book so much, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in how to live a healthy lifestyle. Much of the information is NOT new, but seeing the commonalities in these cultures makes it very clear what we should be doing. There is a website you can go to and take a little test to see what your life expectancy is. If the ideas of the book interest you, you start by making one small change, then another and so on. As I've always said, it's not how long live, but how well you live. What good is living to 95 if you're homebound and unable to spend time with friends and family? It's all about quality of life, and in this book Buettner shows that a large percentage of the people in the blue zones are living active, productive lives at 100.

I find the whole study of longevity fascinating. Get this book or at least get to the website and see what it's all about. Go to www.thebluezones.com and find out your biological age and your life expectancy, based on your health and life style. I found it fascinating, informative and motivating. I think you will too.