Secrets of the Healthiest People in the World Unlocked

Having reached middle age the time is ripe, especially for those who haven’t given it a thought yet, to focus on health and channelize your energies in attaining a healthy mind, body and spirit.

But what is the key to a healthy long life?

If you think sweating it out in the gym, abstaining from your favorite foods and no fun time with your friends is the key then you are in for a surprise. The secret to living a long healthy life is nothing but a healthy plant based eating, daily walking exercise and good times spent with family and close friends?

Don’t you believe it!

Well, what do you think could be the reason that there are more centenarians in Blue Zones than in any other parts of the world? Why the people living in Blue Zones are considered to be the world’s healthiest, happiest and longest living people?

Well, let’s dig deeper to find the secrets of the world’s healthiest people.

The Blue Zones of the World

The Blue Zones refer to the regions where you can find the healthiest people in the world. Ikaria, Greece; Okinawa, Japan; Ogliastra Region, Sardinia; Loma Linda, Calif.; and Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica are identified as the 5 Blue Zones in the world. According to Dan Buettner, an American National Geographic fellow and a best-selling author, “People start thinking that the entrance way to a healthier lifestyle — for most Americans — is through their mouths…. But the core tenant of Blue Zones, and it took me about 10 years to realize what I’m about to tell you, none of them have better discipline, better diets, better individual responsibility, they don’t have better genes than us…..they live a long time because longevity happens to them.” he said. (Insider, 2019)

The Blue Zone Lifestyle

The people in the region lead an active lifestyle. They are socially active and have strong family values and a higher community engagement. They are spiritual by nature and believe in giving back to the community by volunteering their time and energy. The lifestyle that they follow is a part of their culture, which they have been practicing from time immemorial. They do not practice it to gain any specific outcome like to lose weight or to keep diseases at bay. They do not take supplements, count calories or read labels. They just practice mindful eating. It is a habit that they practice each and every day without fail. This is what that makes them feel good and happy about themselves. So by leading a normal life and without striving hard to achieve health and well-being, they become healthier and happier naturally. Thus, they have an enriched life.

They all have a sense of purpose in life which is nothing but finding happiness and joy in the small day to day activities. This gives them “Ikigai” (Japanese) or “plan de vida” (Costa Rican) –the reason to get up in the morning. They are who they are because of their ecosystem and therefore they do all the right things to protect their ecosystem and ensure food sustainability. For instance, they avoid pesticides and overfishing, which are harmful for the ecosystem. They do not indulge in high intense exercises. They move naturally and go out with friends for long or short walks. Walking has played an important role in increasing the lifespan of the people. According to Denise Austin, the American fitness instructor “I love walking for fitness. It is one of the best ways to push your metabolism, burn some fat and calories, and improve your immune system. I try to walk 10,000 steps every day. It equals about 5 miles. So get out there and walk; you’ll feel so much better.”(Most Asked on Google)

Blue Zones Diet

The diet of the people inhabiting the blue zones is strictly plant based wholefood diet. As the blue zones are located in different parts of the world, their staple food varies from place to place. For instance, the Icarians eat Mediterranean diet while the Okinawa plant based diet includes a lot of soy based foods. Their staple food is purple-fleshed sweet potato. The Nicoya diet, on the other hand, includes black beans, squash, eggs, fruits and corn tortillas. Compared to others, their diet includes the most eggs, meat and corn. As for the people of Loma Linda, they are mostly religious and hence eat a strict vegan healthy diet.

Though the healthy plant based diet refers to a diet where most of the foods are derived from plants, it consists of different options such as typical vegan diet, fruitarian diet and vegetarian diet. The diet of the most of the blue zonians can be said to be largely Flexitarian. In a flexitarian diet people not only eat lots of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, oils, whole grains, legumes, and beans but also meat, fish and other animal products moderately. Here is a look at the plant based diet foods eaten by the people in the blue zones:

Seasoned fruits, garden vegetables, beans and whole grains dominate their plant based meals
Leafy greens include spinach, beet and turnip tops, kale, collards, and chard
Green extra-virgin olive oil
Whole grains include oats, barley, brown rice, maize nixtamal, and ground corn
Locally sourced and organically raised fruits and vegetables
Water, black coffee, green tea / herbal tea (rosemary, oregano, or sage), and red wine
Pickle or dry the surplus vegetables they get
Beans, greens, yams, sweet potatoes, fruits, nuts, and seeds are mostly preferred
A cup of beans such as black beans, kidney beans, lentils, pinto beans, garbanzo, white beans and soybeans is the superfood that enrich their daily diet
Fennel, kombu and wakame (seaweed), potatoes, squash, sweet potatoes, yams, wild greens shiitake mushrooms are their superfoods in vegetables
Fish and meat used as a celebratory food or to flavor dishes
Free range meat or meat from free roaming animals is used for consumption
Bananas, papayas, plantains, peach palms, avocados, bitter melons, and tomatoes are their superfoods in fruits
Two handfuls of all kinds of nuts are eaten daily
Feta cheese and Pecorino cheese are their superfoods in dairy products
Small, common and abundant fishes such as sardines, anchovies, and cod are preferred
Processed food, artificial preservatives, sugar sweetened beverages, and salty snacks are avoided
Cow’s milk and dairy products are used bare minimum
Sour dough or 100% whole grain bread is favoured
Garlic, honey, milk thistle, turmeric, and Mediterranean herbs are used as sweeteners and also for seasoning

Blue Zones Eating Pattern

The blue zonians follow the 80% rule where they stop eating food once their stomach is 80% full. Unlike others who eat until they are full, the blue zonians stop eating when they feel no longer hungry. So instead of eating food rapidly, which can result in eating more food, they enjoy the food by eating slowly. They also use small plates to reduce their food intake. This way of eating food prevents them from eating more calories and they would feel full for a longer period of time. Studies have proven that the hormones that make you feel full would take around 20 minutes after you eat to send the signals to the brain.

The people of blue zone make breakfast their largest meal and dinner their smallest meal. And most of the people have early dinner. Besides, being religious, they also do religious fasting which can be fasting certain hours a day, certain days a week, or a few consecutive days a month. This eating pattern is more or less similar to intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern where the eating window is reduced at your convenience. The intermittent fasting plan can be done in three ways: alternate-day fasting, periodic/whole-day fasting and time-restricted feeding. Also known as eat-stop-eat diet, in alternate fasting, you fast on one day and eat on the next day. Periodic/whole day fasting also referred to as 5:2 diet or the Fast Diet, you fast for 2 days a week and eat for 5 days. However, the best fasting diet for weight loss is time restricted feeding or popularly known as 16:8 diet where you fast for 16 hours and eat for 8 hours.

Blue Zones Fitness

The people of blue zones do not hit the gym, run marathons, or do high intense cardio. Their physical activity can be best explained as NEAT – Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. These are low intense physical activity done by performing everyday routine work. This includes yard work, garden work, housework, and walking or biking to work, school, shopping, restaurant or to socialize. As Dan Buettner points out “Exercise, from a public health perspective, is an unmitigated failure. The world’s longest-lived people live in environments that nudge them into more movement. They don’t use power tools, they do their own yard work, they grow a garden. Walking is the only way proven to stave off cognitive decline – it works.” (Skylertanner.com, 2011)

The blue zonians move around every 20 minutes but this is done not as part of any exercise. They move naturally as they have one thing or the other to be done inside the home, in the garden or yard. They always enjoy doing the physical work and never consider it as a chore. And walking is something that they have incorporated into their daily schedule. When they are walking for health, they always walk in groups. They are of the opinion that walking and talking help them in making strong social connections and also in reaping the benefits of walking. Denise Austin says, “I see people who are always in their cars, always driving. I encourage them to walk more – walk to the post office, walk to lunch. Even if it is a 10-minute walk, it’s so good for you.”(BrainyQuote)

The people of blue zone believe in gaining fitness through their healthy plant based diet and doing physical activities. Therefore, the magic of dietary pills, serums or supplements have no effect on them. According to Cameron Diaz, an American actress and the author of The Longevity Book “I believe you should really try to get most of your nutrition from your food and not supplements — especially if you are not paying attention to what you are eating because you feel like you are getting it from a pill. You have to be aware. I don’t want to give anybody permission not to be engaged with their own body.”(Blue Zones, 2016)

Living the Lifestyle of the Blue Zones

You can stay healthy and live a long life by mimicking the lifestyle qualities of the healthiest people in the world into your own lives. For that you need not live in any of the blue zone areas. The blue zone solution holds the key to acquire the blue zone longevity and health, which can be encapsulated as:

Eat daily vegetable based meals with beans as the staple food
Drink lots of water and avoid sugar sweetened beverages
Avoid meat or use it as a condiment or celebratory food
Replace dairy products with its alternatives. For instance, soy, almond, coconut milk in place of cow’s milk, and Pecorino cheese, Greek feta instead of cheese
Use fish and eggs occasionally
Use sourdough breads or 100% whole grain bread namely wheat, rye and barley
Have all kinds of nuts as mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks
Volunteer your time for social and community activities to keep off stress and other mental issues
Find and nurture your purpose in life that motivates and pushes you
Find a new hobby or join a community group like a book club, a walking club or a gardening club
Spend quality time with your friends and family members
Whether walking for health or walking for weight loss, take walking exercise with your friends, walk 5 minutes each hour and 1 long walk every 30-40 minutes
Move naturally throughout the day
Boost your happiness quotient by making new happy friends and by participating in activities that you enjoy
Get a good night’s sleep everyday
Practice mindful eating by eating food slowly without any distraction and stopping when your stomach is 80% full.
Adopt an intermittent diet plan to reduce your food intake

In the pursuit of happiness, you are leading a fast paced lifestyle with lots of stress. This eventually makes you tired and at the end of the day you would be physically and mentally exhausted. Practicing the blue zone lifestyle – intermittent fasting, plant based diet and weight loss walking – on the other hand, helps you achieve a happy, relaxed, fulfilling, long and healthy life.