Blue Zones: 9 Lifestyle Factors Where People Live Longer

OK, so the Fountain of Youth is a fantasy. But how about a more practical and practicable reality? Would you like to add 10 healthier and more fulfilling years to your life?
(Who wouldn’t?) That’s what the Blue Zones™ Quest is about.

“Blue Zones” are small geographic pockets inhabited by the world’s longest-lived populations. Dan Buettner launched the Blue Zones Quests in 2005 to study and research these rare regions, and to share what they can tell the rest of us about how to live longer and better.

(The term “Blue Zones” is an accident of history: In a meeting with Italian colleagues in 2001, demographer Michel Poulain highlighted on a map, with a blue marker, the region in Sardinia where an exceptionally large concentration of centenarians lived.)

So far, Buettner and his team have explored two Blue Zones regions: Okinawa, Japan and the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica. Buettner has also written about two other Blue Zones: the Barbagia region of Sardinia, Italy and Loma Linda, California. In each of these regions, people reach age 100 at rates significantly higher than the rest of us, and on average live longer, healthier lives. They also suffer about one fifth the rate of heart disease and cancer found in America.

Analyses show that lifestyle habits play a greater role in increasing your chances of longevity than genetics. Diet, exercise, spiritual values, even mental attitude are important determining factors.

Based on the Blue Zones research, nine key factors can help produce the same positive results for many of us. They are:

Stop eating when you’re 80 percent full
Eat more veggies, less protein and fewer processed foods
Drink red wine, in moderation
Have a sense of purpose in life
Maintain a spiritual or religious belief system
Work less, slow down, take vacations
Make physical movement a vital part of each day
Create a healthy social network
Make family a priority