When scientists searched around the world for people who were the healthiest and lived the longest lives, what they found changed everything they knew about health and nutrition. To their surprise, they found only a few places that shared any similarities. These places are called the blue zones, places where people live the healthiest and longest in the world. These places are Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy: Nicoya, Costa Rica, and Ikaria, Greece. What’s interesting about these places is that they are all located on small islands. These blue zones are also reported to have the least amount of illness and diseases than other parts of the world and have become important places for scientific research on health.

 

In blue zones, they have the highest number of centenarians in the world. Centenarians are people who are 100 years old or older. It is very rare for people to live past a hundred. For example, in America, only 1 in 20 lives to be 100. While in many of these blue zones, 1 in 3 lives to be 100 and older.

 

What also separates these people from others are their diets, habits, and physical activity. For instance, many of these people do not use cars or public transportation and instead walk to where they need to go. They eat very little meat and rely on a healthy diet of fresh fruits, vegetables, legumes, and fish. Compared to others who usually find their food at a local grocery store, blue zone residents find most of their food in their own gardens. Living in warm weather, blue zone regions are able to have their own gardens for most of the year and they are rich with a wide range of fruit, vegetables, and herbs. You might be thinking this is the reason that blue zone people are so healthy. But some of the residents have other health advice that many experts find strange. One example is in Ikaria,Greece, where the residents believe their wine is a way they live for so long. Most of the residents there drink around 2-3 glasses of wine everyday, way more than any doctor would recommend. In Sardinia, Italy, the people there drink three or four coffees everyday and put as much sugar in them as they like. However, what all people from the blue zones share as one of the most important ways to stay healthy is to stay active. In Okinawa, Japan, the old people enjoy diving for fish, or doing exercise on the beach in the sun. In fact in all blue zones, the old people spend plenty of time working in their gardens, walking as much as they can, and doing work on their own houses. Despite all these regions valuing the importance of exercise, they also think it’s just as important to relax and not take life too seriously.

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It is not diet and exercise alone that is keeping blue zone residents from living longer. One important factor for many of the residents of these islands is that they also have strong communities. It is common for them to meet with friends or spend time with family much longer than people from other parts of the world. They also spend less time on devices, like computers, TVs, and cellphones. What is most important are family dinners, going to church or temple, and attending events in the community like parties and dances. No one is lonely or left out of these communities, and everyone feels that they have a place and a purpose. These habits are not just proven to make people happier, but they also make people healthier. Some studies have shown that people who are more lonely live eight years less than those who have strong communities. It is not certain what is keeping people from blue zones to live so long, but it is becoming a way of life that is spreading all over the world.