Welcome to Blue Zones!
What if I could tell you how to live another 10 years, as well as look younger and feel younger at every age? Something called the Danish Twin Studies established that less than 25% of how long the average person lives is dictated by genes. In other words, most of how long and how well you live is up to you.
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The premise of Blue Zones is: identify the optimal lifestyle of longevity and you have a de facto formula of longevity.
What is the optimal lifestyle of longevity? Does it involve diets? supplements? exercise programs? Should you be eating organic, free range chicken or tofu? And what about physical activity? Should you be running marathons or doing yoga?
To answer these questions, I teamed up National Geographic and hired the world's best longevity researchers to identify pockets around the world where people are living MEASURABLY better. In these Blue Zones we found people who reach age 100 at rates 10 times greater than in the United States, where people suffer a fraction of the rate of heart disease and cancer than we do and where people are getting the extra 10 years that we're missing.
Then, we took teams of scientists to each location who know how to identify lifestyle characteristics that may explain longevity. In Sardinia, Italy we found a wine with the world's highest-known levels of antioxidants, and in Ikaria, Greece we discovered ancient herbal teas that lower blood pressure. On the other side of the planet, we found an island where purpose and mutual support networks called Moai explain an extra half dozen years of life. In Nicoya, Costa Rica it's the mesoAmerican diet of beans, squash and a special corn tortilla that is propelling people into their 90's at rates 4 times greater than in the US. Finally, among Loma Linda's Seventh Day Adventists, we found America's longest-lived culture. They're living about an extra decade longer than the rest of us. How? Part of the reason comes from a diet inspired from the Bible. Genesis, Chapter 1, vs 26.
For the first time in living history, life expectancy of our children is projected to drop, as a nation we're getting fatter every year. Diabetes is on the rise. Is this because Americans are less disciplined? Have we undergone a moral degeneration or are we somehow inferior to previous generations? I don't think so. We are products of our environment. Every day, hundreds of marketing messages rinse over our psyches--many of them encouraging us to eat things that aren't good for us. Machines have engineered physical activity out of lives and networked electronics are replacing face-to-face human contact. We live in environments of sickness. The key to getting the extra 10 years we're missing is to follow the lessons from world's longest-lived people and create environments of health.
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How it Works
In my book, The Blue Zones, I reveal the secrets of the Power9: the nine common denominators that all of the world’s longevity all-stars share. Here at BlueZones.com, we've organized these behaviors into four main categories:
Move Naturally – Make your home, community and workplace present you with natural ways to move. Focus on activities you love, like gardening, walking and playing with your family.
Right Outlook – Know and be able to articulate your sense of purpose, and ensure your day is punctuated with periods of calm.
Eat Wisely – Instead of groping from fad diet to fad diets, use time-honored strategies for eating 20% less at meals. Avoid meat and processed food and drink a couple of glasses of wine daily.
Belong to the Right Tribe – Surround yourself with the right people, make the effort to connect or reconnect with your religion and put loved ones first.
This may all sound too simple, but the payoff is huge. The average American could live up to 14 more good years by putting these habits to work.
Get Started Right Now
To help you model your habits after the Blue Zones centenarians, we’ve created several tools, beginning with Vitality Compass
The Vitality Coach® uses the best behavioral science available to guide you in getting the most good years out of life. Six seconds a day for six weeks can add up to four years to your life expectancy, effectively making you biologically younger.
And each day at BlueZones.com, we offer fresh news and articles, digging up the most interesting research and healthy living tips.
To get started, click on the Vitality Compass tab and begin the journey to a younger you today.
Live Large,
Dan Buettner
Blue Zones Founder
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