The discovery of the blue zones, regions where people live the longest and healthiest lives, can be attributed to Dan Buettner, an adventurer, National Geographic Fellow, and acclaimed author of multiple New York Times bestsellers.

The blue zones originated from the groundbreaking research of Gianni Pes and Michel Poulain, as documented in the Journal of Experimental Gerontology. Their work initially focused on identifying areas with an unusually high concentration of male centenarians, with Sardinia, Italy, emerging as a prominent example.

Pes and Poulain marked these longevity hotspots on the map with concentric blue circles, designating the area inside these circles as the “blue zone.” Building upon this demographic research, Dan Buettner further explored other regions around the world with similar traits of longevity and health.

These extraordinary places —Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece; and Loma Linda, California—are home to the world’s longest-living and healthiest communities. Learn more about the original blue zones here.

After discovering the five original blue zones, we assembled a team of medical researchers, anthropologists, demographers, and epidemiologists to search for evidence-based common denominators among all of these extraordinary places. We found nine—we call these the Power 9®.

We distilled more than 150 dietary surveys of the world’s longest-lived people to discover the secrets of a longevity diet. These 11 simple guidelines reflect how the world’s longest-lived people ate for most of their lives. Learn more about the Blue Zones Food Guidelines here.

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