I want to live until I’m AT LEAST 100 – if I’m still able to do yoga and drink wine!
Yeah, sure I want to be slim and strong now when I’m 41, but part of my reason for being health conscious is that I want to live a really awesome, vibrant life ’til I’m an old granny. You, too? Then continue to read.
I read these two books by longevity expert Dan Buettner. The dude researched extraordinarily long-lived people and communities – and found out their commonalities and the things that probably contributed to them living to be so old.
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Here’s the scoop!
The Danish Twins Study established that only about 20% of how long the average person lives is determined by genes. That means the other 80% you can control!
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Here’s the commonalities between the places in the world with the highest life expectancies or the highest proportion of people who reach age 100 directly from the Blue Zones website.
1. Move Naturally . The world’s longest-lived people don’t pump iron, run marathons or join gyms. Instead, they live in environments that constantly nudge them into moving without thinking about it. They grow gardens and don’t have mechanical conveniences for house and yard work.
2. Purpose. The Okinawans call it “Ikigai” and the Nicoyans call it “plan de vida;” for both it translates to “why I wake up in the morning.” Knowing your sense of purpose is worth up to seven years of extra life expectancy
3. Down Shift. Even people in the Blue Zones experience stress. Stress leads to chronic inflammation, associated with every major age-related disease. What the world’s longest-lived people have that we don’t are routines to shed that stress. Okinawans take a few moments each day to remember their ancestors, Adventists pray, Ikarians take a nap and Sardinians do happy hour.
4. 80% Rule. “Hara hachi bu” – the Okinawan, 2500-year old Confucian mantra said before meals reminds them to stop eating when their stomachs are 80 percent full. The 20% gap between not being hungry and feeling full could be the difference between losing weight or gaining it. People in the Blue Zones eat their smallest meal in the late afternoon or early evening and then they don’t eat any more the rest of the day.
5. Plant Slant. Beans, including fava, black, soy and lentils, are the cornerstone of most centenarian diets. Meat—mostly pork—is eaten on average only five times per month. Serving sizes are 3-4 oz., about the size of deck or cards.
6. Wine @ 5. People in all Blue Zones (except Adventists) drink alcohol moderately and regularly. Moderate drinkers outlive non-drinkers. The trick is to drink 1-2 glasses per day (preferably Sardinian Cannonau wine), with friends and/or with food. And no, you can’t save up all weekend and have 14 drinks on Saturday.
7. Belong . All but five of the 263 centenarians we interviewed belonged to some faith-based community. Denomination doesn’t seem to matter. Research shows that attending faith-based services four times per month will add 4-14 years of life expectancy.
8. Loved Ones First. Successful centenarians in the Blue Zones put their families first. This means keeping aging parents and grandparents nearby or in the home (It lowers disease and mortality rates of children in the home too.). They commit to a life partner (which can add up to 3 years of life expectancy) and invest in their children with time and love (They’ll be more likely to care for you when the time comes).
9. Right Tribe . The world’s longest lived people chose–or were born into–social circles that supported healthy behaviors, Okinawans created ”moais”–groups of five friends that committed to each other for life. Research from the Framingham Studies shows that smoking, obesity, happiness, and even loneliness are contagious. So the social networks of long-lived people have favorably shaped their health behaviors.
Awesome, right? I especially love the wine part – ha! The best part is that these kinds of lifestyle choices will also help you to drop weight now.
The website for the Blue Zones has some really cool tests on it, too. You can do an online quiz to find out any or all of these. Click here.
- biological age
- overall life expectancy (whoa!)
- healthy life expectancy
- years you’re gaining/losing because of your habits
Which of these things are you doing right now? And which might you work into your life so that you have a great chance of being a hot, vibrant geezer?
