These nine commonalities may help you live a longer, healthier and happier life.
People are growing older – and bolder – in “Blue Zones” where residents disproportionately live beyond 100, at rates up to 10 times higher than other places. Blue Zone residents from various cultures offer the rest of us insight into living longer, better lives.
And it’s a good bet that we will live longer than the generation before us. Recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that the life expectancies of both males and females are projected to increase over the next few decades.
Here’s what researcher Dan Buettner learned from Blue Zone residents. Chances are we can learn something, too.
Family comes first, which means keeping aging parents and grandparents nearby or in their home, committing to a life partner and investing in children with time and love.
It’s worth up to seven years of extra life expectancy, according to Buettner.
The world’s longest-lived people are born into, or choose, social circles that support healthy behaviors.
Each Blue Zone culture has low-intensity physical activity built into their everyday lives. Okinawans socialize and dine while seated on the floor, getting up and down dozens of times a day. Sardinians walk up and down cobbled streets to visit neighbors.
It’s vital to decompress the body and mind with downtime (even for just 15 minutes) to help ward off nearly every major age-related disease including Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular disease.
People in these zones eat their smallest meal in the late afternoon or early evening and don’t eat any more for the rest of the day.
Centenarians embrace a plant-based diet with plenty of vegetables and beans, including fava, black, soy and lentils. Meat – mostly pork – is eaten on average five times each month, with servings about the size of a deck of cards.
People in all Blue Zones (except Adventists) drink alcohol moderately and regularly, enjoying one to two glasses each day with friends and/or food.
Most of the centenarians interviewed by Buettner belonged to a faith-based community. Attending faith-based services four times a month can add four to 14 years of life expectancy.
Many of us want to live as long as possible. Consider:
Sources: New York Times Magazine; bluezones.com; nytimes.com; shiftyourfamilybusiness.com; girlboss.com; MIT AgeLab; cdc.gov; cnn.com; Cardinal & Gray Society; Hartford Funds, “The Quality of Life”; census.gov
