Blue zone communities

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Blue zone communities

These are communities where people generally live longer than other populated areas of the world.

To qualify as a Blue Zone, communities have to have higher concentrations of centenarians, and be largely free of afflictions like heart disease, obesity, cancer and diabetes. They are generally healthier than other populations of people. There are a number of factors regarding diet and lifestyle that seem to be common amongst Blue Zone people, which I will discuss below.

The Blue Zone areas include the following:

Ikaria, Greece; Okinawa, Japan; Ogliastra Region, Sardinia; Loma Linda, California; and Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica.

Blue Zone Diet and Lifestyle.

While the Blue Zone's long-lived people don't all eat the same food, they have some features in common. This has always interested me because of the disagrrement amongst health advocates of different diets to optimise health.

1. Food choices:

I guess the most important aspect of food is eating what is locally available and fresh. A plant-based diet is very high on the list. This will generally be organic, locally-grown vegetables and fruit in season. Junk and refined foods are generally not available. This of course is changing now as cheap, processed, non-perishable foods become easily available. Longevity falls dramatically in those areas when food choices change, and when people move away from these Blue Zone areas to dense industrialized cities where food choices move to high-sugar and processed food diets.

Blue Zone people supplement their plant-based food choices with fish, extra virgin and fresh olive oil, 1 to 2 glasses of wine per day, a few cups of coffee per day, fruit in season, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds.

None of this is extra-ordinary. It seems like a pretty healthy balanced diet.

A very recent publication (2019) conducted by the Eat-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, Health, the review which brought together 37 experts from 16 countries who analyzed data from several studies, concluded that the best diet is one that is composed predominantly of whole plant foods, emphasizing fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. Animal-derived foods are not necessary and eggs, dairy and poultry are even termed 'optional' The diet recommended requires for many people a drastic reduction in consumption of unhealthy foods, including at least a 50% reduction in consumption of red meat and at the same time, a more than 100% increase in consumption of whole plant food.

Let's have a look at the various Blue Zone areas and check out the differences.

Ikaria, Greece: There is an emphasis on potatoes, goats milk, honey, legumes (especially garbanzo beans, black-eyed peas and lentils), wild greens, some fruit and relatively small amounts of fish. In addition to the above is feta cheese, lemons and herbs such as sage and marjoram that are added to tea. They do eat goat's meat but not often and certainly meat is not a daily food.

Okinawa, Japan: More Okinawans live to be 100 years than most other populations in the world. About 6,5 in 10 000 people live to 100, compared to 1,73 in 10 000 in the USA. Their diet includes bitter melons, tofu, garlic, brown rice, green tea, seaweed, turmeric, sweet potato, rice and shiitake mushrooms.

Sardinia, Italy: Good clean air plus locally-produced wine and local interaction seems to be what makes these Italians long lived. They also farm and move their goats and sheep regularly from the mountains down to the plains. Clearly goat's milk and sheep's cheese with sourdough bread, flat bread and barley make up a good part of their diet. The centenarians also eat plenty of fennel, fava beans, chickpeas, tomatoes, almonds, milk-thistle tea and wine

Lomo Linda, California: Interesting enough there is also a Blue Zone group in the USA. They are members of the Seventh-day Adventists who shun smoking, drinking and dancing and avoid TV, movies and other media distractions. Their diet is mostly plant-based.

Blue Zone research shows that adherents of the Adventist diet, which is mostly plant-based, have the lowest rates of heart disease and diabetes in the US and very low rates of obesity.

They also follow a 'biblical'diet focused on grains, fruits, nuts and vegetables, and drink only water. (Some of them eat small amounts of meat and fish.) Sugar is taboo. Most interesting to me is that pesco-vegetarians in the community, who ate a plant-based diet with up to one serving of fish a day, lived longer than vegan Adventists. Those Adventists who followed the diet lived 10 years longer than people who did not follow the diet. Their top foods include avocados, salmon, nuts, beans, oatmeal, whole wheat bread and soy milk.

Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica: The three main foods in this Blue Zone area are beans, corn and squash. Other foods of this area included papayas, yams, bananas and peach palms (a small Central American oval fruit high in vitamins A and C), rice, cheese and eggs.

Food choices however are not all that makes the difference. Blue Zone people move a lot, both at work outdoors, and within social circles with healthy behaviour patterns such as dancing, yoga and other movement practices. They form a close community which is de-stressing and protective and are committed to their families. Most of the communities drink alcohol daily but not excessively, that is 1-2 glasses of wine with friends and/or with food. Most drink up to 2-3 cups of coffee during the day.

Their diet is mainly plant-based with as much as 95% of daily food intake coming from vegetables, fruit, grains and legumes. They tend to avoid meat and dairy, as well as sugary foods and beverages. Eggs are eaten 2-4 times per week. Meat, when eaten, tends to be goat or sheep.

Blue Zone elders are recognized as integral to the community, so that there is a feeling of purpose and meaning, and this clearly brings with it a sense of belonging to a greater community. This attitude to the elderly gave them a sense of security, reducing stress levels enormously.

Blue Zone elders do not over-eat, especially those living in Japan. They stop eating when they are 80% full, and do not stuff themselves with food. They also do not eat too late in the day, eating the last meal in the early evening.

What are the lessons from the Blue Zone?

Firstly, that all the Blue Zone people did not eat exactly the same foods, but that most of them ate a predominant plant-based diet. Meat and dairy were not dominant in their diets and processed and junk foods were not available. Exercise, social support and general participation in the life of the community was important. Cold-pressed olive oil was available in some of the communities but was always used as fresh as possible and well-stored in a dark enclosure.

Inuits ate a very high-fat diet but lived 10 years less than the average Canadian; there is autopsy evidence that they have fairly extensive atherosclerosis, but do not suffer from serious cardiovascular disease.

Similarly, the Masaai living in Kenya and Northern Tanzania eat a diet consisting of milk, meat and blood and very little plant-based foods. Two thirds of their calories come from fat, and they consume 600-2000 mg of cholesterol per day. The Maasai do a lot of walking and are generally thin and tall.

While both the Maasai and Inuit eat a high-fat diet and tend to have a high normal cholesterol, neither group is in the Blue Zone category, and don't have a high proportion of people living to 100 years.