The Blue Zones

This was a fascinating read. I love traveling, especially to places where the Western world has had less impact, so this book appealed to me. Having traveled widely, adventurer and expedition leader Dan Buettner set out to discover the areas of the world where people lived longer and more healthily than our average modern human being. 

On a map of the world, he circled five “longevity hotspot” areas in blue, which became known as The Blue Zones. While chronic disease is becoming increasingly common in the developed world, these Blue Zones communities experience low rates of chronic disease and live… show more.

The Blue Zones by Dan Buettner is a fascinating look at populations around the world with high concentrations of centenarians, including detailed interviews with these very elderly people, to learn what factors might explain their longevity and good health—what they eat and how they go about their daily lives.

I found it interesting and inspirational to get such an intimate peek into the lives of individuals from different cultures who have lived much longer than most of us can hope for.

Blue Zones inspired me to look deeper into the many connections between social interactions and longevity. It’s a delightfully researched tour of places where people live exceptionally long, from Italy and Japan to Costa Rica and Singapore. And although, as Buettner shows, diets do matter a lot for the health of the inhabitants of Blue Zones, it’s also their social habits that boost their chances of becoming centenarians. Since I now live in France I can see how the Mediterranean diet, for example, is not only about what you eat, but also how you eat: with others, enjoying your time… show more.

“Blue Zones” are places in the world in which people have unusually high longevity. Research into these regions has pinpointed nine factors they have in common, including nutrition and level of physical activity. This book shows how you can improve your health with some relatively simple adjustments to your lifestyle. It is notable that different cuisines in far-flung parts of the globe can each lead to extended longevity.

If you’re tired of getting whiplash from contradictory diet advice online, following fad diets, and taking health advice from social media influencers who get paid by the post, then this book will help make you fad-diet proof. In this book, you’ll meet the best possible health influencers you could imagine: people who live in the world’s so-called “Blue Zones”, who are 3xs more likely to live past age 100 without being burdened by the chronic diseases that afflict so many of us in the US.

At a time when our dietary preferences have morphed into tribal, almost religious identities, it… show more.