Member-only story
Revealed! The Real Secret to the Longevity of People in Blue Zones
The short version: fraud and lousy record-keeping
What do Okinawa, Sardinia, Costa Rica, and Hawaii have in common?
Why, they’re Blue Zones, of course — or at least, parts of them are. So are Icaria in Greece and Loma Linda in California. And as everybody knows by now — because there’s been so much research, press, cookbooks and lifestyle programs built on the concept —Blue Zones are places where people live healthier, happier, longer lives.
A lot longer: Blue Zones appear to have significantly more than their fair share of folks who are still going strong at age 100 or better. Sardinia, the first Blue Zone to be identified by Italian researchers in the 1990s, had 534 people age 100 or older as of 2021 — one Sardinian town, Perdasdefogu, had 13 times the average number of centenarians.
The wisdom goes that this enhanced length and quality of life comes down to a combination of lifestyle factors that we can emulate in our not-so-blue communities: a mostly plant-based diet, lots of physical activity, strong social connections, a sense of purpose, and low stress.
It would be easy to get the impression that if you just follow the Blue Zone principles, and…
