Explorer, National Geographic Fellow, award-winning journalist and producer, and New York Times bestselling author Dan Buettner is the scheduled speaker for the New Albany Community Foundation’s Lecture Series scheduled for Feb. 22.
Buettner discovered the five places in the world, dubbed “blue zones,” where people live the longest, healthiest lives. Healthy New Albany sat down virtually with Buettner to talk about his research.
HNA: The concept of blue zones came from the demographic work outlined in the Journal of Experimental Gerontology. How did that research cross your path?
Buettner: It all started in the spring of 2000 when I was leading a series of educational projects called quests, in which a team of scientists investigated some of Earth’s great puzzles. I had heard about Okinawa’s unusual longevity a few years earlier and thought it would be a great quest to investigate what their secrets to good health and long life were. We spent ten days studying, exploring and summing up what we found.
At the same time, researchers Gianni Pes and Michel Poulain were identifying the regions in Italy with the highest concentration of male centenarians which they outline in the Journal of Experimental Gerontology that you mentioned. Together with Michel and Gianni, we broadened the term, applying it to validated longevity areas of Okinawa, Japan and among the Seventh-day Adventists in Loma Linda, California. Michel and I, under the aegis of National Geographic, then identified and validated longevity hotspots in Nicoya, Costa Rica and Icaria, Greece.
David Mclain
HNA: How or why did you come up with the term “blue zones?” Did you consider other alternatives?
Buettner: The term blue zones came about as the demographers we work with, Gianni Pes and Michel Poulain, began identifying the regions in Italy with the highest concentration of male centenarians. As they zeroed in on the cluster of villages in Sardinia, they drew circles on the map. The only pen they had was blue. Because of this, we began referring to these longevity spots as blue zones.
David Mclain
HNA: For people who don’t live in a blue zone, what lessons can they take from your research?
Buettner: There is not one key to longevity. The formula is to create a lifestyle and environment that makes the healthy choice the easy choice. This can be accomplished by implementing the nine principles that have been found in all five of the blue zones of the world. They are known as the Power 9.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 (in Greece) take a nap and Sardinians do happy hour.
- 80% Rule: “Hara hachi bu” – the Okinawan, 2,500-year-old Confucian mantra said before meals reminds them to stop eating when their stomachs are 80 percent full. The 20 percent 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.
- Plant Slant: Beans, including fava, black, soy and lentils, are the cornerstone of most centenarian diets.
- Wine @ 5: People in all blue zones (except Adventists) drink alcohol moderately and regularly. Moderate drinkers outlive non-drinkers. The trick is to drink one to two glasses per day (preferably Sardinian Cannonau wine), with friends and/or with food. And no, you can’t save up all week and have four to 14 drinks on Saturday.
- 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.
- 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 (this lowers disease and mortality rates of children in the home, too). They commit to a life partner (which can add up to three 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).
- 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 Heart Studies suggests that smoking, obesity, happiness and even loneliness are contagious. So, the social networks of long-lived people have favorably shaped their health behaviors.
HNA: How important is the role of environment, and can environmental factors be overcome through choices?
Buettner: Environment plays a major role in one’s health. There is not a pill for longevity or a fountain of youth, but only about 20 percent of how long the average person lives is dictated by our genes (internal), whereas the other 80 percent is dictated by our lifestyle and environment. Making the choice to set up your environment for health is the best step. This can be done by making small nudges across your personal life, home and office. Find a group of health-conscious friends, de-convenience your home so you are gardening and doing housework by hand, get a standing desk or do your meetings while walking, get a dog, and put fruits and vegetables on the counter in sight so the healthy choice becomes not only easy but unavoidable.
HNA: As part of the blue zones Project, your organization is helping to create healthy communities across the United States with positive results in Alberta Lea, Minnesota; beach cities in California; Spence, Iowa and Fort Worth, Texas. Will the project include any Ohio cities in the future?
Buettner: We’re currently working in 52 communities across the United States and Canada seeing wonderful results. I hope we can find a partner to bring a project to Ohio in the very near future.
Buettner: No, it is never too late to adopt a lifestyle that supports longevity.
HNA: What is your favorite meal?
Buettner: My grandmother Irene’s Sicilian pasta sauce, which takes all day to slow cook.
HNA: What is your biggest irrational fear?
Buettner: That there is a vampire in my closet.
HNA: If you could meet one person, dead or alive, who would you meet and what would you ask them?
Buettner: I’d meet Jesus. I’d like his opinion on my three bean minestrone.
HNA: What are three things you would have to have if you were on a desert island?
Buettner: An iPad with Wi-Fi, my favorite person and a Whole Foods Market.
The New Albany Lecture Series is an annual lecture and educational event series in New Albany, Ohio, featuring nationally and internationally prominent speakers. Organized by the New Albany Community Foundation since 2014, the series has brought leaders in public affairs, international affairs, health, history and the arts to central Ohio.
The lecture series’ upcoming Civil Discourse and Debate event will feature David Axelrod, CNN senior political commentator, and Chris Christie, New Jersey’s 55th governor, moderated by Colleen Marshall of NBC4, on Jan. 27.
For more information, go to www.newalbanyfoundation.org.
Brandon Klein is the editor. Feedback welcome at bklein@cityscenemediagroup.com.
