“Blue Zones” - Investigating the Diet to Live a Longer and Healthier Life
By: Samir Lohana
The modernization of the world has offered a multitude of new opportunities to allow for humans to express their creativity and ingenuity in ways that have advanced healthcare, technology, and finance. It has also created a more comfortable life somewhere basic necessities are covered for a larger proportion of people. While this change has been largely positive, the fast-paced and sedentary lifestyle that this revolution has brought has caused many to unintentionally engage in destructive health practices that have exacerbated the numbers of a variety of diseases such as diabetes, cholesterol, and blood pressure (Owen et al., 2010). Shockingly, the disastrous consequences of an unhealthy lifestyle for most Americans are starting to outpace the benefits of advances in healthcare as made evident by the steady decrease in life expectancy for Americans in the past few years. While this trend may coincide with the COVID-19 pandemic, heart disease and liver disease were also key factors in this drop. (Wolff & Schoomaker 2019). While it may be difficult to focus on one’s health and personal well-being in today’s busy world, five regions of the world today prove that healthy living can coincide with modern life. These five places are Loma Linda, California, Nicoya, Costa Rica, Sardinia Italy, Ikaria Greece, and Okinawa Japan. These “blue zones” of the world have the longest average life expectancy out of any place on this earth and healthy populations (Poulain et al., 2021). This article will discuss the similarities between the unique dietary choices that these regions make.
Figure 1. Geography of the five blue zones.
To begin, blue zone diets typically consist of whole, unprocessed foods with limited meat intake (Poulain et al., 2021). A large portion of the diet consists of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains. These foods provide a host of nutrients and vitamins that are critical for human health and longevity. In addition to this, the cooking methods of blue zone communities tend to preserve the integrity of the food, meaning that they do not process the food very much. Processed foods refer to the modification of agricultural products into various forms such as peanuts into peanut butter or oranges into orange juice. Often, food processing strips away the nutritional value of the foods, and what is left is mostly just “empty” calories, which are any foods that are artificially processed and contain mostly added sugars and unhealthy fats that lack vitamins or other important nutrients. This modification of food is not inherently negative, but it can be an issue when it is overdone and a variety of foods are not incorporated into the diet (Pagliali., 2020). Eating more unprocessed foods that are closer to their original state is a better option since the body can utilize those nutrients.
Often, food processing strips away the nutritional value of the foods, and what is left is mostly just “empty” calories, which are any foods that are artificially processed and contain mostly added sugars and unhealthy fats that lack vitamins or other important nutrients.
Additionally, processed foods have been associated with a variety of conditions such as obesity and neurodegeneration, due to the concentration of sodium and sugar in them (Pagliali et al., 2020). On top of this, due to these regions’ isolated histories, these communities have had to become self-sufficient and grow their own crops. As a result, even to this day, the crops that they harvest are largely organic and free of pesticides (Pes et al., 2022). There are a multitude of benefits to eating organically such as a larger concentration of antioxidants, lowered obesity risk, and more nutrition (Baranski et al., 2017).
Next, meat is not commonly eaten during meals in blue zone regions. Meat is known to have a high amount of saturated fats which contribute to high cholesterol levels and eventually heart disease (Bronzato and Durante 2017). On the other hand, processed meats are a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, meaning that there is ample evidence to support the fact that they can cause cancer in humans. This is alarming since this classification would place it in the same group as tobacco, which is widely known to be a cause of cancer (IARC). With these drawbacks of meat consumption in mind, it is sensible to reduce its intake to lower the risk of a variety of diseases. Plant-based diets have also been known to lower BMI, decreased risk of Type 2 diabetes, and reduced inflammation (Medawar et al., 2019).
There are a multitude of benefits to eating organically such as a larger concentration of antioxidants, lowered obesity risk, and more nutrition (Baranski et al., 2017).
Figure 2. “Life Expectancy of the US has decreased down to levels of the pre 2000s.”
As a whole, the general dietary trends across the blue zones emphasize a clean, whole, plant-based diet. A focus on these types of foods can greatly improve one’s health. Certain actionable methods to improve one’s diet can be shopping at a local farmer’s market or reducing meat intake to one meal a day. There are a multitude of ways to augment dietary choices, but it is important to start small in order to create a sustainable change for the long-term.
References
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Pes, G. M., Dore, M. P., Tsofliou, F., & Poulain, M. (2022). Diet and longevity in the Blue Zones: A set-and-forget issue? Maturitas, 164, 31–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.maturitas.2022.06.004
Poulain, M., Herm, A., Errigo, A., Chrysohoou, C., Legrand, R., Passarino, G., Stazi, M. A., Voutekatis, K. G., Gonos, E. S., Franceschi, C., & Pes, G. M. (2021). Specific features of the oldest old from the longevity blue zones in Ikaria and Sardinia. Mechanisms of Ageing and Development, 198, 111543. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mad.2021.111543
Woolf, S. H., & Schoomaker, H. (2019). Life expectancy and mortality rates in the United States, 1959-2017. JAMA, 322(20), 1996. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2019.16932
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Images
Dan, L. (2022). The blue zones: Lifestyle Habits of the world's longest-living populations. Fullscript. Retrieved February 25, 2023, from https://fullscript.com/blog/blue-zones
Lewis, T. (2022). The U.S. just lost 26 years' worth of progress on life expectancy. Scientific American. Retrieved February 25, 2023, from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-u-s-just-lost-26-years-worth-of-progress-on-life-expectancy/
