Living in a blue zone is healthy living.
Have you ever been to a blue zone?
What is a blue zone?
Blue zones are places where people lead exceptionally long, happy, and healthy lives. Five blue zones have been identified worldwide: Okinawa (Japan); Sardinia (Italy); Nicoya (Costa Rica); Icaria (Greece); and Loma Linda, California (Seventh-day Adventists). I have just returned from the Nicoya, so I can tell you a few things about living in a blue zone. (You can join me there for a Wellness Adventure, January of 2016.)
Healthy living, blue zone healthy living, is simple and easy. You don’t have to go to Costa Rica or Greece, Japan or Italy, or even California to live the blue zone way. But it does require a shift in priorities.
The first thing you will notice in a blue zone is the people. And not just the old people, though in some blue zones, one out of three lives to 90 or older. The people in blue zones, old and young, engage you. They are friendly, caring, concerned about strangers, welcoming, kind, and, most of all, present. Their eyes twinkle. Their hearts are aglow. In every blue zone, people and family are more important than anything else.
Here is one example from my time in the blue zone. We looked for a goat dairy on the Nicoya Peninsula, both to satisfy my craving for goat milk cheese and yogurt – and to have these high quality foods available for the women attending the Wellness Adventure. First, the goatman delivered to us, then, we asked if we could visit. He named a day and said we needed to be there early as he had an appointment later. After many miles of bumpy roads, and fording a large river five times, we arrived.
The entire family was hard at work tending to the goats, chickens, and pigs. They all stopped to greet us with big smiles. They vied to show us around. After an hour, I thought we ought to leave, but they would have none of that. We must come inside and have coffee or fresh goat milk, and cheese toast, and home-made pastries. And talk. And meet each member of the family and hear about them: the goatman, his wife, and the five children. The time for his appointment came and went; the man he was supposed to meet called him on his cell phone and he replied: “Guests.” Nothing more needed be said. When we finally left, we were full of goat milk and good cheer, and carrying bags of beans to plant and to eat. Special beans. Blue zone beans.
Make your home a blue zone by putting family and friends first.
Yes, the bread was white bread, and the shortening was lard, but we were not offered soda pop, alcohol, or anything to smoke. These are things you rarely find in blue zones.
I believe your choice of a daily beverage is one of the most important aspects of staying healthy. Tea, whether herbal, black, or green, wine in moderation, sake, water, and coffee are the primary drinks of the blue zones.
Make your home a blue zone by offering nourishing herbal infusions with each meal and restricting access to sugary drinks, including fruit juices.
A vegetable-based diet is healthier than a vegetarian diet. The only meat-free blue zone is Loma Linda. All the other blue zone peoples eat some meat, and often a lot of fish. Eggs and full-fat dairy products are staples in blue zone diets, as are beans, which are often eaten at every meal in some form. If you have removed any food from your diet, you are limiting your health and vitality. My dinner plate consists of a well-cooked green, a cooked root vegetable, a dark orange or red vegetable, a whole grain, beans, and a small amount of meat or a generous serving of fish or a cheesy vegetable casserole. During the warm months, there is also a wild green salad.
Make your dinner table a blue zone by cooking and eating lots more vegetables.
Make your kitchen a blue zone by welcoming all types of foods into it.
Make your body a blue zone by eating meat no more than four times a week and eating fish four times a week or more.
And make your body a blue zone by moving more. Constant moderate physical activity is another key to healthy living and a consistent in the blue zones. In blue zones the primary means of travel is often by foot or horseback. Not only is this great for the body and superior for the mind, it sets and maintains a more human pace to activities. Impatience becomes rare. There is time to engage with nature and with one’s community, another characteristic of blue zones. People of all ages are socially integrated and important in both family and community in blue zones.
Make your neighborhood a blue zone by walking every day. Take a pretend dog for a walk if you can’t do it just for yourself. I depend on my Fitbit activity tracker to keep me moving. My daughter prefers her MisFit tracker. Don’t scoff; trackers work because you can no longer pretend to be active, you have to really do it.
And that’s the point. You have to make the choice to live a healthy life and then do it. Not for a day, but for the rest of your healthy life. “Being healthy is so much work,” complains my gym partner. It is. So we make it fun. One a month, after our workout, we go for a foot massage at the local foot spa. Heaven.
Live in a blue zone of your own making. You will live a longer, happier, and healthier life.
