Blue Zones: is diet really the key?

I was reading Sarah Wilsons blog – and she mentioned research being done in Blue Zone areas.  Of course, I Googled; because it was a term I was unfamiliar with. 

According to Wikipedia, Blue Zone is “a concept used to identify a demographic and/or geographic area of the world where people live measurably longer lives, as described in Dan Buettner's book, "The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from people who lived the longest." 

Phew, what does this mean?  That, in certain parts of the world, people live for longer. 

These places are:

Sardinia in Italy: the Islands of Okinawa in Japan, Loma Linda in California: (Seventh-day Adventist ), Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica and  Ikaria in Greece.  

In particular, the Island of Ikaria has the highest percentage of 90 year-olds on the planet and a 20% lower rate of cancer, 50% lower rate of heart disease and almost no dementia.

Now, Sarah is a huge advocate for the Paleo diet – lots of red meat and animal proteins, vegetables and limited bread and sugars. She has her own version of it that suits her health issues, with no grains or alcohol or sugars at all.

Peter D’Adamo is the author of the Blood Type diet, an interesting concept I 'sort-of' follow. I found it interesting that my blood type, A -, should be a vegetarian, which I am, but not because he said so. The things that D’Adamo says I should not eat are the foods I know upset my digestion.  Go figure. He also advocates that certain foods cause ongoing health issues and may trigger certain diseases.

There is a great deal of support for the Mediterranean diet too.  Eat like the Greeks: most - fresh veges and fruit, grains, legumes, fish, wine, less – cheese, chicken, eggs, olive oil, limit - red meat and sugar.

Now, if you ask me, the places where long life is expected have great diversity between their diets.  You have your vegan Seventh Day Adventists, your Mediterranean Sardinians and Ikarains, your low calorific eating Okinawans (where yellow and green veges dominate and most natives are low in their BMI) and the Chorotega diet of beans, rice and vegetables three times a day for the Costa Ricans. 

So, where are the similarities, for those of us who would like to live longer, healthier, and presumably happier lives.

Buettner has identified the following:

©      Active lifestyle- just keep busy

©      Purposeful outlook — have clarity about your role in life

©      Down shift on stress

©      Eat to 80% full

©      Plant slant — meat as a condiment

©      The occasional glass of wine

©      Belong to a community – lots of social engagement

©      Loved ones first

©      Right Tribe — have a social circle that promotes healthy lifestyle

©      No smoking

©       Legumes  - beans, beans, beans

©      Limit sugar

So, my personal check list for the above is not too bad; I have to work on the stress bit, love the idea of the wine! Sugar- hmmm does chocolate count?

It seems to me that it is not so much what you eat, but your total attitude to life and how you live it (inherent in  places of longevity through circumstance, not through premeditated decision making). 

Western Society, in so many ways, seems toxic. Not only the pace of life, the shallowness of our lifestyles and consumerist culture, but also the way we purchase and eat food; wrapped in plastic, pesticide filled, homogenised, coloured, flavoured........

Even the plastics and rare metals in the products we use (tv's, foam couches etc) exude a small amount of vapour that we absorb, not to mention the chemicals we slather on our bodies in the name of cleanliness and beauty. 

Our judgement on other people, molded through the plethora of 'reality shows' and other forms of media; the way people treat each other in everyday life (just read the news, which I now shy away from) erodes our sense of community and harmony.  

I have a lot to think about; the purposefulness of my life, the clarity of my role in family and society and what will bring meaning to myself.  Perhaps I should mull it over with a piece of chocolate and a glass of wine.