Have you ever heard of the ‘blue’ zones?
There are just five of them on the planet and if you haven’t heard of them, maybe you should.
They are regions where the inhabitants have low rates of chronic disease and high life spans, and they have been studied extensively in the hope of replicating their lifestyles.
They are located at Icaria in Greece; Ogliastra, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica; and Loma Linda, US.
The first blue zone was identified in the town of Ogliastra, Sardinia, and the area has 10 times more centenarians per capita than the US.
Common factors
There are several common factors across each zone. They eat a diet rich in fruit and vegetables, whole grains, nuts and legumes. They also eat a sensible amount of calories, hardly any processed foods and exercise regularly. However, there are a few differences as well:
- Loma Linda has a high population of Seventh-Day Adventists who are vegetarians, don’t drink and don’t smoke.
- Icarians drink the occasional red wine, but also fast often due to their religious beliefs, and drink goats milk over cow’s milk
- Ogliastrans live an isolated life and grow and harvest their own food, eating the classic Mediterranean diet
- Okinawans almost all have their own gardens and have a diet high in soy
- Nicoyans’ water is high in calcium and have a diet high in squash, corn and beans.
Other common factors include a highly integrated society with strong social connections, low or no alcohol consumption and hardly any processed foods.
So what can we learn from the blue zones?
Well, most of it is a bit out of our hands unless you are happy to move to another country, learn a new language, considerably rewind your lifestyle and since the Oliagastrians also carry a genetic marker, get yourself some new genes.
What you can do
What you can do is change your diet.
The benefits of a Mediterranean diet have been once again confirmed, especially for women. And the improvements are not even just a little bit.
A recent study by Harvard Medical School found women following a Mediterranean diet had a 23 per cent lower risk of early death.
The study followed more than 25,000 women for over 25 years and also found benefits for both cardiovascular health, reducing the risk of cancer and lowering the markers for diabetes.
“For women who want to live longer, our study says watch your diet,” senior author Samia Mora, MD, a Harvard professor of medicine and cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said in a statement. “The good news is that following a Mediterranean dietary pattern could result in about one-quarter reduction in risk of death over more than 25 years with benefits for both cancer and cardiovascular mortality, the top causes of death in women (and men) in the US and globally.”
So how can you follow the Mediterranean diet?
Start with some simple ‘swaps’. Enjoy your favourite fruit instead of dessert. Use more oil than butter and eat fish or chicken instead of red meat in a meal. You don’t have to give up bread, just try and make sure it’s wholemeal or has a lot of whole grains.
Other simple steps include:
- Make an effort to incorporate more vegetables in your diet, instead of meat and two veg, try three veg, or all veg.
- Choose your takeaways – plenty of places offer salads or vegetarian options these days, so buy those instead.
- Find some simple Mediterranean-inspired dishes and start learning to cook them. You may be surprised about the depth of flavour.
- Eat slowly. Give your brain the chance to catch up with the messages your stomach is sending that it’s full.
Have you heard of the blue zones? Would you consider changing your diet? Why not share your thoughts in the comments section below?
Also read: Should we be doing more to discourage drinking after cancer findings?
