Blue Zone Diet: A Beginner's Overview, Review, and Analysis With Sample Recipes

Have you ever wondered how people manage to live up to over a hundred years old?

People like Kane Tanaka, who lived to be 116 years old, and Sodimedjo or Mbah Ghoto who was known as the 'oldest human being' at 146 years of age certainly thought that having lived a long, fruitful life was not just out of pure luck, and studies confirm this by attributing a healthy lifestyle to longevity, especially when it comes to how and what you eat.

On average, human beings are known to have a global life expectancy of around 70 years, and it has been this way since the 1900s. Nevertheless, inequality across, as well as within, countries remains to be quite large. As of 2019, it has been reported that the lowest life expectancy in a country is 53 years for the Central African Republic, with the highest being 30 years longer than that for Japan.

According to the Australian Department of Health, life expectancy, as well as longevity, is highly dependent on several factors, including but not limited to the following: socioeconomic factors; systematic factors such as accessibility of basic healthcare; health behaviors; social factors; genetics; and the environment in which a group of people may be situated.

A different study even went as far as suggesting that differences in chromosomes and hormones between females and males may also contribute to longevity, due to the presence of visceral fat, which is more common in males and is a key to predicting cardiovascular disease.

Ultimately, however, evidence has shown that two major factors affect the longevity of life: (1) genetics; and (2) lifestyle choices. Studies show that although as much as 30% of one's lifespan depends on genetics, longevity is mostly dependent on individual choices and behavior, nonetheless.

So, what does this mean and how do we make the right choices?

New York Times best-selling author, Dan Buettner, has finally discovered the key ingredient to living healthier and, in turn, living younger and better by visiting the places where people live relatively longer, publishing his findings and introducing Blue Zones to the world, the brainchild of his journey to this discovery.

• Whether there are certain patterns of behavior and ways of living practiced by those in certain countries that help their people live longer.
• If living healthier means resorting to extreme measures.
• The accessibility of living a healthier lifestyle.
• The feasibility of adopting ways favorable to longevity.
• Lifestyle sustainability.