This post is from staff writer April Dykman.
When the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, what will you toast to? Health? Long life?
Those are common toast themes, but simply clinking glasses and sipping champagne at the beginning of the year isn’t likely to lead to health and longevity.
I recently read an article about Sardinia, the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea southwest of Italy, that has one of the highest rates of centenarians in the world. National Geographic refers to areas where people commonly live to be over 100 years old as Blue Zones. These are the five identified Blue Zones:
- Sardinia, Italy
- Okinawa, Japan
- Loma Linda, California (specifically, a group of Seventh-day Adventists)
- Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica
- Icaria, Greece
The article I read focused specifically on certain villages in Sardinia where inhabitants live to 100 years of age at a rate more than twice the average for the rest of Italy and are less likely to be afflicted with diseases that often kill people in other parts of the developed world. What is their secret to long life? Is there something in the water?
Lifestyles of the 100+
It turns out that the secret isn’t in the water, but rather in the wine. National Geographic writer Dan Buetter, who explored three Blue Zones, found that in Sardinia wine is made from the Cannonau grape, which has the highest antioxidant levels of all grapes — 5 to 10% higher than in all other red wine grapes. The grape produces a full-bodied wine full of plum, blackberry, fig, and a dark chocolate finish. The dark wine is referred to as nero vino by Italians, which means black wine.
Another Sardinian secret to longevity is a Mediterranean diet, which consists of olive oil, legumes, vegetables, and very little meat. The centenarians Buetter studied ate the following foods:
- Carta de musica — A thin, whole wheat bread that is high in vitamin D
- Leavened bread — vitamins and lactic acid kills harmful bacteria in the digestive tract
- Fava beans — High in fiber as well as folate
- Pecorino — A cheese made from milk from grass-fed sheep that is high in omega-3 fatty acid
- Nuts — Specifically hazelnuts and almonds
Buetter traveled to two other areas — Okinawa and Loma Linda — to study the diet and lifestyle of groups with high rates of centenarians. In Okinawa, he found that those who lived past 100 reported feeling little “time urgency,” and included turmeric in their diet. In Loma Linda, they had a healthy social circle and ate a lot of nuts.
All three Blue Zones he studied share the following diet and lifestyle characteristics among centenarians:
- Family relationships and social ties are given high importance
- Non-smoking
- Diet is primarily plant-based and rich in legumes
- Constant, moderate physical activity
So what does any of this have to do with personal finance? What struck me as I read the article is that the secret to health and longevity isn’t very expensive. The pecorino can be bought for less than $2 for 3 ounces, and the wine, probably the most expensive food item on the list, runs about $14-$17 a bottle. Heck, quitting smoking saves you money — money you can spend on another bottle of Cannonau di Sardegna!
Part of reaching the ripe old age of 100+ might have to do with good genes, but you can always up your odds. Science backs much of what Buetter learned about the lifestyle of a centenarian. For example, TIME reported one study that showed the importance of a strong social network (in real life, not on Facebook!) when they pooled data on more than 300,000 men and women and found that those with poor social connections had 50% higher odds of death in the study’s follow-up period. As for smoking, a diet rich in veggies, and moderate exercise, they’re kind of no-brainers.
The fact of the matter is that you don’t need to spend big bucks on the supplement-of-the-moment that promises a healthy, long life. If we can learn anything from Blue Zone centenarians, it’s that a simple life of good company, moderate exercise, and eating a plant-based diet is a lot more effective. Add to that a bit of one of my favorite cheeses paired with a full-bodied red wine, and that’s a recipe for long life that I can toast to!
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Thanks for the tips! Hopefully, I will be one of those centenarians!
However, if I take care of myself and live a long life, I’d better be prepared financially!
Time to start making some passive income!
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Excellent! Why should I live this short stressful unhealthy lifestyle? Wine, cheese, less meat, more veggies, moderate activities, and good companies are definitely in the plan for me.
The poor social connection is a huge surprise for me. That’s good to know.
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I don’t think I can start drinking wine- I take turmeric and ginger every day perhaps that will cover the anti-oxidants. I will also buy some pecorino- I don’t eat much cheese but I can certainly get pecorino and use it. I’ll let you know if I make it to 100(in about 40 years)
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Good wine, Good food, Good friends (relationships) that is what life is about. Anyone who has been blessed with all three has something worth living for
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Very interesting article! Hopefully other antioxidants work as well as the wine, because I’ve never been able to bear the taste of alcohol; it just tastes like some kind of industrial chemical to me.
I do love cheese though.
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This is an eyeopener for me. The diet and moderate excercise is a no-brainer. But, a certain wine and specific foods is new.
Thanks for sharing!
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Nice article April—
I’m surprised by the number of people that still are unaware of the benefits related to an Italian/Mediterranean style diet. Especially the wine part! I always thought it was common knowledge.
I guess growing up that way, I probably took it for granted. Thanks for passing along this valuable information!
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I guess in Sardegna – Sardinia for you – they also eat a lot of fish, giusto?
Too bad I can’t drink wine. It disgusts me.
Tip: if you want to eat pecorino, or any kind of Italian cheese (which is all great), make sure it’s the real thing and not some imitation (like Parmesan instead of Parmigiano). Italian specialty foods are marked “DOP”.
Happy new year
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HA! I live in Nicoya, Costa Rica.
Thanks to JD and the staff for providing the knowledge to make it not only a long one but a financially prosper one
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wine rocks, except when it doesn’t. as a breast cancer survivor and former wine lover, i was surprised to learn that even one 5-oz glass of wine a day raises a woman’s chances of getting breast cancer. that risk is raised by 10% if a woman drinks two glasses a day. wine drinking for women is highly discouraged by medical professionals. as this link indicates, it’s the flavonoids and antioxidants that protect our heart, not the alcohol, so women should drink alcohol-free red wine or even grape juice, for that matter.
http://breastcancer.about.com/od/riskfactorsindetail/a/alcohol_risk.htm
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I am still amazed at all the talk of the “Mediterranean diet”. Anyone who has ever been to Italy or Greece will see that meat and pasta are eaten in large quantities, and most people in Greece these days are overweight!
The secret to a long, healthy life is everything in moderation.
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I have to admit that I am torn over this post. Some of these tips are just plain common sense. But I disagree fundamentally with the concept of “copy this group of people and you can live to be 100 too!” Taking the Mediterranean diet out of the Mediterranean is not a guarantee of a longer life. Italians have a strikingly different lifestyle than Americans, beyond just what they eat and drink. Italians tend to dedicate more time to eating the meal than Americans. There is no rush. It is common for a meal to last several hours. Its common practice to take walks with your family and friends to the main town square in the evenings in Italy, instead of watching the new episode of Glee. Their working life is a night and day difference from what we are used to in the Unite States. Simply adopting a healthier diet without addressing work-place stress probably isn’t going to get you to 100. I bet if you look at the living situation of most of these centenarians you would find that they live with their children, and their grand-children, rather than in their own house, or in a retirement community. And as far as constant moderate activity, they really mean constant. There have been several studies conducted that show that people who have desk jobs and sit for 8 hours a day, even those who are active by American standards (i.e. go to the gym and run 4 miles a day or lift weights) statistically will die at a significantly younger age than people who stand at their jobs 8 hours a day. This is completely independent of diet, smoking vs. non-smoking, active vs. in-active, etc.
And I’m sure if you were to look in depth at the lifestyle of those living on Okinawa or the community in Costa Rica you would find striking differences. Sure all the commmunities eat a lot of veggies. But those veggies are different depending on what grows naturally in each area. I think its most important to eat local and in-season. It ensures you are getting the nutrients (and antioxidants) that your body needs for the current climate conditions. Not sure what veggies and fruit are actually in season in your area? Join a CSA, which will deliver locally grown, in-season produce to your door once a week.
I like the spirit of this article. There are always things we can do to be a healtier, happier community of people. However, this definitely has the air of being a silver bullet solution for our cronically unhealthy country.
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My grandmother just turned 100. How did she do it? Moderate daily exercise (she was taking water aerobics 3 times a week and walking to the store almost everyday)
Balanced diet that was not too high in calories. She’s always cooked with butter and cream just never ate a lot of what she cooked.
Strong family and social ties — she has family nearby who look in on her everyday or so plus a circle of elderly girlfriends.
Moderate use of alcohol and caffeine — every meal is completed with a cup of coffee and she enjoys a glass of wine (or a shot of vodka) when she’s having dinner with friends and family.
No supplements, no shortcuts, no magic bullets. It’s the entire package — her lifestyle plus her genetics — that got her to 100.
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Not to rain on this parade, but the traditional Okinawan diet consists of significant amounts of pork and yams. Not so much on the legumes.
The Sardinians also eat a fair amount of meat (read some *wild meat at nearly every meal) and tend to eat the entire animal. We Americans eat only the lean meats and miss out on the benefits of the organs and bones, not to mention how much healthier wild meat is to farmed meat.
If people are interested in further following this discussion Mark Sisson at Mark’s Daily Apple recently did a series of articles looking at longevitiy and quality of life of hunter/gatherers and other similar lifestyles (Okinawan).
JD being a crossfitter may have been introduced to the Paleo diet already, but if any are unaware of it; look it up to at least get the other side of the story.
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Great article, April!
I personally studied the blue zones a few months ago and did notice the striking contrast between our common North American lifestyle and that of their own.
What truly stood out to me was that very-same fact: their diets, forms of physical activity, and mediums of socializing are quite cheap-to-free, shattering much of our ill-conceived notions about having to be of “wealth” in order to live a lifestyle that is TRULY rich!
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$2 for 3 ounces doesn’t seem particularly cheap to me – that’s over $10 per pound. You can get mass market cheese for $2 for 16 ounces on sale; you can get broccoli for $1 per pound. Even Salmon (here in Seattle) is less than $10/lb…
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We don’t eat pasta and pizza every day, contrary to popular belief.
Katelyn:
Italians tend to dedicate more time to eating the meal than Americans. There is no rush. It is common for a meal to last several hours.
At marriages or reunions maybe!! We spend maybe half an hour for dinners and lunch breaks are one hour max.
Its common practice to take walks with your family and friends to the main town square in the evenings in Italy, instead of watching the new episode of Glee.
No, not Glee. Worse programmes. Walks to the town square? In the summer week-ends maybe.
Their working life is a night and day difference from what we are used to in the United States.
Actually office hours are 1 hour a day longer than in the US, since we work 9 to 6 (plus extra time).
It’s 6:40 pm here, my boyfriend has finished working 10 minutes ago and since he’s a commuter he’ll be home at 8. We’ll have a quick meal, then he’ll collapse out of tiredness on the sofa and maybe we’ll watch a DVD.
Stereotypes die hard, huh?
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More magical thinking! What you eat and drink may or may not mean you live a long life. There is so much we have no control over — who decides to drink and drive; whose Christmas tree goes up in flames with whom trapped inside; get some of that healthy and frugal exercise with your bike, hit a slick spot and break your neck, etc., etc., etc.
The notion that eating right and exercising conveys some protection against disease is equally magical thinking. Autoimmune disease strikes in many families, and often in families without known autoimmune disease. Infections with a wide variety of bacteria and other microorganisms can hit anyone, no matter how wonderful their immune system is. Cancer strikes in families without any known familial links.
The problem with this magical thinking is that many,many people then move on to the notion that if you get sick it is your own fault, since obviously if you had been eating right and exercising, you would live to 100!
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These studies are mildly interesting but I always wonder how much of what creates these long lifespans is actually genetic.
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People are always looking to live longer. Seek quality instead – which you have a greater chance of achieving and it’s much more predictable then a longer life.
Then… a longer life is not as important since you’ve done what you need to do on this earth before your is time is over. To leave in peace and with a purposeful life should be enough as a human being.
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Cool. However, I spent a month on the Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica and I’d say they don’t eat very much in terms of vegetables at all. They also don’t drink much wine. They really don’t have all that much money. What they do have is a lot of really happy people, a good climate, and a lot of fruit that is free (just pick it from the trees!).
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(Oops, I realized I wrote “marriages” instead of “weddings”, sorry.)
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Hmmm… interesting enough to comment about: my grandfather, a retired Army Colonel who exercises everyday, received prostate cancer treatment in Loma Linda. It was by far the healthiest he’s ever eaten – vegetarian, high in good fats, lots of veggies, etc. Probably very similar to the Mediterranean diet! I wonder if this is a community thing?
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@SLCCOM #18, it is not at all “magical thinking” to accept that a healthy diet and moderate exercise can help prevent disease. Most diseases occur with greater frequency in overweight, inactive people whose diets are heavy in trans-fats, starches, and sugars.
@Andrea #3, antioxidant supplements may interact with each other and with other medications in ways that you don’t anticipate. It’s much better, according to the latest recommendations, to get antioxidants from food. And pecorino, I would bet, just happens to be the cheese most commonly made in Sardinia. Its virtues are not unique.
and @Steve #16, you wouldn’t sit and eat a pound of pecorino; it’s a condiment, like all the hard Italian cheeses.
I agree with many that studies of modern-day centenarians don’t really help most of us to rearrange our health priorities. Most of us won’t live to 100 even if we move to Sardinia and adopt the described “lifestyle.” No matter what we choose to do, we are all going to die eventually.
I do however agree with April that the takeaway from this study (and others) is that commonsense, nonmedical approaches to lifelong health are not necessarily expensive. Much less so, in fact, than adding a new prescription to your counter every five years.
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This is absolutely “supplement of the week” thinking. A National Geographic writer “exploring” blue zones is _no_substitute_ for large longitudinal studies which control for as many variables as possible.
That’s how we actually know that smoking causes lung cancer, for example.
It’s a good point that good health can be cheap though.
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There’s so much that you “can do” to extend your life. Ah, tumeric, wine, veggies, ad infinitum.
The best science I’ve read is the opposite, do nothing–i.e. Caloric restriction. Eat less, no matter what it is, and science seems to say that you’ll live longer.
http://www.calorierestriction.org/
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You might point out that people in Japan aren’t necessarily living longer. It’s just that their government doesn’t keep track of deaths very well.
I heard it on NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129992827
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I dont think you can lump Sardinia with all of Italy. Sardinia is and considers themselves very different than mainland Italy. My husband is Sardinian and we are living in Sardinia at the moment. There is even a small seperatist movement that exists in Sardinia. The lifestyle here is different – but it also depends on the job you have. If you work for a large company you are likely working 9-5/6, normal business hours. If you have your own store/business, you work from 9-1/130, close from 2-5 and reopen from 5-9. This is why people the conception of Italy shutting down and spending hours for lunch. Because the stores do close as well to accommodate. Lunch is the major meal of the day, but it is not always hours and hours. Sometimes it can be quick, sometimes if you choose you can sit and chat.
Also the pecorino that they talk about is a very specific kind coming from the sheep that graze and live in Sardinia. If you can get Pecorino Sardo or any kind of sardinian sheep’s milk cheese, you will never regret it.
While its true that the diet described here will lead to a longer lifestyle (and I’m talking about the people I’ve met or known here) Not everyone eats or lives this way. My husbands grandfather does; He is 85, drinks wine everyday (that he made) eats pecorino, still works at the farm everyday and likely will live to be 100 or more.
His wife however led a similar lifestyle and she died 6-7 years ago. Plus the diets change – There is a lot more pasta and meat being eaten than was probably eaten in the past. My mother in law serves some kind of meat at almost every meal. There are vegetables, but loaded with processed cheese, meat, and boiled to death. My husband is overweight and his mother is extremely overweight, as much as it pains me to say so, will likely NOT live to see 100.
I dont know if the results of the “blue groups” can be replicated. But i think the important take away is that live in moderation surrounded by people you love and love you will lead to a happy and hopefully long fulfilling life.
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I’m wondering how much genetics play a role. The people who I knew who lived to their late 90′s were all very short. Your heart doesn’t have to work as hard if you’re petite. I’m afraid I’m doomed being my height.
I also agree with Katelyn that stress plays a significant role. Although modern day Italians (like Lily) may think they are just as stressed as Americans, those are most likely the city dwellers not the country folk.
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I like the topic here and have spent a good deal of my time looking at these Blue Zone regions. To me these folks live a simple life, focusing on relationships and really taking care of their bodies. Much different than the average American who is focused on acquiring things and getting ahead.
It boils down to a different way of living. One that may get you a second look or accused of not being “normal” – whatever the hell normal is today! Anyway, at our house we’ve been trying to slowly adopt as much of these learnings as we can. I encourage folks to read more about the 7th Day Adventists – I do not practice that religion but there is a wealth of good simple wisdom in how they live life.
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I have to get to that island! great post!
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Another good reason for me to stick with vegetarianism!
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I’m so glad to read on this site that alcohol consumption raises a woman’s risk for cancer. I’m not glad to know it’s true, just glad that the information is finally sinking in with the public.
My mom died of breast cancer at age 47; she and my dad would have a cocktail or two or three every night. Then tempers would get short. Wasn’t good for their relationship or her health. This was before the era of genetic testing. I have no idea what a BRCA genetic test would have revealed.
We lived on Okinawa for a while during my childhood, and one thing I know. It is a hilly island. Maybe all that walking up and down hills is good.
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My biggest weakness in losing weight is pasta! It is an every day fight for me!
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