The Blue Zones Solution: by Dan Buettner | Key Takeaways, Analysis & Review

Blue Zones are regions of the world where certain communities have a higher proportion of centenarians living unassisted.

he elasticity of thought allows an individual to ignore menu options that they once would have found irresistible.

Creating an individual Blue Zone requires getting rid of junk food, finding more occasions to move and walk, finding a cause in the community, and strengthening relationships with healthy friends

Another challenge of bringing a Blue Zone to the US is the difficulty of converting the average fast food consumer to home cooking

hey wisely chose an economic incentive that allowed restaurants to create healthier food in smaller portions and still turn a profit

Developing a Blue Zone in a less healthy region involves expanding biking and walking trails, slowing automobile traffic, reducing stress, redesigning restaurant menus, teaching people to cook, and developing close relationships between people committed to their health

Developing presence of mind, whether through prayer or a religiously unaffiliated reflection process, appears to be very important to the human body.
Buettner focuses on the likelihood that religious services bring communities together to share their ideals and connect to each other, things that have plenty of scientific basis in stress relief and developing bonds of trust. He adds that the services need not be religious, providing an incentive for atheists and agnostics to attend a non-religious service like those held by ethical societies, humanist groups, Unitarian Universalist churches, and newer atheist churches and services.

In addition, diets with a high consumption of processed meat risk exposure to carcinogens, and by their nature have higher levels of cholesterol and fat intake. Another advantage of beans and legumes over meat for people who grow their own food is that plant-based protein sources are easier to grow than livestock, and it stores longer in varied climates

People in Blue Zones primarily eat locally grown, fresh produce. Beans and legumes are strongly correlated to long life. Meat oriented diets have the opposite correlation

workout, if the rest of the day is spent sitting, the risk of developing heart disease and cancer is still high, as a recent study found [1].