Blue Zones: 9 Secrets of the World’s Healthiest 100-Year-Olds
- Kirstie Ganobsik
- Apr 25
- 3 min read
Updated: 18 hours ago
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100-year-old women and men in communities throughout the globe were interviewed and studied to find out their “secret to success” in living a long, healthy life.
Award-winning journalist Dan Buettner worked with National Geographic and a team of intrepid researchers to uncover how people thrived in some of the world’s longest-living hotspots, including:
· Okinawa, Japan
· Nicoya, Costa Rico
· Sardinia, Italy
· Ikaria, Greece
· Loma Linda, California
Here are the 9 secrets of the world’s ‘Blue Zone’ communities.
1. Live a life of purpose.
According to Buettner, people with a sense of purpose live about 8 years longer than their non-passion-driven counterparts in these communities. The language of purpose is also part of their lexicon. For instance, the word for “why I wake up in the morning” is ‘Ikigai’ in Okinawa and ‘plan de vida’ in Nicoya.
2. Make stress reduction part of your routine.
From a daily happy hour to thanking the ancestors, people in Blue Zone communities add decompression tactics into their daily lives. This helps them manage and lower chronic inflammation—which is a leading underlying cause of many chronic diseases.
3. Enjoy a daily glass of wine.
Many people in Blue Zone communities partake of spirits each week, often with food and family present. Buettner says about 85% of people he researched who drank 1-2 glasses of (typically homemade) wine daily lived to be about 90-100 years old.
Not a drinker? A potentially heart-healthy ingredient found in the skin of the grapes used to make wine can be found in other foods too, including blueberries, grape juice, and cranberries.
4. Put your loved ones first.
Most of the time, energy, resources—and love—that Blue Zone residents have go into their partners and children. In turn, older adults are valued by their children, too, who see them as the wisdom keepers of their community.
5. Find time for faith.
While the particular brand of faith didn’t seem to matter, people in Blue Zone communities who attended services at least four times monthly lived 4-14 years longer than those who didn’t.
6. Enjoy a plant-based lifestyle.
About two-thirds of the foods consumed in Blue Zone communities were different types of legumes, green vegetables, nuts, and tubular-shaped fruits and vegetables. Just a small portion of people’s diet was meat: about 3-4 ounces, five times per month (on average).
Plant-based, whole foods are the rule—including lots of protein-rich, nutritionally dense beans. Other dietary do’s? Reduce dairy, slash sugar, drink mostly water, and eat 90-95% plant-based foods.
7. Center social support.
People in Blue Zone communities keep their circles of friends close, and they actively engage to help support each other’s healthy habits.
8. Get your exercise from life.
Going to the gym isn’t on the to-do list of many Blue Zone residents—but things like gardening, walking to social activities, and doing their own yard work are. People are rarely sedentary for long. Instead, they avoid the couch potato life and move every 20 minutes or so.
9. 80% is enough.
Hara hachi bu is an ancient Confucian saying used by people in Okinawa, Japan. It means stop eating when your stomach is about 80% full. The other Blue Zone communities also have strategies to avoid overeating, including chewing slowly, turning off distractions like TVs or phones, and eating meals socially with family and friends. In all the blue zones, breakfast is the biggest meal of the day—and dinner is the smallest.
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