How to Live to 100; Secrets of the Blue Zones
This month I had the pleasure of vising Sardinia, one of the two Blue Zones in Europe
I’ve know about the Blue Zones long before the Netflix series came out, but something that made watching it worthwhile is seeing with my own eyes these 80-100 year olds move like 60 year olds. You know the feeling of awe you experience when you see something that shouldn’t be?
I’ve decided to write this article to summarise the secrets from these centenarians, so you can access the wisdom easier. But if you want to see a 73-year-old doing muscle-ups (I can’t) – then you can also check out the series.
Blue Zone are
Places in the world with the highest concentrations of centenarians (people who live to 100 and more). There are five:
Sardinia, Italy
Ikaria, Greece
Okinawa, Japan
Nicoya, Costa Rica
Loma Linda, USA
What do they have in common? After watching the series and taking notes, I noticed five themes that they share.
Community
People who live to 100 belong to a community. In some places it is faith-based. But what I think is key is that you have friends and the feeling of a place you belong. On my walk to the post office today it made the impression on me how social the Turkish and Arab communities are in my neighbourhood. Even on a grey and rainy day like today, guys and girls bring chairs outside and sit and chit chat
In Loma Linda for example, there are many sports clubs for the elderly. I saw them playing basketball and pickleball (think lighter form of tennis.) It works both ways, not only are you moving but you are forming bonds around something fun for you.
Movement
Speaking of movement, the vast majority were not the gym type. Where moving came into their life is by doing things the old fashion way.
In Japan, people sit on the floor. This means that around 30 times a day, they stand up. This means they maintain the range of motion to squat. If you are young you probably take this simple movement for granted. The problem is if you don’t use it, you lose it, and in your later years this is key. My own great grandmother died from sustaining injuries during falls in her last years.
It’s not about going to the gym, this is hard for most people to integrate into their day-to-day. The secret they shared is about integrating a little movement whenever you can throughout your day. This could mean:
Walking instead of taking the car
Manually grinding your coffee instead of using an electric machine
Taking the stairs instead of the lift or escalator
We live in a global movement crisis. More and more people (myself included) spend the majority of their days sitting. At work we’re sitting. At home we’re sitting. The electric scooter hype is blowing up. Find times in your day you can carve out a little time for moving. It’s non-negotiable if you want to keep being able to move.
Eat Good
Something common within these five communities was that most of them are somewhat isolated from modernisation. This means that historically they have a culture which sustains itself from eating locally grown food. Naturally, what is grown is good. This means many are vegetarian but it’s no use having fresh ingredients if you don’t know how to cook it. Being able to cook your own food is a cornerstone to living a good life.
“What is grown is good”
What we eat is part of the story. The other part is how. In Okinawa they have a saying:
“Hara hachi bun me”
This roughly translates to 8/10. The idea being you should eat until you are 80% full. Digestion is one of the biggest consumers of energy, don’t eat more than you need. You are basically wasting energy which could be going into something more important to you, than simply being stuffed.
Purpose
A key concept to being alive a long time is having a reason to be alive. In Costa Rica, they call it Plan de Vida. You don’t need a translation for that but in their culture, it means something along the lines of:
“Why I wake up in the morning”
The Okinawan version of this is called Ikigai. It means “reason for being alive”. A good example of this comes from the series when we’re shown handcrafts man making wooden instruments. He feels what he is doing contributes to the world and that his simple craft will keep benefitting others, years after his death. Clearly, these old-timers are well beyond pension age, but they continue part-time work because even a little bit of challenge and striving gives us purpose.
“Make the time for the things that really matter to you”
Nature and Living Naturally
Not only does my work mean I’m on a computer 100% of the time, most of my hobbies (photography and videogames) are also digital. For me this means it is essential I spend time outside, in nature preferably. It’s hard to see and even less promoted because there is no money in telling someone to go outside and sit on some grass. But I think the recent increase in popularity of Glamping and Hiking is a correlation that more and more, we need to spend time in nature. This is living naturally. naturally.
In this hyper-connected world we live in, our bodies do not have a natural response for the constant stream of information were exposed to. This keeps us in a stressed state because were not able to process all of it. In some cases, like wars and pandemics, we cannot even do anything about them. A case study for living naturally were shepherd in Sardinia. They wake up early before the radio has had the chance to bombard their consciousness with drama. Their day is spent dealing with the problems they can solve, like looking after their flock.
Five Things for Long Living
Community
Movement
Eating good
Purpose
Nature and living naturally
I hope you got something from this summary of centenarian secrets. Feedback is highly appreciated. Living long is all well and good. But what is the point, if you don’t enjoy being alive?
