What do people eat in the Blue Zones? | Dan Buettner and Professor Tim Spector

Watch the full episode here: • Dan Buettner: Live to ...
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In Western food culture, superfoods are branded as quick fixes for myriad health concerns. What do the eating habits of the Blue Zones, where there’s more centenarians than anywhere else, really tell us about longevity and staying healthy?
Jonathan talks to Dan Buettner and Professor Tim Spector to try and find out.
Dan Buettner is an American National Geographic fellow and New York Times bestselling author. He’s also an explorer, educator, and creator of the Netflix series “Live to 100,” which discovers five unique communities where people live extraordinarily long and vibrant lives.
If you want to uncover the right foods for your body, head to joinZOE.com/podcast and get 10% off your personalized nutrition program.
Books:
- The Blue Zones Challenge by Dan Buettner: amzn.to/4bFNk9W
- The Blue Zones Secrets for Living Longer by Dan Buettner: amzn.to/3QNNSlR
- Every Body Should Know This by Dr Federica Amati: amzn.to/4blJsLg
- Food For Life by Prof. Tim Spector: amzn.to/4amZinu

[@Bangle9]

I like the emphasis on peasant food-the simplicity of that description. Yes, I like variety, but it has to be simple enough to be sustainable in a busy schedule.

[@Spartan21blue]

So I recall an Italian professor researching long lived people from Sicily , he said “ it’s not the food , he could only put it down to there working in the fields every day , walking , bending , lifting etc I tend to think it’s both 😎

[@woodvineandco]

I'd also ad how strong their community ties are.

[@christinestorey6580]

The blue zones sound to me as if they have less stress on their bodies as well. Less air pollution, water pollution, noise pollution, better sleep I suggest and less stress on the body. This their tissue and dna repair processes will be able to work better.

[@richardjackson5380]

Which makes Loma Linda in California particularly interesting

[@mumimor]

I once had lunch at the house of a little old lady in Nuoro, as I understand it on the edge of the blue zone. It was amazing! It was many, many years ago, so I don't remember the primo, but there was one. The secondo was lamb's inestines in a green pea sauce (it was spring). And finally there was an aged pecorino sarde and oranges. All with wine and water. Everything we ate and drank came from her family's land. What I'd like to say is that even though the products were cheap and in a sense primitive and the portions were not excessive, the food was rich in flavor and very diverse. The pasta and the sauce for the inestines were gathered in the mountains. And the cheese was funky!

[@PhilWhelanNow]

The gut biota is the connection missing from most people’s understanding of the blue zones. You said everything except for the soil biology and her/family were intimately connected. I think we’re just beginning to understand that connection, as our farmers denude the soil of our heritage biomes.

[@mumimor]

(It's supposed to say " the herbs for the pasta and for the sauce for the inestines were gathered in the mountains".Sorry. And while walking the dog I realised it may have been a soup with stuffed pasta, similar to tortellini in brodo, but a local version).

[@wackthegood8884]

Dan seems to directly contradict one of the main Zoe messages at one point when he says habitants of the Blue Zones have very little variety, often only eating 20 different things according to season. The Zoe crew are always expressing the importance of variety for your microbiome... but if you are only surviving on a few foodstuffs - like the Sardinian shepherds eating mostly bread and cheese, but who still live to be centenarians... So what's that all about?

[@tatzja8074]

Apricot kernels

[@KasKade7]

Probably food variety is not as important as we think it is. Turns out the microbiome is also very different depending what environment you live in. Living in nature or a polluted city will change the microbiome immensely.

[@barbettecaravaggio7675]

With the sardinian shepherds I think it comes down to lifestyle. It's not per se the cheese or bread as some sort of magical superfood. It's the fact that they live in and with nature (probably very unplugged from the internet/media/tv sphere...), they walk a lot and the cheese and bread they eat are all self made and not ultra processed. It's funny that the original Okinawan centenarians ate so very different types of food (no bread, no cheese), yet they live just as long. This shows that there is something else going on, and that is most likely a natural lifestyle with lots of movement, not being attached to media and internet and making one's own food.

[@qwe098qwe098qwe098]

@@barbettecaravaggio7675, i think you're right when you say that something else is going on, because for instance, if you look up life expectancy in medieval times, it's low, and they had none of the problematic things that we have in our environment today.

[@DS-jm7to]

Apart from The Plague, I suppose

[@rgomoffat]

In ur heart, behave as a king. At your table, behave as a peasant.

[@KasKade7]

The fact that alot of these blue zone communities were poor, probably kinda rationing their food. Would not suprise me that caloric restriction and fasting played a major role in their longevity. Not having access to ultra processed foods ofcourse helps. Living in pristine nature and air with a good sense of community all help alot more than some "magic" bean imho.

[@sparkleinco2035]

more like this please

[@harrywood702]

I read the Hunter-gatherers guide to the 21st century. They recommend eating seasonal whole foods, regionally based on your heritage.

[@aboutsupplies]

The Ikaria study left out these foods in the questionnaire. Goat pork lamb dairy The most consumed foods

[@richardjackson5380]

How do you know?

[@thecasualfront7432]

Tim Spector doesn’t like the “eat like a peasant” talk, because peasants don’t buy apps. He immediately had to change to topic to obscure Japanese fermented foods

[@kathib3796]

Blue zones are regions in the world where people are claimed to live longer than average. The name Blue Zone derived from when scientists, during the original survey, used a blue pen to mark a map to show the areas with long lived populations. This is quoted directly from Wikipedia

[@user-ho4rv6kg8u]

Blue zones are regions in the world where people are claiming their pension early and fraudulently, because of poor records of peoples birth dates.

[@user-ho4rv6kg8u]

In Greece, for example, some people in their 50s and even in their 40s pretended to be of pension age so that they could claim their pension. And Greece was even paying pensions to people that had died several years before. All this gives the impression that the population was living longer than they really were.

[@karengrice2303]

I have been watching your podcasts for awhile. I am just concerned about availability of high quality foods in the store in the US. For example, I can’t even find plain organic nuts at the grocery store that don’t have lots of salt or added seed oils that are inflammatory. There are no healthy breads in the store so I make my own. I buy my nuts online. It is a real effort now. I have the time to research and find healthy options because I’m retired. If you work full time like most people, it would be difficult. These food corporations need to be held accountable for the diseases they are creating in us.

[@tquirkyt7118]

Simplistic whole food…key to life. Humans tend to make everything needlessly complicated.

[@Lightw81]

Simple, not simplistic.

[@tquirkyt7118]

@@Lightw81 no …I meant simplistic.

[@StanDupp6371]

Don't pay attention to the super wealthy overweight guy on the left who is going to fancy steak restaurants and eating rich foods which is going to wreck his health, just follow what the Okinawans do, "The present paper examines the relationship of nutritional status to further life expectancy and health status in the Japanese elderly based on 3 epidemiological studies. 1. Nutrient intakes in 94 Japanese centenarians investigated between 1972 and 1973 showed a higher proportion of animal protein to total proteins than in contemporary average Japanese. 2. High intakes of milk and fats and oils had favorable effects on 10-year (1976-1986) survivorship in 422 urban residents aged 69-71. The survivors revealed a longitudinal increase in intakes of animal foods such as eggs, milk, fish and meat over the 10 years."

[@stevelanghorn1407]

Funny thing about the “traditional” Italian “Pasta e Fagioli” dish : It wasn’t “a thing” until European navigator / explorers discovered Native Americans eating the beans that go into it. Then brought them back to Europe along with Tomatoes etc to be planted up and bred over here. That would have been around 600 years ago!

[@MuddathirQ]

Can someone please explain what the heck a blue zone is?

[@slim215]

Didn’t you do this video about a month ago? I guess it’s good to reiterate on it.

[@wackthegood8884]

Yes, this is a short extract from a longer video already shown previously.

[@rainnyt7803]

What is the bean recipe?

[@gnuemacs1166]

Outlawing growing things in gardens in the west

[@tatzja8074]

Well, in Sardinia they enjoy amazing apricots as a favorite dessert and they use the whole apricot, including the kernel. That is the secret, definitely not the pork 😏

[@stevelanghorn1407]

Yes they certainly do love their Pork, Lamb / Mutton, Wild Boar & Sheep / Goat cheeses. Seem to thrive on it in fact!

[@tatzja8074]

@@stevelanghorn1407 My point was not that they don’t love those things or thrive on the nutrition provided by the meat they eat, but that pork is not what is preventing disease in their population. They grow amazing apricots there and the people are accustomed to eating the whole fruit, including the kernel which contains amygdalin. Find out what amygdalin does and you realize it makes sense that populations that traditionally eat a fair amount of whole apricots (including the kernel) live longer, healthier lives.

[@stevelanghorn1407]

@@tatzja8074 🤔Are you trying to kill me? Don’t Apricot kernals contain cyanogenic glucosides?

[@tatzja8074]

@@stevelanghorn1407 I’m not telling you to eat them. I’m telling you they eat them. And, I eat them in small amounts, as in no more than three per day for me personally. Do some research for yourself, but keep in mind that you have to look further than the quick google search. You could start by reading the book “World Without Cancer” and decide for yourself if it’s something for you personally. Yes, they do contain cyanide bound in the amygdalin molecule, and not everyone is comfortable with that idea. As with most things, if it’s strong enough to help it’s strong enough to hurt. Danger is in the dosage.

[@tatzja8074]

@@stevelanghorn1407 It seems KZbin is censoring my response. Not surprising. I’m not telling you to eat them. I’m only saying they eat them. They do contain cyanide, bound within the amygdalin molecule. If you’re interested in understanding more about the subject, start by reading the book “World Without Cancer” by G. Edward Griffon.

[@TeeGar]

Blueberries, of course.

[@RalphShephard]

What is a blue zone?

[@jameskantor0459]

Place were People who live a very long life.

[@janco333]

When your wife hits you in the eye, your eye is then a blue zone

[@stevelanghorn1407]

@@janco333 😂Maybe you’d lived too long and driven her nuts!

[@boterberg278]

All evolution is facilitating the gut biome to thrive. Sight, hearing, moving, tasting, we are no more than a glorified and intricate composting tract. Keep the bacteria in your gut happy and you are good.

[@MrCalyho]

Blue Zone like Okinawa 'Island of Pork' where nobody eats pork.

[@Sunnysue31]

Are the "Peasant Foods" in the western world, really "real" peasant foods? Have we not OVER farmed/ modified them?? Is it really possible to now eat in the way our grandparents actually did? 🤔🤐

[@kervennic]

Meat is the superfood. Hong Kong is the true blue zone and consume an awful lot of meat !

[@MarciaRathbone]

Less diversity more quality

[@alanfarrance8639]

Top candidate for blue zone in the UK was Tower Hamlets, a socially deprived inner city area in London with highest density housing and short average life expectancy. Astoundingly the borough had 15 people over the age of 105, however they all magically disappeared when the Department of Work and Pensions did a crackdown. Greek blue zone evaporated after similar investigations as have several others.

[@Steve-ArfArf]

Crackdown on what?

[@matchmother]

Maybe time to re-think the format of these conversations? Interruptions, asking experts to simplify, and a muddled summarising are becoming a tad irritating.

[@Amira-xd8ok]

RAMADHANUL KAREEM

[@wackthegood8884]

Thanks Johnathan I know what "reductionist" means.

[@PS-qb8rm]

A lot of talk for very little content.

[@fridgemagnet9831]

Cherry picked data at its finest

[@AvatarMakusan]

Ya! and a whole lot of processed FAT! The Fat you eat is the Fat you wear!

[@myggggeneration]

Interesting - only because this is more confusing than ever. Why post this, leaving us with more questions than before? Shepherds......... First fish consumed at 20? ..... Eating habits of only 6 (remote!) villages..... translate into a Blue Zone? Very limited access to healthy foods...? How do we draw conclusions for today's conditions? I guess we don't. Just eat whole food plant baased.

[@Bonkers4Hex]

Watch Dr Gundry

[@jeanhorseman9364]

Tim is missing the point. We have to bring in the poor and poorly educated by reminding ourselves that beans and whole grain, maybe tomatoes and chilli’s can provide the doorway into health

[@asinh1100]

Beans pasta noodles vegetables plus some eggs cheese butter