If you haven't heard me talk about this, I am a tad bit obsessed with the Blue Zones. The Blue Zones are 5 places in the world with the longest living people that have also had minimal health complications along the way. This basically means that these people are reaching their 90's or 100's without having gone through intensive cancer treatment, heart or kidney transplant, relied on diabetes medication, etc. I discovered the Blue Zones while listening to a podcast about a women who worked at the Loma Linda hospital in California, this is one of the 5 Blue Zone locations! Crazy isn't it? I originally thought that all of these Blue Zones would be in this remote location that no one has ever heard of. Turns out, there is one in the United States sitting right under all of our noses.
The cities include:
Loma Linda, USA
Okinawa, Japan
Sardinia, Italy
Nicoya, Costa Rica
Icaria, Greece
These are all places that we have all heard of and I think the research and information on the Blue Zones is absolutely amazing and how I can look at my every day life. But the most interesting thing, is most people think it has to do with what these individuals are eating. Which yes, their actual eating habits do take part in this explanation but there is more than that. They found 9 components of life that were in each of these blue zones which consist of Purpose, Move Naturally, Down Shift (routines to get rid of stress), 80% rule (stop eating when your stomach is 80% full), Plant Slant (mainly fruits & vegetables), Wine (except those in Loma Linda who do not drink alcohol), Faith, Loved Ones Come First, and having the Right Tribe (Buettner). It's not just what these people ate that made the difference but all of these are important components to how they have managed to live happy and healthy lives.
Over the past few months I have really started changing how I eat, rather than eating what the latest Instagram post was I did my research on the type of issues I have (colon polyps, endometriosis, fibroids, and ovarian cysts) and looked at the foods I was consuming. Decided that it was time to make a change and not because I want to be on a 'diet' but because I want to live a long happy life. If I am allergic to cows milk, if I continue to eat it every day, I am destroying my body. While things like legumes have incredible nutritional benefits, they actually put me in so much pain so I do my best to avoid them. It has been found that those who are vegetarian are 48% less likely to develop colon cancer, which after getting diagnosed with a colon polyp that had the potential to become cancerous later on, I've decided to stick to more of a vegetarian diet as long as I feel good on it. So far I have! While wine is super common in these cultures, I actually try to stay away from alcohol because 1 glass of wine can increase someones oestrogen levels by 10% which for someone who already has reproductive health issues, this would make it worse!
The other component of the Blue Zones that I absolutely love is that they Move Naturally. This means that sure, some may go to the gym but they spend majority of their time doing activities that are needed to be done. For example, gardening all day because their family needs food and even though that may not be considered a work out in western society, it is. Creating homemade butter, catching your own fish, going on walks with family and friends. In the west, we have had to adapt to working out for 30 minutes to 1 hour a day and then spend the rest of the day at a desk inside. Our bodies aren't meant to be stagnant, we are meant to move and get our endorphins going, helping our body break down those nutrient a bit better that we got from a hearty breakfast or lunch meal. A lot of people, including myself at one point in time, force ourselves to do a variety of workouts we hate doing. Did you enjoy that 5 mile run you did today or did you enjoy that super intense 2 hour workout at 5am? If we aren't enjoying it, our body knows it and will give us responses that we need to take a step back. Don't get me wrong, I still run, swim, lift weights, and do yoga but I spend my days making sure that that's what I want to truly do. If my whole body is hurting, why am I going to go on a 2 mile run when my body is really asking for a slow short walk or a complete rest day of working around the garden.
The idea that anyone in this time period can get rid of stress quickly and easily astounds me but really really interests me! We have all noticed the increase in anxiety, an insane amount of anti-depressants given out and even more people in therapy. I am glad that so many people are addressing their mental health but I hate that so many people are having to address it at all. Suicide rates are increasing, depression & anxiety is increasing, and it just makes me wonder why? I do believe it is a mixture of things such as diet, actual trauma, underlining diseases, pharmaceuticals, and toxins in the environment. But the fact that these individuals are able to bring their stress levels down without any type of healthcare professional treatment still makes me believe that we aren't living the way we were meant to. Our bodies aren't always meant to be in a fight or flight response.
Lastly, the other that I find interesting is having a tribe or a group of people that you can rely on. I only trust maybe 3 people so I definitely don't have a tribe of people. I have also wondered whether or not being in a relationship or being surrounded by people does make an impact on our health and science is showing that we do much better health wise when we have a supportive system. Now, I think that is really hard to get in the western world. People don't commit anymore to their partners or friendships, we are obsessed with competing with everyone, we don't really respect anything or anyone even if they don't do anything that gives us a reason not to respect them, and we mistreat each other continuously. I would say we are absolute pros at it! If we still valued true long lasting companionships maybe we would also be bit healthier in the west.
The other parts of the Blue Zones interest me and I hope to have more information and studies that have been done. But I wanted to share with you these places in the world that are rarely ever talked about yet the topic of body weight, cancer, diabetes, auto-immune diseases, life expectancies, etc. are always on the news along with the new 'super food'. These cultures do not know of these and I find it beyond fascinating that in today's world that there still are 5 places that still live according to nature and how we as humans are meant to live.
Let me know what you think in the comments below!
Xoxo,
Moonli
Buettner, D. (n.d.) Power 9. Blue Zones. <https://www.bluezones.com/2016/11/power-9/>