Living To One Hundred

Yes! If you live right!

So says Dan Buettner in his new book, The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who’ve Lived the Longest. In his book he highlights the ‘blue zones’ of our world – the places where people live the longest.

Not surprsingly one of the blue zones is a remote region of Costa Rica called the Nicoya Peninsula. In this place, pollution is practically non-existent and lifestyles are family oriented and less stressful with a focus on manual labor.

Another blue zone is Sardinia, Italy, where we see the same ‘blue zone’ characteristics emerge: a focus on family (many generations living in one household), a focus on ritual (a time to slow down each day over a couple of glasses of wine), and a focus on healthy eating (of food which is grown locally and with love).

But are there any blue zones in the US?

Yes. One. Loma Linda, California.

(Interestingly, Simon and I lived approximately 20 minutes away from Loma Linda for a whole year. Little did we know we were only steps away from a renown centenarian population as we struggled to breathe in the deadly smog winds of Riverside! But I digress…)

What is so special about the people of Loma Linda?

Well, a vast number of its population are part of the Seventh Day Adventist church. What do they get from the Seventh Day Adventist church? More than anything–a sense of purpose and integration in community.

Seventh Day Adventists eat well as a rule sticking to a plant-based diet, but it’s their community practices that stand out. And this commitment to community is just as important for longevity as regular exercise and a healthy diet of whole foods. When elderly people get lonely and depressed, their will to live weakens. Mental well-being is crucial for those with centenarian ambitions!

Michael Pollan in his popular book The Outliers makes note of this same phenomenon. He writes about the surprising small town of Roseto, Pennsylvania: “In transplanting the paesani culture of southern Italy to the hills of eastern Pennsylvania, the Rosetans had created a powerful, protective social structure capable of insulating them from the pressures of the modern world. The Rosetans were healthy because of where they were from…” These Rosetans were enjoying longevity due to their fullness of life offered by their strong sense of community values.

Their story has to change the way we think about health. Eating whole grains and jumping on the stationary bicycle in a lonely apartment won’t cut it! People who maintain their sense of purpose and live in active community are the ones who enjoy the longer, fuller life.

To summarize, if you want to be a centinarian yourself, keep this simple but important list in mind when you wake up tomorrow morning:

• Engage in daily physcial activity.
• Maintain and nurture social networks.
• Enjoy sensible sun exposure (15 minutes a day is all you need).
• Find a sense of purpose.
• Give back to your community. (Giving back is actually vital for your well-being!)
• Eat a predominantly plant-based diet. Replace your meat with beans and nuts.
• Create a sacred time just for you (a slow-paced dinner with wine, a daily religious practice, etc.).

To one hundred years of living!