Blue Zones… All Hype?
You should go to a movie producer for health and longevity advice…
Said no one… EVER.
Unfortunately… the vast majority of the population is falling into this trap.
For instance…Right now Netflix is trying to sell you a movie called “Live to 100: Secrets of The Blue Zones”...
The Blue Zones are five regions of the world famous for their longevity, and are said to have a higher proportion of centenarians (100+) than average.
But Netflix is an entertainment platform…
NOT an educational platform.
Views, virality, and hype get priority…
While science, facts, and data get pushed to the back.
So when fantasy-like concepts such as the Blue Zones come into play…it’s no wonder a mainstream media channel like Netflix would jump on it…
Because people buy what seems new and sexy…the truth sadly doesn’t get as much attention.
Here’s how I know the Blue Zones theory to be marketing BS…
And what I think to be a more science-backed, and practical approach to stay healthy till you're 100
Now why do I think you should be very skeptical of “Blue Zones”, if longevity is your goal.
First off, many regions of the world demonstrate similar degrees of longevity… but were left out of the Blue Zones.
Hmmmm…why would they do that you ask?
Well, Hong Kong for instance has one of the highest life expectancies in the world (85 years).
It’s also the world’s third largest consumer of beef per capita, with an average consumption of almost 1.5 pounds of total meat per day.
There are also places like Iceland that have a significantly high population of centenarians…
And their diet largely consists of lamb, fish, and fatty meats.
So how did they pick those 5 Blue Zones?
Seems like cherry-picking to me.
Next up, let’s raise awareness to the case of epidemiology…
(If people just understood this one thing it would save millions of lives…and we’d see far less claims on news channels every other month… about bacon and eggs causing cancer ).
Most, if not all of the studies on Blue Zones are based on epidemiology.
The problem with epidemiology is that it is based on correlation…NOT causation.
There’s also a heavy healthy and non-healthy user bias…which drastically flaws the data.
So when it comes to epidemiology…we have to be very cautious in how we come to conclusions.
Epidemiology studies have failed to demonstrate a negative correlation between meat consumption and longevity.
In the NHANES III Project, a study of 17,611 individuals found that the consumption of white meat was associated with a decreased mortality rate in men, and there was no evidence that consumption of red meat worsened overall mortality (1).
Similarly, in a very large Australian cohort, there was no observed benefit to a plant-based diet on all-cause mortality: Among 243,096 participants . . . there was no significant difference in all-cause mortality for vegetarians versus non-vegetarians (2).
Up next, let’s move on to possibly the biggest hole in the Blue Zone Fairy tale.
Another big problem with Blue Zone claims is that longevity is due to plant-focused diets…
But when we closely examine the actual patterns of eating in these areas…
It tells a vastly different story.
The Nicoya region of Costa Rica is well known for exceptional longevity, but only for males.
These lucky fellows are seven-times more likely to live to the age of one hundred, have lower levels of cardiovascular risk markers, and higher levels of male sex-hormones (3).
Sounds like a pretty hale and hearty group of older dudes, right? But guess what?
They are also well known for their affinity for meat.
The Nicoyans cook most of their foods in animal fat, eat more animal foods, and live longer than the general Costa Rican population.
Similarly, assessments of meat consumption in Sardinia and Okinawa appear to have grossly underestimated the vital role of animal foods in the diets of individuals living in these locales.
Anyone who has visited these regions of the world will know firsthand that animal foods play very important roles in the diets of these people.
Sardinia, Italy is well known for the “Sarda pig,” a special type of swine raised on an open range in the forests that is treasured by the people of this island.
Okinawans are also known to consume more meat than the general Japanese population (4).
The authors of one paper looking at the diet of Okinawans stated: The food intake pattern in Okinawa has been different from that in other regions of Japan.
Eating meat was not stigmatized, and consumption of pork and goat was historically high. . . .
The intake of meat was higher in Okinawa. . . . Unexpectedly, we did not find any vegetarians among the centenarians.
Well now, that's quite a different picture regarding the diets of Okinawans than we have been led to believe, isn’t it?
If you have any doubts about this fact, I urge you to visit these places and experience their rich culture, vitality, and zeal for animal foods firsthand.
When it comes to food…
There’s only one thing that has been correlated with longer telomeres.
In a three-year-long observational study, a group of researchers looked at the length of telomeres in twenty-eight subjects and surveyed them to see what they ate.
Here’s what they found: Among nine food types (cereal, fruits, vegetables, dairy, red meat, poultry, fish, sweets, and salty snacks) and eight beverages (juices, coffee, tea, mineral water, alcoholic and sweetened carbonated beverages) only intake of red meat was related to telomere length.
Individuals with increased consumption of red meat had higher telomere length and the strongest significant differences were observed between consumer groups: “never’ and “1–2 daily’ (5).
Other than that what else can we say attributes to longer telomeres?
It’s well known that in addition to the process of aging, poor lifestyle choices can also shorten our telomeres prematurely.
The good news is that on the flip side, healthy lifestyle choices can lengthen our telomeres (6).
For both vegetarians and non-vegetarians, it is all the great lifestyle stuff we’ve previously discussed: exercise, adequate sleep, moderate sunlight exposure, finding meaning in our lives, and a tight-knit community.
It’s no surprise these commonalities are found between the Blue Zones.
Here’s the bottom line folks…
If we want to live lives that are as long and rich as possible…
We should definitely include nutrient-rich animal foods…
As well as creating time for community, family, and finding meaning on a day-to-day basis.
If you want to go into more depth on the misrepresentation of the Blue zones (Especially one that demonstrates some very interesting trends further suggesting that plant-based diets aren’t all they are cracked up to be)...
And you would like more fact-based insights on what actually contributes to not only living longer…
But living HEALTHIER for longer…
Much Love, Light, and Joy to you all into your golden years!
References:
1: https://www.nature.com/articles/ejcn201359
2: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0091743516304479?via%3Dihub
3: http://austriaca.at/?arp=0x00307bb7
4: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/026010609200800312
5: https://nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12937-016-0189-2
