The Blue Zones and The Secret of Longevity

        Dan Buettner is the team leader of  "The Blue Zones" which is a longevity research project funded by National Geographic. They are studying human longevity in various cultures around the world. In his book "The Blue Zones", Dan Buettner outlines the healthy habits, the longevity diets and the cultural and familial values that each longevity society upholds.
The name for the project was coined after Dan's team happened to be using a blue marker to circle areas with high rates of human longevity on a map. A blue zone is specifically a geographical region somewhere in the world that has exceptionally high rates of longevity. For example, Okinawan longevity is the best in the world, per capita. One in 2,000 Okinawans can expect to make it past 100, whereas the average American has a 1 in 100,000 chance (according to statistics from 1990).

What Are The Benefits Of The Mediterranean Diet?

The Mediterranean Diet is more than a diet; It is a lifelong living style. You have to adopt it, as a religion. Decades ago, it was the natural way of life of many people around the Mediterranean Basin, especially in Spain, Italy and Greece. High activity, Mediterranean nutrition, anti stress attitudes and not much money shaped a culture that can be declared soon Immaterial Human Heritage by UNESCO. Nowadays, these circumstances have changed in the mentioned countries, but many responsible people are still keeping or returning to what is considered to be the healthiest diet in the world.Traditionally, Western Europe has two broad nutritional approaches - the Northern European and Southern European. The Mediterranean Diet is Southern European, and more specifically focuses on the eating habits of the people of Crete, much of Greece, and southern Italy. Today, Spain, southern France, and Portugal are also included; even though Portugal does not have a Mediterranean coast.

What does the Mediterranean Diet include?

• Lots of plant foods
• Fresh fruit as dessert
• High consumption of beans, nuts, cereals and seeds
• Olive oil as the main source of dietary fat
• Cheese and yogurt as the main dairy foods
• Moderate amounts of fish and poultry
• No more than about four eggs each week
• Small amounts of red meat each week (compared to northern Europe)
• Low to moderate amounts of wine
• 25% to 35% of calorie intake consists of fat
• Saturated fat makes up no more than 8% of calorie intake

The Mediterranean diet is known to be low in saturated fat, high in monounsaturated fat, and high in dietary fiber.

Even though Dr. Ancel Keys (USA), who was stationed in southern Italy, publicized the Mediterranean diet, it was not until about the 1990s that the Mediterranean diet was widely recognized and followed elsewhere by nutritionally conscious people.

Compared to other Western diets, the Mediterranean diet was seen by others as a bit of an enigma. Although fat consumption is high, the prevalence of hypertension, cardiovascular disease, obesity, cancer and diabetes has always been significantly lower in Mediterranean countries than northern European countries and the USA.