Vitality Q&A

Dan Buettner, co-director of the AARP/Blue Zones Vitality Project, answers your questions

How much meat do people in the Blue Zones eat?

People in the Blue Zones follow a plant-based diet heavily dependent on whole grains, beans, nuts, and the plants they grow in their own gardens. The amount of meat consumed varies between Blue Zones—from none at all to a few servings of meat per week.

How much of a role do our genes play in determining our longevity?

For the average person, genes account for about 10 percent of the factors influencing life expectancy, within certain biological limits. Our genes will not enable us to live to the age of 150 because lifestyle accounts for 90 percent of the influence on the life expectancy of the average American.

Do you recommend avoiding all caffeine?

No, absolutely not. In fact, the longest-lived people on earth—the Okinawans—are voracious drinkers of green tea, and coffee is a good source of antioxidants. A cup or two of coffee in the morning is a positive, but when you're drinking a half dozen cups a day and it's interfering with your sleep, you start heading in the other direction. Coffee is popular with the Sardinians, the Ikarians, the Costa Ricans. Of course, Costa Ricans grow coffee, but you don't see them swilling it all day long.

What is the most common exercise mistake Americans make?

I think "exercise" as an idea—and I mean thinking of physical activity as exercise—is the most common mistake. The key is to change your environments so that you are nudged into activity. To make physical activity a chore is a mistake. To think of it as a chore is the biggest mistake. If exercise is a chore for you, you're probably choosing the wrong activities. The secret is to engineer physical activity into your life and choose activities you enjoy, so you do them regularly. The world's longest-lived people stay active by walking with friends and gardening. None of them run marathons or do triathlons.

How does isolation affect health and longevity?

On the most basic level, if someone falls down and gets hurt in their home—breaks a hip, bumps their head—and no one finds them, their chances for serious injury or even death increases. Humans are, by nature, social creatures. By retreating into your own shell, you are defying human nature. According to studies of older people, those who have a few good friends fare better than those who don't. I believe there is something about the human constitution that favors social connectivity, and the connection between the existence of social networks and increased longevity is clear.

How can people who live in big cities create their own Blue Zone?

The first ring of a Blue Zone is your immediate social circle. It starts with surrounding yourself with people whose idea of recreation is physical activity, who don't smoke, who are generally positive, and who follow a plant-based diet. You can also incorporate walking and biking into your daily routine, as people in the Blue Zones do. And you can start a garden (either in your backyard, at a community lot, or in a window box), eat more fruits and vegetables, and do all the things that we know promote longevity among the longest-lived populations. But surrounding yourself with people who make those choices is the most powerful thing you can do to create a Blue Zone.

If an average American could make only one small change, what should it be?

I think when it comes to eating, the one small change for most Americans would be to pre-plate their food at the counter. When you serve a plate of food, try to estimate what's enough to fill you up but won't stuff you, make sure it's mostly plants and whole grains on that plate, with a little bit of protein, and then put the food away. Put the food in the refrigerator, sit down, and eat. That will help to make sure you're not mindlessly eating extra calories. Pre-plating also will help make sure you're not overeating, which is one of America's biggest problems in terms of contributing to obesity. And it will promote the Okinawan adage of hara hachi bu, which is stopping eating when your stomach is 80 percent full.

What diet advice would you offer to a person whose work or lifestyle keeps them on the road, eating on the go, and relying mainly on restaurants?

That's a really good question, and a hard one. When I need to grab something on the go, I go into a sandwich shop and ask the person building my sandwich to make it with a little bit of meat and to pile on the vegetables: whole wheat bread, small amounts of cheese or meats, and lots of vegetables. Do that, and you have a "healthy-ish" meal for under ten dollars in just about any city you go to.

People in the Blue Zones eat plant-based diets, but most Americans worry about getting enough protein without eating a lot of meat. What's your take on that concern?

Well, first of all, meat is not the only source of protein. Most of us can get plenty of complete protein by eating two ounces of meat twice a week. Of course that means you'll need to make sure you are getting enough protein from non-meat sources: milk and eggs, cheese, tofu, nuts, and beans.

But beyond that, if you take a careful look at the diets of the world's longest-lived people, they don't worry about combining foods to make complete proteins. They eat a lot of vegetables, soy, legumes, and very little or no meat. In my opinion, the lessons we can take from studying the diets of the people in the Blue Zones, and recognizing the way the world's longest-lived people have been eating for centuries or even millennia, are the most valuable.

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