National Geographic Explorer Dan Buettner has traveled for more than a decade to identify the hot spots of longevity around the world – these areas known as the Blue Zones.
Here are the shared traits of the world’s longest-lived people from The Blue Zones Solution book.
1. Move Naturally. Live in an environment that constantly nudges you into moving about instead going to the gym and running marathons.
2. Purpose. “Why I wake up in the morning.” Knowing your sense of purpose is worth up to seven years of extra life expectancy.
3. Downshift. Stress leads to chronic inflammation and age-related diseases. Have routines to shed stress. Pray, take a nap and do happy hour.
4. 80 Percent Rule. Stop eating when you are 80% full. People in the Blue Zones eat their smallest meal in the late afternoon and don’t eat again the rest of the day.
5. Plant Slant. Beans are the cornerstone of most centenarian diets with mostly 3 ounces of pork consumed about once a week.
6. Wine @ 5. Moderate drinkers outlive nondrinkers. Drink only one to two glasses per day with friends.
7. Right Tribe. Social networks of long-lived people favorably shape their health behaviors.
8. Community. Attending faith-based services four times per month adds up to 14 years life expectancy.
9. Loved Ones First. Centenarians put their family first, keep aging parents and grandparents nearby, commit to a life partner and invest in their children.
Learn more on the lessons for living longer from the people who have lived the longest in his new book.
Dan Buettner is the New York Times best selling author of The Blue Zones Solution: Eating and Living Like the World’s Healthiest People.
Thank you for being the best past of Live-Young.com. Follow me on Pinterest for more healthy living information including recipes.