Faith: Welcome to Health Matters – your weekly dose of the latest in health and wellness from NewYork-Presbyterian. I am Faith Salie.
Today we’re going to explore the question: is the secret to living to 100 in what we eat?
The answer to this question may lie in the blue zones, regions of the world with the highest percentage of centenarians. The five Blue Zones are scattered around the world, but the people who live there all follow similar lifestyle habits and live longer.
I spoke with Dr. Michelle Loy, an integrative medicine physician at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. His specialties include lifestyle medicine, integrative medicine and culinary medicine. She was therefore the perfect person to explain to us the nine principles that the blue zones have in common and how they lay the foundation for a longer and healthier life.
Faith: Dr. Loy, thank you very much for joining me. Today we want to explore the question: can what you eat help you live longer?
Dr Loy: Surely the way we eat can affect our vitality and longevity, hence “years in life” and “life in years”.
Faith: Let’s jump into the blue areas. We have research showing that people who live in these blue zones around the world live longer and also share common eating habits. So, are you going to describe these Blue Zones to us?
Dr Loy: Of course. So those are the places around the world where people live measurably the longest, like sometimes up to 90 or 100 or over 100 years old. And what’s really interesting is that all of these places are largely free of diseases like heart disease, obesity, cancer. , and diabetes. They are therefore nicknamed the blue zones. So: Loma Linda…
Faith: Loma Linda is in California.
Dr Loy: Yes, Loma Linda California.
Faith: So, the United States made the list. ALL RIGHT.
Dr Loy: Okinawa, Japan, Sardinia, Nicoya in Costa Rica and Ikaria in Greece. And these blue zones, even though they actually have very different cultures and different diets, they share some commonalities, actually nine commonalities.
The first is this: stop eating when your stomach is about 80% full. So if you’re in Japan they call it si hara hachi bu. If you’re in the US, we call it mindful eating. Part of this first point is to eat the smallest meal of the day at the end of the day.
The second point is to eat mainly plants, especially beans. Although many of them eat meat, it is quite rare and in small portions like three to four ounces. You know, I consider it a bit of a condiment rather than a major food group.
Faith: Mmhmm.
Dr Loy: Some of them drink alcohol, moderately and regularly. And that’s maybe one or two drinks a day, usually in a very social setting.
The fourth point is the social link. Most of them are either born into, or – this is really important – they choose to create social circles that support healthy behaviors. So, for example, the Icarians, they have their close-knit communities where they frequently socialize together. Okinawans have this special group of five friends that they grew up with and they commit to each other for life through all of life’s ups and downs, and they’re called moai.
There are many studies showing that social connection is super important for health. You know, not having it is on the same level as certain risk factors like smoking. And it’s very important
The fifth belongs. So the majority of these people belong to some sort of civic organization or maybe a faith-based organization.
The sixth is, relatives first. Again, family, connection, friends.
The seventh is how to downgrade. So it’s knowing how to reduce stress. And you might think that if they live in those places, they don’t have stress, but they do. They have stress, but they know how to downshift. They have routines to help, you know, take that stress away. So, you know, for example, the Okinawans, they will spend a few moments a day remembering their ancestors. Loma Linda Seventh-day Adventists pray. The Icarians take a siesta and the Sardinians spend some time enjoying their alcohol in a social setting.
The eighth point is that they know their purpose, and having a sense of purpose is really related to health, to longevity. There are definite studies showing that individuals who have a clear purpose in life live longer than those who don’t.
And then the last point is that people move naturally. They’re not like pumping iron or running marathons, but they live in environments where they’re constantly on the move without thinking about it. So, you know, they’re gardening, they’re walking to their friends’ house, so they’re naturally moving through their environment.
Faith: I feel pretty good about this list. I feel like I’m nailing a few. I mean, as a New Yorker, I walk almost everywhere, when I can.
Dr Loy: Yes.
Faith: Dr. Loy, I think that’s really interesting. Today we focus on Culinary Medicine and Diet, but that’s only a third of the list you just named.
Dr Loy: Yes! Yes! And that’s a very, very good point. In fact, I tell my patients about it all the time. These are the nine points and how many points are related to food? In fact really only two or three. So there are a lot of tools in the toolbox. And in fact, if you look at it, a lot of it has to do with connection, social connection, which is one of the reasons I find the group tours that I go on to be so effective because that not only are we changing habits through nutrition education and literacy, but there is the group bond that is so important.
Faith: Let’s focus a bit more on food types, an explanation of how these foods work together to keep people healthy and vital.
Dr Loy: Yeah.
Faith: What foods do these blue areas have in common? Fruits, nuts, oils? Can you tell us what they provide to our body?
Dr Loy: The blue zone diet is cutting edge, but if you look at the specifics of each location, they seem a little different. So let me give you an example. In Ikaria, their main foods include things like lemons, potatoes. They are very fond of chickpeas and black-eyed peas and broad beans, barley, wild greens, sage, marjoram…
Faith: Not to be confused with margarine.
Dr Loy: [Laughs] THANKS. Yes. They eat fruit, relatively small amounts of fish, and goat’s milk. They do not eat lamb and rarely eat goat meat. So it’s Ikaria.
Now Okinawa. It’s totally different. They eat lots of sweet potatoes, turmeric, bitter melon, tofu, garlic, brown rice, green tea, and shiitake mushrooms.
Now, when we moved to Sardinia, they eat a lot of goat’s milk, sheep’s cheese, sourdough bread, like barley type flatbread, fennel, broad beans, chickpeas, tomatoes, almonds , a milk thistle tea, and their special local wine from specific types of grapes.
Faith: What’s inspiring to hear about this is that it’s achievable for anyone.
Dr Loy: Yes.
Faith: I probably won’t have goat meat tomorrow, but there’s plenty on this list I could have.
Dr Loy: Yeah, and that’s what I love about culinary medicine — it’s accessible, it’s affordable, and it can be applied to all walks of life and all cultures.
Faith: What are the things that most Americans lack in our diets?
Dr Loy: We don’t get the nutrients we need from our diets. Beneficial nutrients, not just beneficial macronutrients like fats, proteins and carbs, complex carbs, but we’re missing all the phytochemicals that are very, very important.
And we lack fiber. Only 5% of the United States meets the recommended daily fiber goal.
Faith: Wow.
Dr Loy: If just a thousand people gave up their low-fiber diet, it would prevent 13 deaths and six cases of heart disease.
Faith: OK, that’s amazing.
Dr Loy: And I will say that eating a high fiber diet has been shown in numerous studies to be associated with a reduction in heart attacks, strokes, high cholesterol, obesity, type 2 diabetes and even some cancers. If fiber were a drug, a prescription drug, it would be a blockbuster drug.
Faith: Does it require a difficult or expensive diet to incorporate this Blue Zone information into a daily routine? I mean, for example, if you live in a city like New York.
Dr Loy: Absolutely not. It’s not. There are resources that I will sometimes give to patients – the American College of Lifestyle Medicine has one – where they give like a shopping list and a meal plan of recipes. And I believe that works out to $25 to $35 a week. And that’s like three meals a person.
Faith: What?
Dr Loy: Yeah. And of course now with inflation it’s a bit more, but I think you can safely say $50 a week including three meals, three healthy meals rich in vegetables, fruits, legumes, seeds whole grains, spices and as desserts.
Faith: So, Dr. Loy, I just have to ask you, what’s your favorite indulgence outside of the blue zone?
Dr Loy: I mean, every night I have a huge bowl of popcorn that I like to flavor with all kinds of spices or eat plain.
Faith: Do you use butter?
Dr Loy: I don’t usually do that.
Faith: We were so close to being kindred spirits over popcorn.
Dr Loy: But there is nothing wrong with adding butter to it.
Faith: OK OK. All right. GOOD. Dr. Loy, thank you very much for sharing these ideas.
Dr Loy: Of course. It’s my pleasure.
Faith: Many thanks to Dr. Loy.
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