What the World’s Longest-Lived People Eat

We all want to know what it takes to live a long, healthy, and happy life. In this mini-episode of the podcast, Dr. Hyman speaks with longevity expert and bestselling author of, “Blue Zones,” Dan Buettner, about the commonalities amongst several geographic regions around the world where high percentages of centenarians are enjoying remarkably long, full lives. Specifically, Dan shares the pillars of all longevity diets in the world and how Americans can apply this information to their own diets..

Dan Buettner is an explorer, National Geographic Fellow, award-winning journalist and
producer, and New York Times bestselling author. He discovered the five places in the world –dubbed Blue Zones – where people live the longest, healthiest lives. Buettner now works in partnership with municipal governments, large employers, and health insurance companies to implement Blue Zones Projects in communities, workplaces, and universities. Blue Zones Projects are well-being initiatives that apply lessons from the BlueZones to entire communities by focusing on changes to the local environment, public policy, and social networks. The program has dramatically improved the health of more than 5 million Americans to date. Buettner also holds three Guinness World Records in distance cycling.

Listen to Dr. Hyman’s full-length conversation with Dan Buettner

35 Comments on What the World’s Longest-Lived People Eat

    • I can’t digest beans, lentils or corn. I have celiac type symptoms. Corn is the worst for me, in any form – corn flour, corn oil, fructose syrup, 1442 thickener, dextrose, maize starch, even eating chicken that was fed corn is a problem etc.. This makes a vegetarian diet impossible for me.

    • @webaccess11 Sounds like you have it figured out…most people can’t see the negative impact of grains and corn because they never stop eating them.

  1. Dear Doctor
    Please, can you talk about Autoimmune connective tissue Disorder leading to Sclerosing Cholangitis and liver Cirrhosis

  2. Wish you had an announcer who did not imitate one of the nasally Kardasian sisters. But with caption I could turn off the sound.

  3. They eat Fruit in okinawa, but Dan has a blind spot for that.
    And they eat meat (pork) once a month, not every week like Dan says.
    Is Okinawa still a blue zone after macdonalds entered the field? 😉
    And a few days ago we learned to stay away from grains (the Li interview) and now we dont?
    Make up your mind brother.

    • they eat a lot of pork and fish. lookup their traditional recipes, lookup on food channels. Grains were nonexistent back in time.

  4. They would eat ruminant animal meats and fatty fish if it were available. The blue zone people who ate grains and such did so only IN SEASON and only when there were not alternatives. They probably would have lived longer if they ate fewer fruits and plants and again would have done so if they were not so deprived of high quality grass raised/fed ruminant protein, organs and natural clean fats. They activated the human body’s longevity metabolic pathways by attaining decent NAD/NADH pathways – caloric restriction and good omega-3/omega-6 ratios.

    • @Jim D you seem to be keen on science. Well science doesn’t support your argument… Better get back to the books or start your studies to prove the current scientistific findings wrong.

    • @Nick Gregory You don’t get it do you? I predicted that the Blue Zone people who ate higher levels of plants and legumes would have lived net longer had they had the wherewithal (financial, time and habitat) to eat more natural meats, fats and organs. We now know that factors contributing to longevity and health are much more complex than originally imagined. For example NAD/NADH ratio is a big factor in the longevity outcome and this can be driven by both a carb and a protein/fats rich nutrition. The frequency of mTOR activation is also a driver. Just because some are long lived does not mean they ever came close to attaining optimum quality of life (high strength to weight ratio, high reproductive function, stamina, balance, higher VO2 Max etc.). So the studies that this “observer” made are just that – observations of how they lived and ate on a presumption that living to their age was the gold standard. But long life that falls short of its optimum quality and duration is at best only a relatively good standard/benchmark relative to the mediocre lifestyle the obserbver came from. i posit from “the science” that these blue zone people could have done much better both in longevity and quality of life (“optimized”) had they eaten more good meats and fats and less plants that are loaded with bio-toxins. The plants don’t want us eating them (or their children esp – seeds) anymore so than the animals do. Food for thought.

    • @Jim D you are saying that fruits and plants are not as healthy for you as meats… I called you out on that.. that’s all I did. As of right now, the longest lived people are predominantly plant based. You can speculate all you like that if they are more animals they would longer… But it’s just speculation… But I mean, do you approve of the massai and Inuits? They weren’t eating all those toxic fruits and vegetables but their lifespans can’t compare to the plant eaters… What say you?

    • Al mac  who are you telling? You can quote me above saying, “the longest lived populations ate a predominantly plant based diet”… that’s not to say that vegans might live longer.. there’s never been a vegan group of ppl so we don’t know. However, there were carnivorous groups and they don’t do well, even eating all that “top quality grass fed wild game”

  5. Um no, grains and beans are NOT very healthy for humans as a long term staple. Grains and beans are both loaded with “phytic acid”, AND grains also contain gluten which will destroy your “villi” in your stomach lining over time and lead to many problems and autoimmune diseases due to “leaky gut syndrome”.
    The only way to properly eat ‘grains and beans’ to offset their long term detrimental side effects is to thoroughly ‘soak and sprout’ these foods before consuming them. And that takes A LOT of time (which most people won’t bother doing).

    Moreover, in other areas, the message you are sending out in this video contradicts previous videos you’ve made about eating for longevity.
    I’m disappointed Dr. H.

  6. This guy is lying out his buttocks, This has been debunked many times over. This guy is a reporter. Ask yourself this, why would National Geographic hire a reporter to hire people to analyze this data? NG have nothing better to spend their money on? Every one of these blue zones except the 7th DA consume as much or more animal sourced food as the US. These places have the highest amount of centenarians but they don’t have the highest average life expectancy. This guy lied and cherry picked to create the proof needed to create the blue zone myth. Just like Ansel Keyes did in the 60s. I lived for years on a plant based diet for a decade or more and it almost kills me. High saturated fat diet reversed and cured over 30 physical health problems. Including diabetes

  7. I once had 98 Okinawans working for me. Whenever they got so much as a sniffle, they went immediately to bed rest and stayed there until it was gone. And, no, they are not vegetarians, or even close to it.

  8. THIS SPEAKER IS FACTUALLY WRONG ! The “expert” advise has been proven WRONG and dismissed without a scintilla of doubt!

    NO GRAINS, NO POTATOES,NO FRUITS AND NO LEGUMES !

    Meats heal !

    There are absolutely no essential carbohydrates needed in the human diet !

    The quote “blue zones “ are a myth. They and the original peoples before contact with the western diet were high in sea foods , Offal and low GI fruits and some vegetables. The key is that these diets are LOW IN FRUCTOSE , the five member sugar which is converted to fats !

    “But when Smith analyzed total mortality rates from the study as a function of the frequencies of consuming cheese, meat, milk, eggs and fat attached to meat, he found that the total death rate decreased as the frequencies of consuming cheese, eggs, meat and milk increased.

    The second study was published by Burr and Sweetnam in 1982. It showed that the annual death rate from heart disease among vegetarians was only 0.01 percent lower than that of nonvegetarians, yet the authors described that difference as “substantial.” The difference in all-cause death rate was in the opposite direction, namely higher for vegetarians, especially female vegetarians.”

    http://nourishingtraditions.com/true-blue-zones-loma-linda/

    Mortality in vegetarians and comparable nonvegetarians in the United Kingdom.

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/26657045/

    Vegetarianism: What the Science Tells Us

    https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/abcs-of-nutrition/vegetarianism-what-the-science-tells-us/

    The real Okinawa diet ! Plenty of PORK ( video 1 minute )
    https://youtu.be/4suFoLPdv-o

    Myth of the Okinawa diet
    https://theoffseason.wordpress.com/2007/06/08/the-myth-of-japanese-food/

    Sunday, June 5, 2016
    Willcox, the fraudulent fabricator of Okinawa sweet potato longevity diet

    https://truther10.blogspot.com/2016/06/willcox-fraudulent-fabricator-of.html?m=1

    The low protein status and decline in longevity of Okinawans

    https://www.researchgate.net/publication/51621527_Comments_on_Dietary_Restriction_Okinawa_Diet_and_Longevity

    Lying vegans the high priests of veganism -CLEARLY NOT SCIENTISTs
    https://youtu.be/3aLKMlKFUZ0

    Death by veganism
    By NINA PLANCK
    MAY 21, 2007

    https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/21/opinion/21planck.html

    Children need meat to thrive

    True but slightly biased.

    “A 2005 study conducted by a University of California Davis nutrition scholar found that among school-age children, those who consumed meat daily dramatically bested their vegetarian peers on muscle growth, intelligence and problem-solving skills.”

    A better summary that mentions the background of the children studied (poverty-stricken children in Africa) might be: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/children-on-meat-free-diets-suffer-impaired-growth-5544402.html

    “Denying growing children animal products in their diet during the critical first few years of life was “unethical” and could do permanent damage, said Professor Lindsay Allen, from the University of California at Davis.

    She conducted a study which showed that adding just two spoonfuls of meat to the diet of poverty-stricken children in Africa transformed them both physically and mentally.

    Over a period of two years the children almost doubled their muscle development, and showed dramatic improvements in mental skills. They also became more active, talkative and playful at school.”

    The study was:
    Dror, D. K., & Allen, L. H. (2011). The Importance of Milk and other Animal-Source Foods for Children in Low-Income Countries. Food and Nutrition Bulletin, 32(3), 227–243. doi:
    https://doi.org/10.1177/156482651103200307

    Meat only diet (a carnivore diet ) Why would it work?

    https://youtu.be/isIw2AN_-XU

    Two men all meat diet for one year 1930 by Walter S McLean and Eugene F Du Bois
    http://www.jbc.org/content/87/3/651.full.pdf

    https://zerocarbzen.com/2015/04/19/eskimos-prove-an-all-meat-diet-provides-excellent-health-by-vilhjalmur-stefansson/

    Why all humans need to eat meat for Health

    https://breakingmuscle.com/healthy-eating/why-all-humans-need-to-eat-meat-for-health

    Nina Teicholz: Red meat and health

    https://youtu.be/1rz-8H_i1wA

    Vitamin C and all meat diet with references in the article

    https://zerocarbzen.com/vitamin-c/

    Carnivore diet

    https://optimisingnutrition.com/2018/03/14/dr-shawn-bakers-carnivore-diet-a-review/

    Why all humans need to eat meat for Health

    https://breakingmuscle.com/healthy-eating/why-all-humans-need-to-eat-meat-for-health

    Why Eat Offal? The hidden health benefits of organ meats
    Posted by Christina Boyes on February 17, 2015

    https://www.wisechoicemarket.com/blog/why-eat-offal-the-hidden-health-benefits-of-organ-meats/

    Sweden Becomes First Western Nation to Reject Low-fat Diet Dogma in Favor of Low-carb High-fat Nutrition
    https://healthimpactnews.com/2013/sweden-becomes-first-western-nation-to-reject-low-fat-diet-dogma-in-favor-of-low-carb-high-fat-nutrition/

    Effect of the amount and type of dietary fat on cardiometabolic risk factors and risk of developing type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer: a systematic review
    Ursula Schwab, Lotte Lauritzen, Tine Tholstrup, Thorhallur I Haldorsson, Ulf Riserus, Matti Uusitupa, Wulf Becker

    Food & nutrition research 58 (1), 25145, 2014

    https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=sweden+16,000+rct+studies+review&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart#d=gs_qabs&p=&u=%23p%3DUcPx_ecoBHoJ

    Why vegans dislike Jordan Peterson ( Awesome argument— its a BELIEF DUH)

    https://youtu.be/Kh5uz13MsmA

    “The low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet… may well have played an unintended role in the current epidemics of obesity, lipid abnormalities, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndromes. This diet can no longer be defended by appeal to the authority of prestigious medical organizations.”

    Journal of the American College of Cardiology
    Volume 43, Issue 5, March 2004
    https://soo.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2003.10.034
    PDF Article

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*


Shares
Share This