What The Longest Living People Eat Every Day | Blue Zone Kitchen Author Dan Buettner

What The Longest Living People Eat Every Day | Blue Zone Kitchen Author Dan Buettner

The foods that people living to 100+ — in Sardinia, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece and Loma Linda, CA. (aka Blue Zones) — eat.

There are five zones on the planet, generally speaking? Yeah, statistically longest lived. Okay, what are the five zones? All right. Walk us through this. First one Sardinia, Italy. There's a few things going on very interesting. First of all there's a type of wine called Cannonau here that has the highest levels of artery-scrubbing antioxidants because they macerate the wine and the seeds and the skins and that's where most of the anti– All together that's where they're getting that. Yes. Gotcha. Called Cannonau. I met, Rachael, the longest-lived family in the history of the world– nine siblings, collective age 861 years. The oldest daughter was 109. And every day of their life they essentially ate this. And the centerpiece was a minestrone made from olive oil. And beans. Beans, barley, onions, garlic, tomato. It's basically a cocktail of longevity. Turns out that scientists showing right now the most important virtual organ in our body is something called the microbiome right there. Right, your gut health. Weighs about eight pounds. People don't realize that. A hundred trillion bacteria that make compounds that control inflammation. They control your immune system, supercharge your immune system, and they even put you in a better mood. The only thing those good bugs eat is fiber. And the standard American diet has burgers, chips, fries. They have that no fiber at all. This is a riot of fiber. You put this in your mouth, you're gut is gonna celebrate. (audience applauding) This looks like kinda white bread, but it's actually sourdough bread, and metabolically sourdough bread is very different than white bread. When you leaven bread with a lactobacillus, the bacteria, instead of just yeast– What makes it sour. Makes it sour– The starter. And makes it rise, that's almost no gluten in there. This is Okinawa. So sourdough breads have less gluten? About 1/20th the gluten. A real sourdough than a white bread. Longest-lived women in the world, Okinawa, Japan. So they were eating– This looks like a warty cucumber. It actually it's called bitter melon, three compounds that lowers blood sugar. Turmeric, this probably has the best research for bein' an anti-cancer– And it's used in many different cultures and cuisines. India, Thailand. And all Middle Eastern cuisine, as well. Tofu, which is actually a great substitute for me, and I have a great recipe in the book on how to make tofu. It's got all the protein of meat with none of the bad stuff. How to make it taste like meat. And then the most important food. This is what Okinawans ate for most of their life. About 60% of the dietary intake came from sweet potatoes, usually a purple sweet potato called imo. And if you're stuck– Imo. And that's an island. So this is back towards your part of the world. Ikaria is the cousin of Crete. This is the place that not only do they live a long time, they don't suffer from dementia. They have about 1/10th the rate of dementia. So you start lookin' why do they do it? Well, part of it's the Mediterranean diet, but also it's these herbs: Rosemary, which you'll have heard of bein'– Of course, I use all of these. Yes, a mint, there's a sage and there's an oregano. All of these herbs have– We had them tested. They have two compounds. They have powerful anti-inflammatories– the root of every major age-related disease, but also diuretics which lowers blood pressure. And people use them not only in cooking, but as teas. They'll just take this and plumb it in hot water, and they'll make a delicious tea, maybe a little bit of honey. They're drinkin' these every day, and that might explain the low rates of dementia. ‘Cause you forget that your brain health is also about vascular. Yeah, I would say this is arguably here the greatest longevity diet ever invented. It was invented in Latin America, Mesoamerica. They call it the three sisters: Corn, which they use to make these beautiful whole-grained corn tortillas, beans, and squash. And when you mix these three together, not only complex carbohydrates, but as much protein as a three-ounce steak. And fiber (indistinct). And Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica where we found the longest-lived people in the Americas. They're eating mostly bean tortillas with squash, of course, it's beautifully prepared, and it's about 80% of their dietary intake–very important. And then here in America the longest-lived Americans are actually among the Seventh-Day Adventists. They're conservative Christians, The highest concentration of whom live around Loma Linda, California, not far from Los Angeles. They live about seven years longer than people living the next town over. Amazing, isn't it? So you start asking yourself why is that? Well, one of the reasons is they take their diet directly from the Bible. In Genesis, God actually talks about the diet of the Garden of Eden. Every plant that bears seed, so nuts and beans and grains, and every plant that bears fruit, so that's what Adventists are mostly eating. And if you're eating a handful of nuts a day, about two ounces, you're probably living about two years longer than your friend who's not eating a handful. Amazing, Amazing. (audience applauding) Again, the Blue Zones Kitchen is available now– 100 recipes to help you live to 100. (audience cheering)

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