Two decades ago, National Geographic Fellow Dan Buettner and his team set out around the globe to identify the world’s longest-living cultures and then research the lifestyle habits of these extraordinary populations to find out why they live as long and as well as they do.

Once they found the five areas in the world where people live the healthiest, longest, they circled them on a map with a blue pen and aptly called them the ‘blue zones’ – a name that’s stuck ever since!

 

THE BLUE ZONES^® WAY OF LIFE

The five blue zones^® are: Sardinia, Italy; Ikaria, Greece; Okinawa, Japan; Nicoya, Costa Rica; and Loma Linda, California. What makes those areas special is that more people in these longevity hotspots live to be 100 years old (making them centenarians) than people living anywhere else on Earth! 

To find out why - and help others live the same way - Buettner and his team studied how they live, from what they eat to how they move. They found that while location varied widely, the citizens of all five blue zones^® shared a similar way of life that included certain habits (nine to be exact) like moving naturally, putting family first, and eating a mostly plant-based diet.

Together, these habits were dubbed The Power 9 and embody the Blue Zones way of life.

BEANS ARE A CORNERSTONE FOOD IN THE BLUE ZONES

Eating mostly plants is the defining feature of the Blue Zones^® diet. Since these cultures eat meat only around five times a month, they rely more on plant-based proteins like beans, a nutrition powerhouse, to give them nutrients they need. In fact:

People in the blue zones^® eat roughly four times as many beans as the average American and Blue Zones’ Chief Medical Officer, Dexter Shurney, calls beans “the cornerstone of centenarian diets.”

Not only are they full of nature’s goodness, beans are also some of the most sustainable crops available (and don’t forget cans are recyclable!), making them a good choice for the planet, too.

EAT LIKE THEY DO IN THE BLUE ZONES

So, if you want to eat like they do in the blue zones, start by eating more beans! With all the delicious varieties in the bean aisle, from fava beans to Rustic Tuscany^™ Chickpeas and every bean in between, it’s easy to get the 1/2 to 1 cup of beans each day that Blue Zones^® recommends. Start with these mouthwatering recipes and see for yourself how fun and delicious it can be to eat like the world’s healthiest, longest-living people with a pantry full of beautiful beans!