Award-winning journalist Dan Buettner has spent years uncovering the secrets behind longevity.
His work revealed five places around the world – dubbed Blue Zones – where people live the longest, healthiest, happiest lives.
Diet plays a significant role. A nutritional regimen based on a plant-based diet (high amounts of complex carbohydrates, medium amounts of protein, and medium amounts of fat) rose to the top as commonalities among these areas.
Specifically, the following are key components:
- whole grains
- greens
- nuts
- cooked beans (which is the cornerstone of all areas)
Individuals in Blue Zone hot spots also drink moderate amounts of wine and regularly drink coffee and tea.
Another life factor Dan researched was happiness and the characteristics that accompany a fulfilled, happy existence.
Listen as Dan joins Dr. Friedman to discuss the nutritional and lifestyle habits of healthy, happy people.
Featuring:
Dan Buettner, Journalist
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. His articles about these places in The New York Times Magazine and National Geographic are two of the most popular for both publications.
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 Blue Zones 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.
His books, The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest, Thrive: Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way, The Blue Zones Solution: Eating and Living Like the World’s Healthiest People, and The Blue Zones of Happiness were all national bestsellers. Buettner has appeared on The Today Show, Oprah, NBC Nightly News, and Good Morning America, and has keynoted speeches at TEDMED, Bill Clinton’s Health Matters Initiative, and Google Zeitgeist. His speech in January 2018 at the World Economic Forum in Davos was chosen as “one of the best of Davos.”
Buettner also holds three Guinness World Records in distance cycling.
