Mark A. Mahoney
There is steady interest — from everyday people to researchers alike — in what it takes to live a long, healthy life. From cookbooks to research papers to the hundreds of articles you can access with a quick Google search, the amount of information to digest and advice to take in can get overwhelming.
But there are simple approaches you can take and easy changes to implement if you’re hoping for increased longevity.
Five lifestyle choices that seem to help people live longer are highlighted in this column and are based on research which includes the work done by Dan Buettner on the “Blue Zones.”
1. Eat a healthy diet
“Diet is by far the most important factor” for longevity, Valter Longo, the Edna M. Jones Professor of Gerontology and Biological Sciences and Director of the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern … who’s studied longevity for about 20 years, told CNBC earlier this year.
Countless experts who study the world’s longest-lived communities couldn’t stress enough how much the food you eat can affect your lifespan. An eating pattern similar to the Mediterranean diet is what longevity experts recommend the most.
According to Professor Longo and Dan Buettner, (co-produced the 3 time Emmy Award winning documentary TV mini-series, “Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones”) the longevity expert who interviews centenarians and visits Blue Zones, a longevity diet should be mostly plant-based and include:
Legumes, especially beans
- Nuts
- Whole grains like oats
- No red meat
- A healthy amount of vegetables, particularly leafy greens
2. Move your body often
Some longevity experts recommend daily exercise, and others recommend daily movement through low-intensity physical activity.
Strength training twice a week and aerobic exercise three times a week, even for 10 minutes of day, is one of the daily practices that increase a person’s chances of living to 90, according to the New England Centenarian Study (New England Centenarian Study).
In blue zones, the physical activity is a lot less vigorous, but centenarians still move daily, Buettner said in his Netflix documentary, “Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones.” Typically, residents of blue zones walk from place to place, build things by hand and tend to their own gardens, which allow them to engage in low-intensity physical activity every day.”
3. Believe in something
By the end of 2023, Buettner had interviewed 263 centenarians in his lifetime. All but five of those centenarians belonged to a faith-based community, he wrote in a Make It article.
“People who go to church, temple or a mosque live somewhere between four and fourteen years longer than people who have no religion,” Buettner said on an episode of “Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris.”
It turns out that people who have a faith or life philosophy are also happier than those who don’t have one, according to Arthur C. Brooks (the Parker Gilbert Montgomery Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Professor of Management), a leading happiness expert who teaches a free, online course about the joyful feeling at Harvard.
When you follow a religion or spiritual practice, it helps you find meaning in life, he explained in his course.
4. Maintain positive relationships
Having positive relationships in your life is the No. 1 thing that can help you live a longer, happier life. This ongoing 86 year-old study found that people with strong, supportive relationships were happier, healthier, and lived longer than those with weak or troubled relationships. Researchers call this “social fitness.”
“Whether it’s a thoughtful question or a moment of devoted attention, it’s never too late to deepen the connections that matter to you,” wrote Marc Schulz and Dr. Robert Waldinger, directors of the Harvard study, in 2023.
Catering to social connections is also a value of centenarians in blue zones. “People in the Blue Zones make their partners a priority, nurture their relationships and invest in them,” Buettner said in his documentary. “Having the right friends that is the biggest secret to help these people in Blue Zones do the right things and avoid the wrong things.”
5. Prioritize your purpose and lifelong learning
In Okinawa, Japan, one of the blue zones with many centenarians, ikigai, which loosely translates to “the happiness of always being busy”, is seen as an important value. So much so that a book called “Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life” is one of the most popular books about longevity and an international bestseller.
Ikigai is all about finding your purpose and committing to it daily. And that’s exactly what Buettner recommends doing for longevity: “People with a sense of purpose live about eight years longer than rudderless people.”
There are seven practices researchers of the 86-year-long Harvard Study of Adult Development discovered that led to “being happy and well in older age rather than ending up sad and sick,” Brooks’ happiness course explained. One of those practices is fostering a growth mindset by investing in lifelong learning and education.
“Aging happy and well, instead of sad and sick, is at least under some personal control,” Dr. George E. Vaillant, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and one of the pioneers of the study for many years told the Harvard Gazette in 2001.
Mark A. Mahoney, Ph.D. has been a Registered Dietitian/Nutritionist for over 35 years and completed graduate studies in Nutrition & Public Health at Columbia University. He can be reached at marqos69@hotmail.com.
