The Blue Zones Project Grocery Store Pledge includes ways to encourage customers to purchase healthier items in the store while preserving profits and attracting new customers.
Blue Zones are places around the world where people live significantly longer and healthier lives. They were popularized by a 2023 Netflix series, “Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones.” More people are learning about the secrets to longevity uncovered by Dan Buettner, a National Geographic Fellow, best-selling author and the founder of Blue Zones Project®. In his travels across the globe, Buettner identified five “Blue Zones” with the highest concentration of healthy people living to 100 years or older: Okinawa (Japan), Sardinia (Italy), Nicoya Peninsula (Costa Rica), Ikaria (Greece) and Loma Linda (California, U.S.A.).
After discovering Blue Zones across the globe, a team of researchers identified “the power 9,” or the diet and lifestyle habits, they all shared that contribute to overall health and longevity. Since the average lifespan for Americans is 77.5 years, and more than half suffer from chronic diseases in adulthood, the Blue Zones offer a holistic approach that food retailers can use to engage shoppers in a variety of ways.
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Local Blue Zone Projects®
Blue Zone Projects® are community-led well-being movement initiatives designed to make healthy choices easier through permanent changes to a city’s environment, policies and social networks. Local projects existing throughout the United States incorporate Buettner’s findings to help cities implement policies and programs that will move a community toward optimal health and well-being. Bringing together private and public organizations under a shared vision to build a culture of health and well-being, local Blue Zones Projects seek to collaborate with supermarkets and corner stores, as well as suppliers and food producers.
According to Kris Bio, MS, RDN, the organization and well-being coordinator for Blue Zones Scottsdale (Arizona), “Participating communities have experienced double-digit drops in obesity and tobacco use and have saved millions of dollars in health care costs.”
