The Blue Zones Solution: Eating and Living Like the World's Healthiest People

by Dan Buettner

Overview

Bestselling author Dan Buettner reveals how to transform your health using smart nutrition, lifestyle, and fitness habits gleaned from longevity research on the diets, eating habits, and lifestyle practices of the communities he's identified as "Blue Zones"—those places with the world's longest-lived, and thus healthiest, people, including locations such as Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula; Ikaria, Greece; and Loma Linda, California.
 
With the audacious belief that the lifestyles of the world's Blue Zones could be adapted and replicated in towns across North America, Buettner launched the largest preventive health care project in the United States, The Blue Zones City Makeovers, which has impacted the health of millions of Americans since 2009. In The Blue Zones Solution, readers can be inspired by the specific stories of the people, foods, and routines of our healthy elders; understand the role community, family, and naturally healthy habits can play in improving our diet and health; and learn the exact foods—including the 50 superfoods of longevity and dozens of recipes adapted for Western tastes and markets—that offer delicious ways to eat your way to optimum health. Throughout the book are lifestyle recommendations, checklists, and stories to help you create your own personal Blue Zones solution. Readers will learn and apply the 80/20 rule, the plant slant diet, social aspects of eating that lead to weight loss and great health naturally, cultivating your "tribe" of friends and family, and your greater purpose as part of your daily routine.
 
Filled with moving personal stories, delicious recipes, checklists, and useful tips that will transform any home into a miniature blue zone, The Blue Zones Solution is the ultimate blueprint for a healthy, happy life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781426216558
Publisher:	Disney Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/30/2017
Series:	The Blue Zones
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	48,204
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

DAN BUETTNER is the founder of Blue Zones, an organization that helps Americans live longer, healthier lives. His groundbreaking work on longevity led to his 2005 National Geographic cover story "Secrets of Living Longer" and two national bestsellers, The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest and Thrive. He lives in Minneapolis, MN. He can be found on Facebook and Twitter, and through his website bluezones.com.

Table of Contents

Foreword Dean Ornish, M.D. 9

Introduction: Discovering the Blue Zones Solution 13

Part 1 Discovering the Blue Zones

The Secrets of a Mediterranean Diet: Ikaria, Greece 33

A Diet From the World's Longest-Lived Women: Okinawa, Japan 43

A Diet From the World's Longest-Lived Men: Sardinia, Italy 53

An American Blue Zones Diet: Loma Linda, California 63

History's Best Longevity Diet: Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica 71

Part 2 Making an American Blue Zone

Finland's Miracle Makeover 87

The Minnesota Experiment 101

Thriving in the Beach Cities 119

Blue Zoning the Pork State 135

Part 3 Building Your Own Blue Zone

Food Rituals: How to Eat to 100 153

Blue Zones Menus: Meals and Snacks 191

Blue Zones Living: A Design for Easy Health 205

Part 4 Blue Zones Recipes

77 Easy, Delicious Recipes 231

The Science Behind the Blue Zones Solution 299

Acknowledgments 301

Selected Bibliography 305

Index 313

Editorial Reviews

"Buettner’s latest book, “The Blue Zones Solution,” . . . takes a deep dive into five places around the world where people have a beguiling habit of forgetting to die."—The New York Times

"Bestselling author Buettner is back with a well-organized game plan for a long and well-lived life...This is a thoughtfully presented and well-written guide from which anyone—no matter where he or she is in the journey to better health—can benefit." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

"An ideal way to learn how to live longer and better is to study people who are doing just that. [Buettner] distills the deepest insights from the Blue Zones to light our path." —Mehmet Oz, M.D.

"The Blue Zones Solution elegantly combines deep investigation and science with practical advice and recipes, making it the rare book that belongs in both your office and your kitchen." —Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and A Whole New Mind

"Buettner's initiative has the potential to dramatically change the way we think about health in America." —Walter Willett, M.D., chairman of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health

"Propogating the Blue Zones would not only prevent a rise in the prevalence of diabetes (and other such misfortunes); it would allow us to eliminate more than 80 percent of the burden we have now. That's revolutionary."
—David Katz, M.D., director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center

"If you want a delicious way to eat to 100, then this is perhaps the most important food book of your lifetime." —Andrew Zimmern, host of the Travel Channel's Bizarre Foods

"In this worthy successor to his 2009 best seller, The Blue Zones, journalist and health activist Buettner teases out the habits and practices of the people he deems the world’s healthiest...Readers seeking a healthier lifestyle will appreciate this warm and encouraging book." —Library Journal

"A lot of science and research have gone into searching for the healthiest diets, but when it comes down to the Blue Zones, the proof is in the pudding: These people actually are living longer, healthier lives. One of the tricks? Lay off the pudding." —Food and Wine

"Cheater's Guide to Living to 100: 4 super-simple secrets to living longer, healthier and happier—from longevity expert Dan Buettner and centenarians around the world." —Parade

"These healthy living techniques might just convince you to start planning ahead for your 100th birthday party." —Dailyburn.com 


 

From the Publisher

★ 12/15/2014
Bestselling author Buettner (The Blue Zones) is back with a well-organized game plan for a long and well-lived life. Taking what he’s learned from over a decade of studying the so-called Blue Zones—five hot spots across the globe where people enjoy optimal health and vitality well into their 80s, 90s, and as centenarians—Buettner and his colleagues tested whether Blue Zones could be willfully created, targeting communities in California, Iowa, and Minnesota. The results, as reported here, are both impressive and persuasive. Buettner neatly distills the enriching lifestyles, environments, and diets found in each area into small changes anyone can adopt. He also offers intriguing glimpses into other projects in progress and shares more than 80 pages of life-extending recipes designed to be cooked in the average American kitchen. This is a thoughtfully presented and well-written guide from which anyone—no matter where he or she is in the journey to better health—can benefit. Agent: Laurie Liss, Sterling Lord Literistic. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

04/01/2015
In this worthy successor to his 2009 best seller, The Blue Zones, journalist and health activist Buettner teases out the habits and practices of the people he deems the world's healthiest. The author noted, in his decadelong study of the people of the "blue zones" of Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece; and Loma Linda, CA, that a near-perfect diet was achieved in large part because each of the environments encouraged healthy eating. Acknowledging that food may be the ideal starting point for anyone seeking to emulate the health and well-being of long-lived peoples in the blue zones, Buettner stresses the corollary importance of social networks, daily rituals, physical environment, and sense of purpose. He believes that Americans can create the same healthy environments and achieve long-lasting changes that are sure to have a far greater impact than the willpower or discipline upon which they typically rely. He describes the ways in which readers can build their own blue zones and includes 75 recipes based on the "superfoods of longevity." Buettner emphasizes that this is not a deprivation diet; people in the blue zones eat for enjoyment. VERDICT Readers seeking a healthier lifestyle will appreciate this warm and encouraging book.—Linda F. Petty, Wimberley, TX

Library Journal