Buettner Blue Zones

In Dan Buettner’s TED Talk of How to Live to be 100+, he teamed up with National
Geographic and the National Institute of Aging to cover three main areas where he was able to find a large population of centenarians; he called these areas “Blue Zones” (Buettner, 0:33). In these three Blue Zones Buettner was able to come down to nine common denominators that have helped contribute to such a huge boost of longevity in the population. Of the nine the most important three and most commonly covered by Buettner are diets, physical activity, and society.
In my community of Wyndemere, the main demographic is elder citizens and I will cover how we can improve life styles and promote longevity.
Of the nine common denominators that Buettner found, diets
Pryde’s diet consisted of a, “moderate consumption of eggs, chocolate, nuts, and caffeinated coffee, […] restricted sodium intake, and a diet that emphasizes fruits and vegetables” (Pryde, 2011).
A healthy “100 years+” diet doesn’t seem too difficult once it gets boiled down to the basics. As Buettner said, you should eat more vegetables with lots of colors, Pryde advises us to avoid the unhealthy and Cardio Vascular Disease inducing foods and emphasizes the consumption of vegetables and fruits. To help support this search for the healthiest diet, Corliss et. al. of Time magazine also researched centenarian diets and health habits, even here in
America. Studies of Seventh-Day Adventists in Utah have found out, “Those unusually clean- living Americans are genetically diverse, but they avoid alcohol, caffeine, and tobacco—and they tend to live an average of eight years longer than their countrymen” (Corliss, et. al., 2004), as
Corliss et. al. puts it. Corliss et. al. added the line of “genetically diverse” because, as also confirmed by Buettner, “…that only 10 percent of how long the average person
(Freeman, et. al., 2013)
For the centenarians studied by Freeman et. al., their idea of spirituality consisted of faith and devotion. Others reported to believe in feelings of happiness and others were in question of God, with belief and disbelief (Freeman, et. al.). Finally, Freeman et. al. was able to highlight the centenarians’ goals and purpose in life, “Almost all centenarians in the current study were able to

LIVE TO BE 100
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positively reflect on their life’s achievements…” (Freeman, et. al.), which sounds very similar to the Okinawan’s “ikigai”.
I live in a small neighborhood of Wyndemere. In Wyndemere the main demographic of its inhabitants are elderly folk. There’s not much to improve upon the community because the people are already living healthy life styles covered by Buettner. When I’m out and about in my neighborhood I always see people walking either in pairs or with a pet. In Wyndemere we have a tennis court in which the elderly take great advantage of by playing a couple rounds. In my community of elderly folk, they are mostly grandparents. They have family visiting every few weeks and keep up a healthy family relation. Of the three factors covered by Buettner