Add a decade of healthy, richer living to your life.

Scientists wait  for  the day when their hypotheses are confirmed by research. I felt a similar joy when reading the book,  The Blue Zones by Dan Buettner - given to me by a friend.  The book is subtitled “Lessons for living longer from the people who’ve lived the longest.” Apparently “how” we eat has great significance. Three of the nine “lessons” for optimizing your life involve food.

When I opened the book, the first thing to catch my eye was a photograph – it shows Giovanni Scannai, 103, seated at the head of a communal table, surrounded by his extended family.  This image struck me immediately, touching a core value of mine and according to his study – a key to longevity – that of a shared family meal.

After a number of years researching four communities scattered around the world (Barbagia region of Sardinina, Okinawa in Japan, Loma Linda in California, Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica), places he calls “Blue Zones”, Mr. Buettner found a number of practices in common to these people, who’s chance is three times as great as the rest of the world to reach the age of 100.  His book is about “listening to people who live in the world’s Blue Zones.”  He goes on to write, “The world’s healthiest, longest-lived people have many things to teach us about living longer, richer lives.”

After writing an article for National Geographic about the “Secrets of a Long Life”, Buettner’s team continued their research, resulting in his book, which he describes as nine lessons, “a cross-cultural distillation of the world’s best practices in longevity.”

Twelve of his tips from the nine lessons:

• Eat More Slowly
• Focus on Food
• Have a Seat
• Eat Early
• Eat 4 to 6 Vegatable Servings A Day
• Limit Intake of Meat
• Lead with Beans
• Eat Nuts Every Day
• Buy A Case of Quality Red Wine
• Treat Yourself to a “Happy Hour”
• Take it Easy
• Eat less

I would add a thirteenth: Cook For Someone You Love.

This advice is sound and something I strive to practice in my own life, as well as to share through my writing and teaching.  It is no surprise that a third of the habits of people living in the Blue Zones involve food, nor that they closely parallel the core  message of  our “Lessons from an Appalachian Table”.

But advice is one thing, practice is another and when it comes to food, it all comes back to time spent around your own table. One final irresistible tip from the book  ”Enroll in a yoga class”.

Mark's Paris Yoga

-Mark Rosenstein