Not the plastic one that every other tourist wears around their necks, nor the gold one from a famous fantasy story. A silver compass points the straight path to longevity. Chinese medicine has precisely described that we can live to be 128 years old in good health,” Jiří Pantůček also says in the podcast Recipe for the Ear. It is the blue zones that are one of the ways to achieve this.
You can find the audio version of the podcast here:
Sardinia, the Greek island of Ikaria, the Californian town of Loma Linda, the Costa Rican Nicoya, Zanzibar, Okinawa. Those are the ones we know about so far. They do not lie in the same climate zone, they are not connected by a way of life, a traditional diet or a uniform style of spending free time. Yet the population of each is extremely high, as well as those who are eighty or ninety and over, enjoying really good health. “So far, scientists are only looking for points of contact with amazement,” says Jiří Pantůček, herbalist and longevity expert, in the podcast.
Nothing in common
Occasionally there are excited claims that someone has finally figured it out. “They mainly eat legumes!” “Little meat, that’s the key.” “Lots of movement and no alcohol!” But mostly just so that someone can quickly refute them again.
It turns out that what is really typical for blue zones cannot be completely simplified or generalized. Certainly not on specific examples. But it also means that if you put in a little effort, you can actually partially create such a blue zone yourself.
Where old age lives
It is neither a Mediterranean diet nor any other. It is not movement only outside or only inside, nor running or, conversely, walking. It’s not a miracle herb. It’s respect. To the rhythm of life of the given place. To his own body and also to what he has been used to for hundreds of years. This means local, seasonal ingredients, a routine adapted to the given climate zone, as well as movement that is as natural as possible.
According to the expert, one more feature of all these communities plays an important role. “Seniors are respected there until old age and no one excludes them from society,” points out Jiří Pantůček. According to current findings, this is also one of the pieces in the mosaic of longevity.
