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

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.