Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones Season 1, Episode 3

 Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones Season 1, Episode 3 » Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones 

 The End of Blue Zones? People in two very different Blue Zones — the Greek island Ikaria and Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula — thrive thanks to their unique diets and traditions.

 ( birds chirping ) 

( bells tolling ) 

( lively music playing ) 

( indistinct chatter ) 

Dan: Eleni, you were telling me about the dough here. It's not just plain old bread dough, is it? I put a little bit, um, sourdough. Inside is a pie. Onions, leeks, fresh onions, and herbs. A lot of herbs. Oh my God. 

Dan: It's not gonna shock people to learn that there's a longevity hotspot in Greece. After all, Greece is one of the homes of the Mediterranean diet. Everybody knows the Mediterranean diet is good for you, with its greens and olive oil instead of butter and sparing use of meat. 

( lively music continues ) 

Dan: We know that produces healthier populations. But here's this one special Island that is producing outsized numbers when it comes to longevity, and that is Ikaria. Here's a population living about seven years longer than Americans with about half the rate of cardiovascular disease. 

Dan: And what was really interesting is, as I was meeting people over 60 or 70 or 100, I couldn't find any cases of dementia. 

( speaking Greek ) 

( laughing ) 

Dan: So I knew I had to find how this island is different than all the rest. 

( dramatic music playing ) 

( peaceful music playing ) 

Dan: So when I find a place with outsized longevity, I want to understand how it's different. And a good place to look is history and geography. Ikaria has this very unique culture because it had no natural ports. By the Middle Ages, Ikaria was almost completely isolated from the rest of the ancient world. Ikarians couldn't depend on a boat arriving with a bunch of supplies, so they had to figure out how to eke a living out of this really rough, rocky soil. And it pushed a resilience that you did not see in other places. They had to develop an ability to live off the land, an ability to identify plants and harness bees and cooperate against really difficult situations. And it's actually through that difficulty and hardship that they emerge as one of the healthiest populations on the planet. 

( peaceful music continues ) 

Dan: Thank you for the almonds. All right. Okay, we have a few questions for you. 

Thea in Greek: He wants to ask you some questions now. 

Dan in English: When it comes to what life was like... We heard before 1980 that Ikaria was completely self-sufficient. What does she remember about that time? 

( in Greek ) You can find whatever you want in stores now. But back then, we only had flour because we grew it ourselves. We had to mill our own wheat. You know what our coffee was back then? It was barley and chickpeas, which we roasted and brewed. 

( in English ) So they literally bought nothing? 

( gentle guitar music playing ) 

Dan: So Ikarians had to learn how to survive on their own. What emerges is a very different sort of Greek way of living. 

( bees buzzing ) 

Dan: They had to learn how to identify plants to use for food, for greens, for herbs, for spices, for medicines. And so the Ikarians developed a habit of drinking these local herbal teas. What kind of herbal teas do you drink? 

( in Greek ) Sage tea, rosemary tea, common mallow tea. 

Dan in English: What's the best tea to drink on a daily basis? 

( speaking Greek ) 

( in English ) 

Wine. 

( all laughing ) 

Dan: Grape tea! 

( laughing ) 

Dan: I like the way you roll. 

( laughs ) 

Drinking herbal teas, especially when you're doing it for decades, has a litany of health benefits, and one of them actually might be lower rates of dementia. They're all anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and they contain often diuretics, which lower blood pressure. Herbal tea is something that persists to this day and has a very strong tie to the extraordinary longevity on the island. 

( in Greek ) Honey? 

Dan in English: Yeah, a little bit. Is this homemade honey as well? 

Thea: This is from Ikaria. 

Dan: Perfect. It's so easy to put tablespoon after tablespoon of sugar in our tea. In America, the go-to sweetener is either sugar or high fructose corn syrup. But in Ikaria, for millennia, it's been honey. 

( bees buzzing ) 

Dan: There are several interesting dimensions of Ikarian honey. The beekeepers actually move their hives as the season progresses. So, at the beginning, it might be with the wildflowers near the coast, but then eventually, they end up in these pine forests near the top. So these bees are gathering the nectar from different types of plants. With that nectar are other micronutrients or other bioactive compounds. We know that honey has shown to inhibit cancer. It seems that Ikarian honey is contributing to longevity. What does that honey look like compared to honey in a grocery store, and is it healthier somehow? 

( in Greek ) 

The problem with some store-bought honey is it's been boiled. As a result, they destroy the pollen grains, and it turns into sugar. 

( in English ) You never boil the honey or warm it a lot. Even if you use it in the tea as a sweetener, just leave the tea until the point that you can drink it. 

Dan: Because the honey in Ikaria is not pasteurized, it's not boiled, the nutrients and the bioactive  of it. That means Ikarian honey is compounds aren't destroyed in the processingbasically from the bee to your tea, and that seems to have an extra added benefit. So for me, when I start thinking of the sweetener I'm gonna go to, it's gonna be a raw honey, and ideally a honey like the one we see in Ikaria. 

( mellow music playing ) 

Dan: In Ikaria this time, I had a really big epiphany around love. 

woman in Greek: Taki, I brought green onions for our salad. You sharpened the knife to cut the lettuce, right? 

woman: For you. I sharpened it to cut the salad nicely so you enjoy it. 

Dan in English: We know that when a spouse dies from a long-term relationship, your chances of dying in the next three months go up by something like two-thirds. But here we have the reverse happening with Aleka and Panagiotis. These two came to true love late in life. 

( in Greek ) When my first wife passed away, I had lost my appetite to live. I wouldn't talk. I wouldn't laugh. I wouldn't eat. I fell into pieces, and she brought me back. I must have been 73. I was sitting on a bench at church with my best friend. I was looking at the women that were coming in. More than 40 women had entered. As soon as she stepped in, an electric wave struck me. 

Aleka: I don't remember who called who, and we met at Pezi Lake. He had prepared a meal for me. A picnic. And he played a tape and sang "I love you because you're beautiful." When I was looking at him, something was tickling my soul! I married my first husband at 16 and had a gloomy life, but you have made me complete, and I have forgotten the past. I feel as if I have lived all my years with you. 

Dan in English: The power of happy, committed partnerships may seem obvious, but we can't underestimate how this type of connection can lead to a longer, more fulfilled life. People in the Blue Zones make their partners a priority, nurture their relationships and invest in them. 

Dan: I believe that wine has been playing a surprisingly powerful role in Ikaria's longevity culture throughout history. Greek myth actually says the god of wine was born here. They've been using the same grapes for centuries, and, not only that, the same ancient process. Oh my God! It tastes like Ikaria on a spring day. Yeah, that's a good wine. Not overly sweet. It's amazing. 

man: So the Ikarians, we have a winemaking method. Under this, there's an amphora and the... 

Dan: Which is a big clay vessel, right?

 man: Yes. The temperature on the top might be what the sun... 

Dan: Yeah. Uh, sunlight. But five centimeters under it, it's humid and cool. 

We collect the grapes manually. There's no machines. It's a very long process but gives very good quality. 

Dan: Only the good grapes go in here. 

Konstantinos: Yeah, exactly. 

Dan: And here, instead of an oak barrel, it's stored the way that people before the time of Christ were storing wine. 

Yes, yes. 

Dan: It's amazing. We're all aware of the controversy around wine and alcohol. But when you look at the wine in Ikaria, something different is happening here. The wine is natural. There aren't any chemicals added to it. We also know that when drinking Ikarian wine with a Mediterranean meal, you increase the absorption of the antioxidants. You were telling me that minerals that come out of the... 

Konstantinos: Potassium. Phosphorus, boron, iron. Everything, like the microclimate, the quality of the grape, the quality of the island, gives these unique qualities that they were able to call it medicinal wine. This is nearly like drinking a supplement. 

Konstantinos: Yes. 

( in Greek ) To our health! 

Dan: People in Ikaria have been drinking the same wine for over 100 generations, and they're living the longest. And for me, that's enough of a connection to allow me to enjoy my glass of wine at the end of the night. 

( playing a lively tune ) 

( man singing in Greek ) 

Dan: So one of the bright spots in Ikaria were the young people and how they not only preserve these traditions, but they actually celebrate them. For me, where that most comes alive is for the panegyris, these great all-night parties where people from 14 to 94 are coming together and connecting socially and having fun. They are dancing all night long. And you look at it, and you might say, "Well, big deal. They're at a party." But actually, an hour of running or an hour of dancing are about equal when it comes to caloric burn. But an hour of dancing is a blast. We've tended to associate exercise with suffering. "If there's no pain, there's no gain." But in Ikaria, we're learning that, actually, physical activity can be joyful. They are laughing the whole time. Laughter is good for our arteries. It's good for heart disease. The happiness is palpable. I think what Blue Zones teach us is that longevity can be joyous. It doesn't have to be a chore. And community, connection is the prescriptive to longevity. 

( whimsical music playing ) 

It wasn't surprising that you'd find extraordinary longevity here. But after marinating in the beauty and the culture of Ikaria, it wasn't until I traveled back to the Americas that I found the most extraordinary centenarians on the planet. I remember the first time I came to Nicoya. I met up with my local guide, Jorge Vindas. 

Welcome to Nicoya. 

Dan: He introduced me to one of the first centenarians I was to meet in Costa Rica, a lady named Ponchita. 

( both speaking Spanish ) 

Dan in English: One hundred and five years old, and she was absolutely amazing. If there was one person that embodied the promise of Blue Zones and what it offers the rest of us, it was Ponchita. 

( laughs ) 

( in Spanish ) 

You see? It's a good machete. 

Dan in English: Nicoya is a rural, remote region in northern Costa Rica, isolated from the rest of the country, an 80-mile peninsula, just south of the Nicaraguan border. In this Blue Zone, I found that the proportion of centenarians is close to three and a half times the global average. And, incredibly, from what I saw, many of them live without medication or disability. In most of the world, the data is clear. You need to be wealthy to afford to be healthy. As income goes up, so does life expectancy. But Costa Rica's income is only about one-sixth that of the United States, and yet they actually exceed our average life expectancy. In fact, the Blue Zone here is among the poorest regions in the country. People living in Nicaragua, just 20 miles to the north, they're not living a long time, nor the people to the south living in Panama. But here, there seems to be a sweet spot. People in Nicoya, Costa Rica, are living among the longest in the world. Why is that? Ever meet somebody who, when you find out how old they are, it just doesn't seem to match? 

So let me tell you a story about a guy named Ramiro. So my colleague Jorge shows up at a ranch in Costa Rica expecting to meet this centenarian. Instead, he meets this cowboy who's got, you know, smooth skin and perfect teeth, and he's jumping on a horse and lassoing cows and riding around. 

( Ramiro speaking Spanish ) 

Dan in English: And after a while, he asked this Ramiro, you know, "I was supposed to meet a centenarian," and Ramiro says, "Well, that's me." And Jorge says, "Well, can I see your ID?" And, sure enough, on his national identity, it says born August 1921, 100 years old. And Jorge still doesn't believe it. He travels to the capital city a couple weeks later, looks up the national records, and, sure enough, in these sequentially listed IDs, there is Ramiro, confirmed 100-year-old. This guy looks like he's 70 years old. Easily the most vital centenarian I've met on any continent over the past 20 years. A scientist by the name of David Rehkopf, from Stanford, measured the biological age of Costa Ricans in Nicoya. That was one of the most fascinating findings to me in our telomere work. And that was that people in Nicoya... 

Dan: And he found that, in this part of Costa Rica, Nicoyans actually have a biological age about ten years younger than their chronological age would suggest. So, what's going on here that explains this young biological age? 

Dan in Spanish: Hello! 

man: Dan Buettner. 

Dan: Pleasure. 

( speaking Spanish ) 

man: Sit down, friend. 

Dan: Did you work today? 

man: Some. 

Dan: Did you? 

man: Yes. 

Dan: What time did you get up? 

man: At 4:00. 

Dan: At 4:00? 

man: Yes. 

Dan: It's ten o'clock. You've already been working for almost six hours. And why do you work so much? You don't have to work so hard. 

Man: That's what they say, but I can't. Because that's my life. 

Dan in English: Costa Ricans have this very clear sense of purpose they call plan de vida. They know where they're heading in life. They know why they're waking up in the morning. That's what propels them through difficulties, keeps them doing the work. And for me, this was an aha moment. It's very similar to the ikigai we saw in Okinawa. So now we've seen this same idea in two different Blue Zones, and that tells me this is important. 

Yes! 

( laughing ) 

( man speaking Spanish ) 

Dan in English: You see the way Nicoyans live, and you can't help but notice they do everything by hand. They don't have the mechanical conveniences to do their housework and their yard work. For instance, they use a machete to cut their grass. And the activities around keeping the house clean, gathering and preparing food, involve unconscious movement, which, at the end of the day, amounts to more physical activity than, quote, unquote, "exercise." 

( ethereal music playing ) 

You watch a woman making tortillas. The corn had to be ground by this crank. And, you know, they end up with, like, Popeye arms trying to get that to the right consistency. It's a workout. And it happened effortlessly, too, 'cause they're so used to it. They didn't even realize that they were burning calories. For most of human history, we've had to work all the time, so it's only natural that we would come up with conveniences and mechanical helpers to do a lot of our work. But now we've engineered most physical activity out of our life. But when you look at Costa Ricans, they're still chopping wood, and they're still grinding corn by hand and growing their own food. And it makes you wonder if they're getting more exercise by doing everyday chores than we are by going to the gym. These things might seem small, but they add up over time, and they could not only burn more calories than, say, going to the gym, but they may also keep your metabolism burning higher. 

man in Spanish: Come on! 

( Dan laughing ) 

man: This is dangerous. 

Dan: Yes, I imagine. 

man: Can't you see?

 Dan: You still use an ax at 86?! 

man: I started with the ax when I was 14 years old. 

Dan: And what other work do you do? man: I cut with a machete, and I fix fences. 

Dan: And how many hours do you work daily?

man: I work from 6:00 to 10:00. Now, with my old age, I think that you have to rest. 

Dan in English: You think about the way Americans work. We work 40, 50 hours a week. In Nicoya, they also work very hard, but it tends to be in an abbreviated time. So work very hard, usually in the morning, and then they sort of take the afternoon off. 

Dan in Spanish: Do you have money in the bank? 

man: No. 

Dan: You don't have any? You don't have any security? 

man: No, sir.

(Dan speaking Spanish ) 

man: You have to rely on your own... That's right. 

Dan: And if you get sick, what happens? Juan: Let's say, when I have money, I like to go out and treat myself. 

man: To a long life! That's right! 

( both laughing ) 

Juan: I do not complain. I'm poor and ugly, but I have enjoyed as much as one should enjoy. 

Dan: You said poor and ugly? You are not ugly. You are macho. 

( both laughing ) 

Juan: How could I explain? It would have to be thanks to the Lord because I ask him that if, at this age that I am, already 86, but I still move around alone, I do my jobs... If he's going to give me more years, let it always be like this. I ask him when I go to bed, when I get up, "Give me strength." 

Dan in English: While I wasn't able to measure their leisure time, in Nicoya, just like all the other Blue Zones, people would never do a couple extra hours of work when they could be enjoying their family or taking a siesta or interacting with their friends. So, in other words, they slow down to make time for things that really matter to them. 

man in Spanish: Good morning. 

José Benerando, I'm here for this year's visit. How are you? 

José: Good. 

Dan in English: Here's a country that spends about one-fifteenth the amount we do on healthcare. Yet they came up with this genius approach that actually helps people avoid diseases before they're a big problem, something that we've completely missed in most other countries around the world. Costa Rica has a longer life expectancy than the United States does, much lower rates of middle-aged mortality, and they achieve that spending about one-tenth per capita than we do in the United States. How do you achieve that? 

( in English ) 

So it's reinforcing water. It's moving forward with very strong nutrition programs, making sure, especially children, get the proteins that they need to develop their brains during the first 12, 24 months of their life. It is creating a tremendous amount of new infrastructure in what we have called los puestos de salud, small clinics. They begin to populate the geography with the idea of bringing health to communities and to where people are living. 

Dan: Since the mid-'90s, every man, woman, and child in Costa Rica has had the right to a visit from a healthcare ambassador. Each team serves about 4,000 people, and they go door-to-door over the course of the year. They know their names. They're almost always invited in. They sit down with 80, 90, 100-year-olds, and they ask, "How are you doing?" 

Wesly in Spanish: Does someone dress you? Do they help you with your clothes? 

Mr. José Benerando: I put them on by myself and everything. I put on my clothes and underwear. I wash myself. I do everything by myself. 

Wesly: Mr. José Benerando, what date is it today? 

Mr. José Benerando: Today is the 8th, right? 

Wesly: Eighth of what month, Mr. José Benerando? Eighth of what month?

Mr. José Benerando: March? 

Wesly: What year? 

Mr. José Benerando: Well, I'm not very sure of the year, but I do know it's March 8th. 

José in English: Public policy in Costa Rica has become a culture. It has become a way of life. It has become something that we feel proud of. 

Dan: In the United States, we hope for health, but we really incent for sickness. All of the money lies in waiting for you to get sick and then getting paid to heal you. And it's both incredibly expensive and ineffective, but here's a country that spends a fraction the amount we do on healthcare, and they're still getting better results. How is it that such a poor country is able to offer such an efficient healthcare system? This just might be contributing to Nicoya longevity. 

woman in Spanish: I started making rosquillos as a child. I used to go to a neighbor's house to help her make rosquillos. 

Dan: How old were you then? 

woman: About ten, maybe. 

Dan: How old is this grinding stone? 

woman: Oh, no, that stone, I can't tell you because my mother used to grind on that stone. 

( in English ) Wow. 

woman in Spanish: Yes, my mother used to grind with it, then she gave it to me. 

Dan: Yeah. 

woman: She'd done a lot of grinding. It has more than 100 years. 

Dan: Yes. Zayda: Everything she learned to do, she taught me, too, so I do everything like that. And I have passed this on to my daughter. 

( whimsical music playing ) 

( people chatting in Spanish ) 

( in English ) Without a doubt, one of the reasons people in Nicoya are living a long time is because they are eating this diet of beans, squash, and corn. They call it "the three sisters." It's the Mesoamerica trifecta that's been consumed by people in that region for at least 6,000 years. Corn, often prepared in the form of tortillas, is a traditional staple of the diet. The kernels are an excellent source of complex carbohydrates, rich in vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Their traditional processing of corn boosts the nutritional value, starting with the wood ash that women add when they soak the corn. This breaks down the cell walls of the kernels and releases niacin, which helps control cholesterol. And black beans contain the same pigment-based antioxidants found in blueberries. They're also rich in fiber, which helps cleanse the colon. Squash is a good source of vitamins A, B, and C and is rich in minerals, such as potassium and magnesium. Now, we know from the Adventists that a vegetarian diet is good for us, but most Americans' biggest concern with skipping out on meat is that they won't get enough protein. Richer countries have become fixated on the idea that we need protein from our meat or dairy products to build muscle. So, how are the Nicoyans out there splitting logs and herding cattle every day of their lives? Well, the real magic comes from pairing beans, squash, and corn together. Our bodies need nine amino acids, the building blocks of protein, to make muscle, and animal products such as meat, fish, and eggs provide all nine. But they also contain cholesterol and saturated fat. Together, this three sisters diet provides all the amino acids without cholesterol and saturated fat. So they're spending a fraction of what we do on meat and dairy, and they're getting all the protein they need, which just goes to show that you do not have to be wealthy to eat healthy. 

woman in Spanish: Let's eat, Isaac. 

( in Spanish ) If you were to tell Isaac how to get to 100 years old, what advice would you give him? 

( in Spanish ) I hope that he eats what I eat. Do you think your son will eat the same diet as your grandfather? 

woman: I don't think so because everything is different now. Lots of processed food. 

Dan: With beans and rice, he has reached 100 years. Wouldn't it be better? 

woman: Well, yes, but kids aren't interested in rice and beans. They are into things like cereal that aren't as nutritious as rice and beans. You want some, Grandpa? Do you want some? 

woman: If you want. 

Ramiro: One. Just to try it. Thank you. He doesn't want rice and beans or eggs. He wants cookies. 

Dan in English: It breaks my heart to see how Nicoya is changing. You drive into town, and the first thing you see are fast food restaurants. The vendors are selling chips and sodas and candy bars. And this is replacing this genius way of life, this diet that has produced the manifestly longest-lived people, and now it's going the way of modern societies everywhere. Since I found this Blue Zone, it has shrunk to one-fifth its original size, and by some estimations, the Blue Zone could completely be gone within a generation. And in Okinawa, it's even worse. When I first traveled there in 1999, it was known for producing the longest-lived, healthiest people in the history of humankind. But today, the longevity phenomena has almost completely disappeared. In fact, Okinawa now has the highest rate of obesity of any other area in Japan. 

( orchestral music playing ) 

Dan: But the good news is that we've captured the wisdom. We have the blueprint to reproduce longevity in our lives. And I became obsessed with that notion. I got to wondering, could I actually create a new Blue Zone? 

( acoustic string music playing )