Discovered by Dan Buettner, explorer of National Geographic, Blue Zone Diet is the result of long research done by Dan and his team members. Along-with his team, Dan travelled around various parts of world, where people were a lot healthier and had higher longevity as compared to the people residing in other parts of world.
He tried to figure out what were the factors responsible for enhanced quality of life of these people. Dan compiled these areas in one group and named it blue zone. Blue zone people lived happy, healthy, and contented life for more than hundred years. Let’s have a look at some of the areas studied by Dan.
Okinawa, Japan
Okinawa in Japan is one of the most prominent areas of world where people live longer and healthier lives. Their healthy eating habit is one of the most contributing factors responsible for their longevity. People there, consume mainly soy products such as tofu, miso, fruits, vegetables, brown rice, fish, sweet potatoes etc. in their meals.
Meat and pork are also eaten by them, but they are not very common. Even when they consume these food items, they stay watchful of the portion size consumed by them. As far as calorie counting is concerned, they don’t keep counting the number of calories consumed by them. They rather stop eating when they get eighty percent full which in-fact describes the story behind their slender and healthy bodies.
The Italian Island of Sardinia
People in Italian island of Sardinia mostly follow Mediterranean food habits. They prefer consuming fava beans, goat milk, sheep milk, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, red wine etc. Animal fat such as meat doesn’t come under food items preferred by them. They consume these foods once in blue moon.
Loma Linda, California
People living in Loma Linda of California were found to have higher life expectancy than other areas in California. Vegan diet has been figured out to be the main reason responsible for better health and life of people there. These people consume organic and whole fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains etc. in tremendous amount.
Nicoya, Costa Rica
Nicoya in Costa Rica is the place where healthiest and longest life span among people has been observed. People in Nicoya consume foods such as rice, beans, mango, orange, papaya, corns, eggs, and squash etc. in large quantity. Nutrient dense water is also responsible for healthy and long lives of people there. As compared to water in other areas, water in Nicoya has been found to be opulent in minerals such as magnesium, calcium etc.
Common Healthy Lifestyles
Some common healthy lifestyle traits are followed equally in all the regions of blue zone. Let’s have a look at those healthy lifestyle traits of these people.
Live Passionate Life
Instead of a living a morbid life, look for passion in your life. Do the activities you have always loved to. Mostly people spend their entire lives in doom and gloom, while doing jobs they hate the most, or while living the lives they despise.
Spare some time for you and your loved ones. Engage you in your favorite fun activities. They will rejuvenate you, and rather than taking your life as burden, you will begin relishing it.
Enhance Your Social Life
Living solitary and self-engrossed life also elevate your stress and thrust you in depression, which further is responsible for myriad other diseases. Socialize with your friends, join online communities, and share your problems with your friends.
You will feel relieved while doing so. More you will interact with your friends, happier you will feel. Stress is the main enemy of a healthy body. You all might be having diverse means to deal with it. Some of you might feel comforted by dancing, while some others might feel relieved after taking to someone. So, do whatever works out for you to shake off stress.
Engage in Spiritual Activities
Engage you in some kind of spiritual activity. There is direction connection between your body and soul. Spiritual activities strengthen you and enhance your inner beauty. A person having beautiful soul is bound to live healthier and happier life. Blue zone people have been found to be one of the most devotional beings existing on the planet who have firm faith in God and humanity.
Physically Active Life
Workouts have greater contribution than diet towards your well-being. So, get into the habit of practicing workouts on daily basis. People in all these areas live physically active life. You can practice strength training or yoga to stay fit.
Yoga not only perks up your flexibility, it also augments your youthful life. Besides that, live an agile and physically active life by engaging you in as many physical activities as you can such as walking, biking, gardening, mopping etc.
Prune Protein Consumption
Don’t rely too much on proteins. Excess consumption of protein is not good for your body. When you don’t compensate your protein consumption with workouts, you are likely to store more fats in your body because proteins not being utilized for providing energy to your body get converted into fat.
Moreover, protein requirement of human body is very meager. So nourish your body with small portion size of proteins only. Focus mainly on the consumption of plant based foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains etc.
Feed Vitamin D to Your Body
Many of us spend most of our time away from sun. Vitamin D is vital for your body because it enhances immunity of your body and makes it capable enough to combat against terrible diseases such as heart diseases, blood sugar, and even cancer.
Most of the diseases settling down in your body due to aging can also be effectively controlled with the consumption of vitamin D. Exposure to sun for fifteen minutes in a day is sufficient enough to meet your daily need of vitamin D.
Abdicate Unhealthy Addictions
Residents of blue zone steer clear from harmful addictions such as cigarette smoking, over consumption of alcohol, processed, and junk foods. Not only is cigarette smoking harmful for your lungs, it also makes the cells dysfunctional and thus promotes the formation of carcinogenic cells in your body.
Apart from them, number of workaholic people too is soaring at a very fast pace. It’s very unhealthy because workaholic people don’t give much importance to sleep and continue working for long hours without giving any rest to their bodies. Their days are mostly very stressful and almost insane; they are susceptible to witness premature signs of aging.
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