Anti-aging secrets
For more than a decade, I've been working with a team of experts to study hot spots of longevity—regions we call Blue Zones, where many people live to 100 and beyond. They are the Greek island of Ikaria; the highlands of Sardinia; the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica; Okinawa, Japan; and Loma Linda, Calif., home of the highest concentration of Seventh-day Adventists in the U.S. Remarkably, we've learned that folks in all these places share similar rituals and practices surrounding food. (Hint: They don't count calories, take vitamins or weigh protein grams!) After analyzing more than 150 dietary studies conducted in Blue Zones over the past century, we came up with a global average of what centenarians really eat. Here are 15 age-old diet tips to borrow from the longest-living people on the planet.
- Get 95% of your food from plants
- Consume meat no more than twice a week
- Eat up to 3 ounces of fish daily
- Cut back on dairy
- Enjoy up to three eggs per week
- Add a half cup of cooked beans every day
- Switch to sourdough or whole-wheat
- Slash your sugar consumption
- Snack on two handfuls of nuts per day
- Stick with foods that are recognizable for what they are
- Up your water intake
- Drink this kind of tea (Okinawans nurse green tea all day long, and green tea has been shown to lower the risk of heart disease and several cancers.)
- Get your caffeine fix from coffee