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S3.E5 - Blue Zones - Ikaria
74 Plays1 year ago
This week, Thomas leads our discussion of Chapter 6: “The Greek Blue Zone” from Blue Zones, Second Edition: 9 Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who’ve Lived the Longest by Dan Buettner.
- Why don’t men live as long as women, on average? (0:43 - 7:25)
- What were your top takeaways from the Ikarian’s diet? (7:26 - 18:41)
- What was most interesting about the Ikarian culture? (18:42 - 27:15)
- Do you think people in Blue Zones try to be healthy any more than we do, or do you think they’re lucky enough to be born into a system that promotes health by default way more than most places because of the culture, the traditions, the goals in that society, etc.? (27:16 - 36:10)
Resources referenced or discussed in today’s episode:
- Article related to life expectancy differences between men and women: Why men often die earlier than women
- Study related to which surviving spouse lives longer: The life expectancy of older couples and surviving spouses
- Study related to consequences of divorce by gender: Gender Differences in the Consequences of Divorce: A Study of Multiple Outcomes
- Podcast excerpt about removing clocks from your room to improve sleep: click here
Next week we’ll discuss chapter 7: “Your Personal Blue Zone” (pages 262 - 298)
Netflix documentary series: Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones
You can buy the book on Amazon by clicking here.
You can also borrow it at your local library. Don’t have a library card, or unsure where your local library is? Search on Google Maps, or find your local library by clicking here.
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Connect with us at connect@booksbrotherspodcast.com.
Please subscribe and give us a review! We would really appreciate it.
See you next week! Until then - read, reflect, and connect.
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Transcript
Introduction and Current Reading
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome to the Books Brothers Podcast, a book club turned podcast where each week we read chapters from books, reflect on them as they relate to our life, and connect with each other by sharing our experiences. I'm Thomas. I'm Fluz. I'm Stalin. I'm Ron Burgundy. I'm Matt. I'm Rob. And I'm Garrett.
Stomatis Mariatis' Story and Cancer Recovery
00:00:28
Speaker
We are currently reading and discussing the Blue Zone's nine lessons for living longer from The People Who've Lived the Longest by Dan Butner. In today's episode, we'll be discussing Chapter 6, The Greek Blue Zone. This chapter starts out with the story of Stomatis Mariatis, a man born in Ikaria, an island 30 miles off the west coast of Turkey. He moved to the US, became a painter, and lived
00:00:54
Speaker
the American dream. Unfortunately, he got lung cancer and moved back home to be buried alongside of his parents. His cancer cleared up though when he went back home in this blue zone without any modern treatment.
Greek Blue Zone: Lifestyle and Longevity
00:01:07
Speaker
When he went back to the US 10 years later to have his doctors check him out and figure out how this cancer cleared up, all of his doctors were dead. Hickory Island is another spot whose history and terrain reminded me of the Sardinian blue zone.
00:01:20
Speaker
Through the ages, the people here have had to protect against outsiders, pirates, and intruders. The people often moved inland to avoid being detected and attacked, making fishing and farming more difficult. After World War II, Greece exiled 13,000 communists to the island. Today, there's a strong inclination towards community priorities, and 40% of the population still votes communist.
00:01:46
Speaker
The chapter focuses primarily on the towns of Legada and Samos. Both areas were records of incredible longevity date back to the 17th century. Other parts of the island are more modern like Samos, where expensive high rises exist. Studies have shown people live longer and healthier here.
00:02:08
Speaker
Compared to other Greeks, these folks reach age 90 at high rates, live five to 10 years longer before getting common diseases like cancer, suffer half the rate of cardiovascular disease, and one third the rate of depression.
Gender Longevity Debate
00:02:22
Speaker
Only 20% of the people over 80 showed any signs of dementia versus over 50% over 80 in Athens and in the US.
00:02:31
Speaker
Here, there are as many healthy males over 90 as females, whereas in developed countries, the ratio is usually around four to one in favor of females living older than 90. First question, I know we've mentioned this fact a few times, I think, throughout the book.
00:02:50
Speaker
how females typically live longer than males. I don't think we've discussed why we think that that is, or if there are any good studies on why that is. I mean, we're all guys. Why do you guys think men don't live as long typically? Risk-taking behaviors. Yeah. That's a good one. In the previous blue zones, though, I think there were some call-outs that men were actually living longer than females.
00:03:18
Speaker
So that was the case because the
Social Support Differences by Gender
00:03:22
Speaker
men kind of had more of like a shepherding laid back type of lifestyle. And the women were at back home, like tending to the chores, finances and the family unit. So I think they were undergoing more stress than the men were. So I think stress though, is the big key factor here. I think men traditionally, at least in the American setting are
00:03:48
Speaker
more the primary breadwinner than the women. And I think that there are higher levels of stress that come with like the weight that's on a man's shoulder, and then also just the work component as well of just being able to provide. But I definitely see some of the risk taking components as well that Fluz mentioned.
00:04:12
Speaker
For my understanding as well, men are just more predisposed to cardiovascular and heart disease that usually tends to be a bigger killer. I couldn't tell you exactly why, maybe perhaps it's hormonal, but I know that usually plays a pretty big role in that.
00:04:30
Speaker
I think one thing that just on this topic, that it would interesting thing to look at would be in the situation where you had to like a couple, if how much, you know, so if let's say one of the spouses dies as they're getting elderly, how long would you men live on average after their
00:04:51
Speaker
wife would die or for wives how long would they live after their husband dies. That'd be interesting to look at because I do feel like it seems like culturally it's somewhat understood that when the woman dies first that men tend to fade quicker. I think that's something I've heard. I don't know if that's true but anecdotally that seems to be the case and it's interesting. I do feel like there's kind of like always the joke of like
00:05:18
Speaker
you know, like older men will say like, yes, they need like their wives to keep them in line. Like my grandpa, he passed away this last year, he passed away last July. And he used to always call my grandma boss in an endearing way. I feel like sometimes you can do that and it's a harsh way. But yeah, I think that the relationship is interesting when you consider like, which of the spouse tend to outlive each other.
00:05:45
Speaker
I heard some interesting research lately that in divorce, in a divorce setting, the woman on average isn't affected longevity-wise, whereas the man is pretty dramatically, even if the guy remarries.
00:06:00
Speaker
for whatever reason. But yeah, that was interesting
Ikarian Diet and Longevity
00:06:03
Speaker
to hear. And if the woman remarries, it doesn't change. And if she stays single, it doesn't change. And I think the point of that, that the guy made in the podcast was that women tend to be better at establishing social support for community and men. And so I think that's obviously pretty applicable to this being that all of these different places have strong community. So they tend to live longer because of that.
00:06:30
Speaker
I was going to make that point too. And I think the Sardinian Blue Zone hit on that pretty hard that the guys there did a lot of joking around with each other and hanging out. And maybe a lot had a lot more rich of a community than most places. Yeah, Fuzz, I think the social component is key that you were hitting on. I think I feel like I read that during the book that the women tend to have more of a social unit than men do.
00:06:58
Speaker
And we've seen in multiple blue zones how that plays a factor in longevity of just that social connectedness. So I could see that as well. I think guys might be less intentional to get together with each other than maybe women do. At least, I don't know, feels like that's the case for my wife and I. I would be interested to see some real studies on on that. I'm sure there's a lot of studies out there, so we'll have to look into that.
00:07:25
Speaker
Let's talk about the diet of the people here on this island. They eat a version of the Mediterranean diet, so that means lots of olive oil, veggies, including a lot of local greens, which contain high amounts of antioxidants,
00:07:42
Speaker
They eat a ton of beans and a lot of potatoes because traditionally that's one of the only good crops that grew in the rocky soil there. And there's a pretty cool little pie graph in the book that shows that half of the diet by weight is plants. Beans and potatoes and meat make up a quarter by weight and 6% actually of these folks daily intake by weight is olive oil alone.
00:08:13
Speaker
That's a lot of olive oil. So they eat a lot of fat I guess. But it's all good fats I believe. They don't seem to eat a ton of fish. They don't seem to eat a ton of meat.
00:08:26
Speaker
but they do have a lot of herbs that grow in their gardens and they make teas, kind of like the Okinawan Blue Zone. I think the folks that were there doing research saw these teas as pretty medicinal for these people. They also drank two to four glasses of wine a day, which to me kind of seemed like a lot considering how old they live.
00:08:52
Speaker
but had a lot of good antioxidants in their wine. And they also mentioned that the teas were mild diuretics, which encourages your body to flush out toxic compounds and controls blood pressure. They eat only 25% of the sugar that Americans do, six times as many beans, and a lot of them drank up to five cups of coffee a day.
Health Benefits of Tea and Honey
00:09:16
Speaker
And they also ate a lot of honey.
00:09:19
Speaker
and used it throughout their history as a kind of like a healing ointment too, since it's antibacterial. And last but not least, they on that goat's milk. So boys, we got to, we got to get on this goat's milk train, man. Has anyone, has anyone tried it since we've started this book? I sent you guys that it's Kiefer. It's more of like a yogurt type of consistency, but
00:09:49
Speaker
We're still trying to get our hands on it, but the Kiefer, if I'm saying that right, was pretty sweet, but still pretty good. I've tried that before. Yeah, it's not bad. Do you guys remember from college how much honey I consume typically? Yeah. Different types of like jams.
00:10:10
Speaker
Well, I'm all about sugar, so I love I have a sweet tooth, but I will say I do eat a lot of honey. But reading this chapter, I realized maybe I'm eating a lot of the wrong honey because they talked about how the darker the honey is. Usually the more good stuff is in it and probably the less that it's been heated up and processed. So I need to start looking for that dark honey. Yeah, that was interesting. Get that raw honey.
00:10:39
Speaker
Yeah, it's expensive though, but it's worth it. It's delicious. The other thing I found a little bit interesting, they were talking about the wine and they were talking about how
00:10:51
Speaker
With this stuff, a lot of people just have a checklist, right? And they're like, okay, I got to eat this, that, and the other thing. But they don't focus as much on how they eat, right? So this chapter hit on fasting, which is a pretty common practice in this blue zone. It also hit on the fact that when these folks consume their wine, they're consuming it typically along with these plants.
00:11:16
Speaker
which are really high in flavonoids and the wine helps with the absorption of all this good stuff. I've heard things like having dressings on salads aren't necessarily bad because the fats will help you absorb a lot of the nutrients in the salad.
00:11:36
Speaker
And, you know, those are all things to take into account when you think about these diets. Do you guys have any takeaways from the diet part of this chapter? It was kind of similar to a lot of the other who zones.
00:11:47
Speaker
Yeah, I thought so too. I mean, I think the whole idea of like good healthy fats, I mean, that's been something that seems like it's been pushed more kind of mainstream recently. And that's really what it what there was a lot of push here. I feel like this people group, it seems like beans was a big difference. And that's something that I know, I would say throughout the course of this book, that's something that we've been trying to eat more as beans, just a good source of nutrients, especially if you're like decreasing your meat consumption.
00:12:14
Speaker
Some of the videos that Dan Buettner has been putting out since us reading the book have commented on like he's really high on being intake and the nut intake. Those seem to be like pretty consistent things that if he's in an interview, he's talking about those types of things or at least those two things.
00:12:38
Speaker
I have been getting into some teas since, since reading this book as well. I had one the other night. It was like a herbal tea that kind of helps with sleep. We have like a tea market, literally half a mile down the street that I walked to. I don't drive my car to it. And we've, we've been working on a little tea canister of it. And I think I'm going to go there this weekend and get some new flavors, but
00:13:07
Speaker
So nice, dude. I got tea as well to get some Z's. It's got passion flower, the Larian roots and camomile. It actually does help a lot. Yeah. It kind of gets you in a state of sleeping.
Dietary Choices: Schwarzenegger's Example
00:13:25
Speaker
I've been drinking tea for a year and a half or so consistently. I got sick one winter.
00:13:33
Speaker
just a normal sickness, but coffee, I used to be a huge coffee drinker. I have about three or four cups a day, but after that sickness, coffee just sounded really gross to me. When you're sick, coffee just does not sound good. So I switched to tea and it's been great. Uh, I feel my body feels so much better drinking tea versus coffee. So now I have like,
00:13:59
Speaker
One, maybe two cups of coffee a day. Then I switched to tea. I do like a, it's like called zest tea. It's like a green tea, but it has just as much caffeine as a cup of coffee. So that's, yeah, I like doing that sometimes. More of like a mellow energy versus super intense and crash in coffee. You guys remember what the main herbs that these Greek folks put in their tea?
00:14:30
Speaker
wild rosemary, sage, and oregano. I think there was peppermint too. Oh, I don't know if I could do oregano tea. That sounds gross. Yeah, those are some funky flavors for tea. That'd be a diuretic for me for sure. Back to the food side, an interesting story. I don't know if any of you listened to the Kelsey Brothers podcast
00:14:57
Speaker
but I'm a pretty faithful listener. And last week they interviewed Arnold Schwarzenegger and I kid you not. Sorry. Was that Arnold? You didn't a chop. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
00:15:16
Speaker
Thank you for having me on your podcast. Yeah. And, um, they, there was a point in the interview where Sir Jason Kelsey, the older brother football players now retired, and he's trying to cut a lot of weight because when you're a lineman, you actually like need to have some level of fat from what I understand, just like put on the weight.
00:15:41
Speaker
And he was relatively smaller for alignment, which is crazy because he's still like 300 pounds. So his goal is to go from like 295, I think he said to like 265 or 245, something like that. And Arnold, he's getting up there in age now. And he actually said he has reduced the meat that he eats in his regular diet by 70%
00:16:06
Speaker
and he called out old age being a factor and how his doctors and dieticians recommend to go more with vegetables and more vegetarian meals. So he's like, I still love me a good steak and things like that, but I thought Mr. Universe or whatever it's called,
00:16:29
Speaker
You know, this guy that we think of like very macho, alpha or whatever, eat all the meat possible, he said on that interview, I'm cutting it out, meat out, like 70% of my meat intake because I'm getting older to be healthy. Yeah, not surprised. You say you're not surprised. I hear you, but I would have been surprised hearing that before I read this book.
00:16:55
Speaker
Well, yeah, I mean, I guess, like, from outside appearances, you're right. It is kind of surprising for Arnold, but for a beefcake, Arnold's pretty smart. I guess I just mean from, like, my own ignorance. I have not. Oh, yeah. I have heard, you know, do chicken, do eggs, stay away from red meat, like, by and large. I've never actually read or dug into that. Just one or two people I trust on the health side have said that.
00:17:23
Speaker
But this very pro veggie discussion is pretty new for me.
Ikarian Culture and Stress Relief
00:17:29
Speaker
So hearing it in this book where they're traveling all around the world, this guy has a business, right? So now he has a cookbook and that's one thing, right? But I guess it meant a little bit more hearing that from someone on the other side who obviously his job was to get as beefed up as possible, no pun intended. Yeah, true.
00:17:52
Speaker
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00:17:56
Speaker
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00:18:26
Speaker
You may be entitled to thousands in compensation for the trauma you've endured. Call Winkler and Sprinkler today for a free consultation and a protective dental dam. And now back to the show. All right, so let's talk about the culture that they have on the island of Icaria.
00:18:49
Speaker
So I thought this was a pretty good quote from the book. Humans have succeeded as a species because we're social creatures with the capacity to cooperate. Socializing brings us fundamental satisfaction.
00:19:03
Speaker
So on this island, it described how it's a very traditional place in the sense that the modern sense of urgency that we all live with every day isn't really a thing. People stay up late. Nobody really wears a watch or has a clock or pays much attention to it.
00:19:22
Speaker
They pretty much live on island time and they all know each other. They know each other's business, which I think a lot of people in today's day and age find intrusive and annoying.
00:19:34
Speaker
But at the same time, the example was made that if the whole community is out doing something, you're more likely to be pulled out of your room to go be with everybody, even if you don't want to, which is at the end of the day, almost always going to be good for you. They also take a lot of time to enjoy their food together.
00:19:53
Speaker
It's kind of a tradition and an excuse to connect with others. And they mentioned things like, you know, how the community supports each other, pulls their money to pay for celebrations that they have, pay for meals and to help the poor. Along with this, they mentioned naps, which I think is kind of a leisurely thing, or we see as a leisurely thing, even though it doesn't have to be. But the recommendation for naps was
00:20:22
Speaker
take a nap three times a week, that's at least 30 minutes long. This lowers stress hormones and it gives your heart a rest.
Cultural Time Perception and Social Interactions
00:20:29
Speaker
I mentioned gardens earlier. There are big gardeners, just like a lot of the other Blue Zones. And it mentioned that 90-year-old dudes are still jonesing for a bonesing, which is awesome. This part of the chapter was the most interesting to me, the part about the culture. I bet it was.
00:20:52
Speaker
I was referring to the time. The culture of this chapter was the most interesting because they don't have clocks. They don't have watches. I just can't comprehend that.
00:21:09
Speaker
Like just in this room that I'm sitting in, there's four clocks in this room. In our kitchen, we have, there's a clock on our oven. There's a clock on our microwave. We have, I have a watch. I have my phone. Like there's a clock literally everywhere.
00:21:26
Speaker
And the chapter they mentioned, if they invite some of their neighbors over for lunch, lunch could mean anywhere from noon to 7pm. Just come whenever. And if that were us, I know I would just get really frustrated.
00:21:44
Speaker
I invited you over for lunch. Why are you showing up at my house at dinner time? That's not what I said. I hear you there, man. So Emily and I went to Italy for a vacation a few years back. Rob, you might have experienced this too. Even just going to a restaurant, the culture in Italy,
00:22:08
Speaker
was different. You sit down and it's like you're expected to sit there for a few hours and just take your time and enjoy the meal. And we were not expecting that at all. As Americans, we go to a restaurant, we get to a table as quickly as we can. The waiter is immediately there to take your order, you order your food, you eat it, and then you're out of there. That was not the case in Italy. I don't know if you experienced that too, Rob, but... Yeah.
00:22:37
Speaker
It's just a different lifestyle and different culture. And it's really nice, to be honest, just to slow down and enjoy your food. Yeah, I mean, I think some of this side of some of these blue zone areas, it's one, kind of older traditions, but also it's kind of the way that the older individuals are living as well.
00:22:59
Speaker
I really like the idea though and i feel like we've seen this in like in the street was on in sardinia and in okanawa where. I recall in okanawa dan was just walking down the street and they would just go up to a door that was open and be like hey is anyone home and i wanna social socialize and people would just like invite them in.
00:23:17
Speaker
And I do think the idea of a culture like that is pretty cool. I know my parents, the street that they live on, they've lived there since I've been alive and pretty much like every week there's like one or two like times where like everyone in the street gets together and hangs out and does like a little like fun fair outside or they'll go to someone's home to do a happy hour and
00:23:40
Speaker
I think those kind of things, like being close to the people who you live in close proximity to, it's very fun. And I think that also can contribute to, Matt, as you were kind of referring to, the idea of someone just popping up, showing up. Obviously, we definitely like our alone time, but there's something to be said too about the spontaneity in that.
00:24:00
Speaker
I don't know if any of you all have been to other like more rural areas and stuff outside of the country and I've gone a couple times this like really rural part of Mexico and I've had the same experience too where it's like.
00:24:11
Speaker
No one knows the time. There's no specific agendas. My dad has a missionary friend who's there. Then we go, we basically help with their land and stuff when we've gone. But meals are anywhere between 30 minutes to three hours. And it's kind of fun. It takes some adjustment. But I think that's kind of a really cool side of some of these Blue Zone cultures.
Longevity: Culture vs. Individual Effort
00:24:38
Speaker
Yeah. It makes you want to slow down for sure. I mean, Matt, I'm with you there, man. That one of my pet peeves is like people being late. I'm always on time. Like I'm never late. And just what you were saying, Matt, it's like, shoot, well, what time should I expect you then? You know, like, how do I plan my day?
00:25:01
Speaker
if I've invited you, but I don't know when you're going to show up. And so I don't know. I feel like maybe they're taking so many naps because they're waiting for their friends to show up or what. But that would drive a lot of stress for me because I wouldn't know what to do with my day because I would want to host well. But I guess hosting well would just be kind of always having an open door. And I don't know.
00:25:30
Speaker
I think there's great intentionality behind Staling what you were saying of just kind of having that community setting. I hope when we do settle down in a house that we own that, that we can have fun neighbors that we can get together with, they can pop by, they see us walking. We see them walking. We stop, we say hi, we plan something for the next day, whatever. Like that would be a blast and something that I hope that we get to have in our future.
00:25:59
Speaker
The clocks thing reminded me of the latest Huberman podcast, where he's got the Dr. Walker on talking about sleep. And one of the things he talks about is not having like a clock by you, basically, it's like you wake up in the middle of night, person, you can see what time it is.
00:26:19
Speaker
And like, you know, that obviously doesn't help because you get this like low level of anxiety. That doesn't help your sleep. Kind of a simple thing, but you almost have this like low level of anxiety.
00:26:31
Speaker
because only because a clock is there basically. So I wonder like, you know, you go to like a place like we're talking about, they don't have clocks anywhere. So they don't have that low level of anxiety, not just when they're sleeping, but at all. You know, so I wonder, you take away that low level of chronic stress as what I would call it. Yeah, that would definitely aid in longevity.
00:26:55
Speaker
With the taking away of clocks, that inherently means you have to take away a lot of our productivity and our sense of urgency and our way of life and a lot of other ways. Because the only reason we're so obsessed with time is because of all those things.
00:27:11
Speaker
And I do feel that, you know, this kind of wraps into the kind of the end of the chapter where he talks about some higher level ideas of blue zones in general. And I think this kind of dovetails with the last chapter, which is kind of like creating your own blue zone for yourself.
Environmental Support for Healthy Living
00:27:31
Speaker
But I had a question because it was making me think, do you guys think people in Blue Zones try to be healthy any more than we do? Or do you think they're just lucky enough to be born into a system that promotes health way more than most places by default? Because of the culture, the traditions, the goals in that society. When you look at the data for generic diets,
00:28:00
Speaker
It's kind of hard to say one specific diet is the end all be all. It's just, you can't really do that. However, the Mediterranean diet is well known and dietetics and nutrition is like, that's probably the best one, you know? And so it seems like most of these places follow that type of a diet.
00:28:20
Speaker
And maybe their system is that they're more located in a place where that is just easier to follow. That's just like something I thought about, especially for this latest one. That's obviously not sure for all of them. Yeah. I mean, if all the cheapest foods at the dollar store were like olive oil and beans and potatoes and wine,
00:28:41
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think too, I mean, so to answer your question, Thomas, yeah, I think it's environment and culture. And I mean, you think about some of the things that we've talked about a lot in depth about the way that like our society views food is, you know, we all go to grocery stores, people don't have home gardens, we don't raise cattle, you know, we don't produce our own food, it's mass produce. And in the process, like mass producing is great because it does help
00:29:09
Speaker
Feed the nation you know there's less people dealing with starvation issues but there's just gonna be negative results that come in from the way that we're that food is produced in the way the food is processed to make it. You know quicker easier to eat and then obviously like you mix it in with like.
00:29:27
Speaker
they build it to make food taste better through that process. That makes it obviously that much harder because now you have food that is highly caloric and it's easy to access, it's cheap. With a lot of these areas, on the food side, they have to really work for the food side. I think culturally, too, you see a lot of these smaller communities, they're more tight-knit, and there's a lot of benefits that they have in that.
00:29:55
Speaker
have moved away from it seems like because we do have a very kind of capitalistic culture in america and you know we are very kind of time and self-focused and you know some of these things are good you know obviously we have a big focus in the family but a little less focus on we have big folks in the family and the self but a little less focus on the community well-being in all these areas.
00:30:20
Speaker
Yeah, it was just striking to think about the fact that we try so hard to be healthy in the sense that we spend so much money and we have such great health care and so much science and these folks don't even really try. And it just seems like they live 20, 30 years longer on average. So you think it's the system?
00:30:40
Speaker
that they're in. Oh, yeah. I think it's obviously the system because it makes the whole system makes it so easy for them just to default to the right choices and the right diets. Yeah. And the cheapest food is actually the stuff that's just in your backyard that's good for you. And so, yeah, I mean, why wouldn't you just go along with all those choices? That's why I think two blue zones are so rare on Earth is because there really aren't that many places that the system has been
00:31:07
Speaker
Sort of cultivated in a way that just happens to promote longevity so well. Yeah, I'm not sure if it just because it's a blue zone if it's accurate to say the average lifespan is 20 to 30 years longer than in the US.
Community Influence on Health Behaviors
00:31:25
Speaker
That's a good point. They just have a higher amount, a higher percentage of people who live to 100, which definitely would increase the average age, no doubt. To your point, though, it is better, right? They're obviously a blue zone for a reason. And it might be systemic, but I think it's also cultural. The author talks about it in the book, but
00:31:51
Speaker
If you have a friend who becomes obese, the likelihood of you becoming obese increases, I think it was around 20%.
00:32:04
Speaker
I think it was like 57. Oh, was it? Okay. Yeah. Case in point. So when you have, it's just standard to eat with olive oil, to cook with olive oil or whatever, like I've shared previously with like, my kids really look forward to eating fruit. And if it's like, if you can create that norm,
00:32:29
Speaker
then you won't necessarily know anything else. And my kids have plenty of candy and chocolate. That's not the point I'm trying to make. More so of when you have a culture that eats in certain ways and, you know, again, pushing back a little bit on the Blue Zone comment, Dan did mention areas like Okinawa were being infiltrated. Maybe that's too strong of a word with fast food restaurants and that Blue Zone is going away, you know, so.
00:32:59
Speaker
How much longer is this blue zone going to be a blue zone? I don't know, but you bring in a change in the culture. You bring in a change of options of food to eat. I think, yeah, so I don't think it's just purely systemic. I don't think it's just pure individual decisions or family decisions. There's a lot of gray and overlap. And if you make a Venn diagram, there's probably a lot of overlapping
00:33:26
Speaker
factors of community systems, individual choices, yes, but hard to chalk it up to one specific thing, I would say, but rather a mixture.
Creating Personal Blue Zones
00:33:38
Speaker
Remember in Atomic Habits where he tells people to throw roadblocks in front of bad habits, you want to go away and make all your paths towards good habits streamlined. So if you don't want to walk in and plop down on the couch and turn on the TV,
00:33:56
Speaker
take the batteries out of the remote for the tv and put it in a drawer so you every time you have to turn on the tv you gotta get in the drawer put the batteries in the remote and then hit the button right it's just stuff as small as that i feel like if you live in a blue zone all your good habits are kind of streamlined for you it seems yeah you're not even gonna have a tv nah you're not even gonna have a clock man
00:34:20
Speaker
You're just going to have a tea kettle. It's that slow lifestyle, man. I think these places just live a slower lifestyle than us. We're kind of as stay on. You were saying we're in that fast pace. Everybody go to college. Everybody get a job. Everybody move. Everybody have kids, blah, blah, blah. You're, you're estranged. If you even want to go to a trade school these days or get a goat,
00:34:46
Speaker
We're all subscribing to the same narrative that kind of is that American dream, but it's really an American fast-placed life that, I don't know, doesn't really focus on your health as much, just how much money you can make.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:35:04
Speaker
So I would agree with everyone on the Blue Zones where, you know, it's just part of the culture. There are some gray area, like you said, Garrett, but I think the Loma Linda Blue Zone
00:35:16
Speaker
is the outlier here. I feel like they are trying to be healthy. They are trying their best to make conscious choices of healthy eating, doing the Sabbath, having that community, having friends with like-minded beliefs around them.
00:35:33
Speaker
No, I'm sure not everyone in Loma Linda is Adventist. So at least in the United States, they're doing a really good job, it seems like, of trying to be healthy and trying to continue their own Blue Zone. Like they've made their own Blue Zone rather than the culture made it for them. And they're the only one in the US. Interesting.
00:35:58
Speaker
it's a good call out, Matt. Hadn't thought of that. Yeah. Thank you for that. Because I knew there was one that wasn't like the Mediterranean diet. It wasn't an easy one. That was it. So thanks for calling that out for sure. Thank you for listening to this week's episode of the Books Brothers podcast. Join us next time as we read and discuss chapter seven, your personal blue zone.
00:36:22
Speaker
If you haven't yet, there's still time to get the book so you can follow along with us. If you have enjoyed listening or benefited from a conversation, please subscribe, give us a review, and share with a friend that you want to connect with. Lastly, we would love to hear your thoughts. You can reach us by email at connect at booksbrotherspodcast.com or on Instagram at booksbrotherspodcast. Until next week, read, reflect, and connect.