The Blue Zones Con
Y'all watching Netflix, right? Read this
Blue Zones have long been considered a Holy Grail of longevity.
There are geographical areas where people seem to be healthier and live significantly longer.
It is supposed that in these Blue Zones the percentage of people reaching the age of 100 is higher than in other regions.
For over 20 years, these Blue Zones have been promoted to the public.
They have been and continue to be the subject of a huge amount of scientific papers, a popular documentary on Netflix, as well as many cook books centered around diets...
Lately, these Blue Zones have become a hook for promoting a vegetarian diet.
The truth is: everyone wants to know the secrets of centennials.
But new research suggests that the longer life expectancy in the Blue Zones isn't due to healthy behaviors…
...but to frauds connected to birth certificates and the poor management of censuses.
The shocking discovery has been made by Saul Justin Newman, the main researcher of the Center of Longitudinal Studies of University College London.
Newman has been able to identify 80% of the people registered as being 110 years old or over. The vast majority of these people have no birth certificate.
Instead of discovering the secrets of their healthy lifestyle, he discovered something far more shocking – and this discovery is presented in this fascinating article: CLICK.
It looks like these hotbeds of longevity have been created as a result of poor management of records.
In the USA
In the US there are over 500 people over 110 years of age. Out of those, only 7 actually have a birth certificate.
Okinawa, Japan is another such Blue Zone.
In 2010, a report issued by the Japanese government has revealed that 82% of people over the age of 100 within Japan were actually deceased.
The secret to reaching 110 years of age was, apparently, not having your death recorded.
"A 2010 government audit found 230,000 Japanese centennials who were thought to be alive, but were actually dead or missing.
Some errors are genuine mistakes, but others may be the result of deliberate efforts by individuals or their family members to commit pension fraud."
Source: CLICK.
What was at stake? Their pension, of course. To be precise, the offspring of these so-called centennials fail to declare the death of their parents and keep collecting their pension for decades.
Japan
Moreover, the Japanese government has carried out one of the biggest studies on nutrition in the world, dating back to 1975.
Maybe you’ll say that the main diet in Okinawa is plant-based, featuring rice and a little bit of fish. I think you’re wrong.
“Okinawans generally have well-balanced diets and enjoy high-quality local meat, along with large amounts of island-grown vegetables and ocean-fresh seafood.
The most consumed meat is likely pork, and Agu pork, from the islands' indigenous pigs, is a specialty in Okinawa.
Wagyu cattle are bred for premium Kuroge Wagyu beef.
Poultry is also widely consumed, and some of the chicken breeds on the islands have special diets and are fed turmeric, awamori scraps and other Okinawa-specific ingredients.”
Source: CLICK.
GREECE
And this doesn’t only occur in Japan.
In Greece, another such Blue Zone, Newman has discovered that 72% of centennials were either dead, missing or involved in pension fraud.
Yes, boss!
A significant error rate has recently been discovered in every “Blue Zone”.
In 1997, it was discovered that thirty thousand Italian citizens were collecting a government pension, even though they were dead: CLICK.
In 2008, it was revealed that 42% of the Costa Ricans over 99 years of age had “failed to correctly declare” their age at the population census in the year 2000.
After the partial correction of errors, the Nicoya Blue Zone decreased by 90%, with life expectancy plummeting abruptly…This Blue Zone ended up being bottom of the table after having been one of the biggest.
Source: CLICK.
I never believed in superfoods or magic pills for longevity.
I guess you know how they say:
If something seems too good to be true, then it’s most probably a scam.
Does this mean that all the discoveries made about Blue Zones are useless? Not really.
Many of the traits associated with Blue Zones, such as:
increased movement
social connection
a high consumption of vegetables and fiber
reduced stress
an early bedtime
are actual steps supported by many clinical studies and most likely contribute to better health and longevity.
However, believing that eating a mediterranean diet over your keyboard at the office in neon-based lighting will make you live longer…that’s just self-delusion.
In the countryside
I remember my childhood when I used to spend summer holidays in the countryside. Life expectancy was around 80-90 years of age. Some people even got to live to 95.
However, most of those people were at their full strength and used to work in the fields up to 80 years of age. This is the truly important difference.
People had an increased quality of life until late in their lives, even though they had no access to the best drugs and medical treatments.
What did they do?
Hard physical labor and lots of movement from morning until dawn.
They used to go to bed early and get up early. So they always had a good night’s sleep.
They used to eat whatever was produced by their gardens and the animals they kept, so they had good, clean food.
Let’s take advantage
I’m not advocating going back to working the field or raising pigs and chicken. What I am proposing is to take advantage of superior technology yet remain human. Meaning:
let’s walk more;
let’s simulate hard labor by lifting weights;
let’s go to bed earlier and wake up early and feel well rested and fresh;
let’s just eat soups and a good, clean main course.