[ExI] Blue Zones review - for longer life

[efc at swisscows.email]

Always an interesting topic Bill! =)

I think it is a nice packaging of old wisdom. Apart from any technical 
means, modern therapies and procedures, a lot comes down to:

Sleep, diet and exercise.

On top of that, you can add some psychological "happiness"-factors from 
positive psychology such as:

Keep mentally active, have an active social life, be grateful, have a 
deeper goal or reason for living.

I think broadly and very summarily, this is the conclusion I arrived at 
last time I looked into it.

What do I do personally?

I sleep 7-8 hours per day, I exercise moderatly every other day, I walk 
unless it takes me more than 30 minutes, I always take the stairs (live in 
europe with no high rises, at most 5-6 floors), my wife and I always cook 
our own food 5 days per week, and I try to keep mentally active.

My sins are my somewhat slow social life, lack of spirituality (but I love 
to wrestle with existential questions though), and love of good food (I 
keep the resturants to at most 2 days per week).

Now, something I been thinking of lately is the 16/8 diet. I don't follow 
it, but what I _do_ is that I love to sleep in on weekens and I eat my 
breakfast at around 11 or 12. That means that for big parts of my life, I 
actually have followed a kind of 14/10 to 16/8 diet for 2 days per week, 
and when I'm on vacation, for up to 4 weeks.

I have no idea if that affects my body in anyway, but never realized that 
I had been following this fad diet unintentionally for a long time. But, 
when working, only 2 days per week, so probably that's not enough to make 
any meaningful difference.

That's my "blue" journey. Looking forward to hear from you guys. =)

Best regards,
Daniel


On Sun, 28 Jan 2024, BillK via extropy-chat wrote:

> People in the world’s ‘blue zones’ live longer – their diet could hold
> the key to why
> Published: January 24, 2024
>
> <https://theconversation.com/people-in-the-worlds-blue-zones-live-longer-their-diet-could-hold-the-key-to-why-221463>
>
> Quotes:
> This longevity hotspot has since been expanded, and now includes
> several other areas around the world which also have greater numbers
> of longer-living, healthy people. Alongside Sardinia, these blue zones
> are now popularly recognised as: Ikaria, Greece; Okinawa, Japan;
> Nicoya, Costa Rica; and Loma Linda, California.
>
> When it comes to diet, each blue zone has its own approach – so one
> specific food or nutrient does not explain the remarkable longevity
> observed. But interestingly, a diet rich in plant foods (such as
> locally-grown vegetables, fruits and legumes) does appear to be
> reasonably consistent across these zones.
>
> Another striking observation from these longevity hot spots is that
> meals are typically freshly prepared at home. Traditional blue zone
> diets also don’t appear to contain ultra-processed foods, fast foods
> or sugary drinks which may accelerate ageing. So maybe it’s just as
> important to consider what these longer-living populations are not
> doing, as much as what they are doing.
>
> Perhaps then we can learn something from these remarkable
> centenarians. While diet is only one part of the bigger picture when
> it comes to longevity, it’s an area we can do something about. In
> fact, it might just be at the heart of improving not only the quality
> of our health, but the quality of how we age.
> ------------
>
> BillK
>
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