Dan Buettner: Live to 100 with secrets of the blue zones | Professor Tim Spector

Do you want to live to 100? Dietary patterns, community, environment, and stress management play pivotal roles in longevity. From Sardinia's matriarchal villages to Okinawa's garden-rich diets, this episode takes us on a tour of insights. It's not just about living longer, it's about thriving.

In today’s episode, Jonathan is joined by Dan Buettner and Prof. Tim Spector to discuss the secrets of a longer, healthier life. Together, they journey through the world’s blue zones, rare global hotspots where celebrating your 100th birthday is common. The guests also address the threats to these longevity havens and the decline of traditional diets.

Dan Buettner is an American National Geographic fellow and New York Times bestselling author. He’s also an explorer, educator, and creator of the Netflix series “Live to 100,” which discovers five unique communities where people live extraordinarily long and vibrant lives.

Tim Spector is a professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, director of the Twins UK study, scientific co-founder of ZOE, and one of the world’s leading researchers. He's also the author of Food for Life, his latest book on nutrition and health.

Timecodes:
00:00 Introduction
01:42 Quickfire questions
02:58 What are Blue zones?
05:13 Why do people in Blue Zones live longer?
07:08 What is a Centenarian?
09:32 What are Blue Zone diets?
12:15 Foods for longevity
16:12 Why are these foods good for us?
20:17 Is eating meat 5 times a month healthy for us?
28:57 Why are the Blue Zones disappearing?
32:33 Blue Zone tactics to reduce stress
37:05 Can stress reduce life expectancy?
42:36 Why unconscious physical activity is best
47:03 How can we make our lives more ‘Blue Zone’ like?
49:22 The number one thing you can do to add years to your life is…
50:57 Dan's stress reduction techniques
53:36 What is Dan’s daily diet?
55:10 Summary

Mentioned in today's episode:

Telomere shortening and the transition to family caregiving in the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study by PLOS ONE

Books:

Live to 100 Netflix series by Dan Buettner

[jankaorelova]

Living longer is wonderful. However, when I was yoing I thought being old and wrinkled was terrifying. Now that I am 78 years old and my mother is approaching 99 I have changed my mind about an old age. I never eat in restaurants, I do not drink and never had. I danced since highschool and during my whole life. Not professionally but in many dance studios around Sydney. I am 52 kg and 163 cm . Origi ally from Czechoslovakia. I learned how to cook with basic vegetables and seasonal fruit. A child of socialistic upbringing, big family and many friends and a lot of sport. I combine my food better than my mother as I had biology zoology physics chemistry in my studies. My first exposure was to Pritkin diet, than vegetarian diet, than mixed diet. However formany years I only eat two meals. If I want to sin I willhave almond cashews brazil nut shake before going to bed. I am adicted to this podcasts more than reading good crime stories. I dance Latino 💃 rock and roll, vogue and do 20 min yoga. Thank you so much for these podcasts as they somehow confirmed what I always believed about how to feed this incredible machinery that makes me live and walk this planet.
Only my family thinks I am crazy, but finally it no longer bugs me. 😂

[lorrainejambor]

Dan Buettner is a fantastic communicator of some simple truths, eat simple foods, remain active, live in a community.

[evalindell]

I live in the south of Sweden and our cities are designed more for bikes and pedestriants than cars! Even comuting from the suburbs are made with bikes on special bike roads. A sort of highway for bikes. I think it is brilliant!

[abialabama]

I am a stay at home mum of five who I also home educate. Although I have a daily structured yoga and Pilates practice, and meditate and pray (I have a Christian faith), I suspect it is the running up and down stairs, cleaning floors and toilets, chasing toddlers and climbing to the top floor to elicit communication from my teenager that keeps me just as fit as the yoga and Pilates. I rarely sit down and never watch telly - I have no time or interest for it. If I get a chance I read a book for five minutes! Mostly I am constantly busy 24/7 doing what I believe is my calling and what gives me real meaning and purpose - caring for my children and husband to the very best of my ability and investing in them with love and authenticity. All this makes me wildly unpopular with most people who seem to think my lack of “progressivity” is a sin, that I have made poor choices or that I am stupid (I am university educated but feel it was a waste of time!)….. however what I see is that we live simply and honestly and healthfully and have better health as a result.

[wackthegood]

I'm so glad I grew up in Europe and still live here, as walking is natural to us. I walked to school my entire childhood. I've lived in places where I walked to work and back. At the weekends, we will visit local towns - park the car and then walk around... then last year I started going to the US several times per year for work and I discovered that (apart from in New York), you can't walk anywhere! It's quite shocking.
The best thing I heard on this episode was when they were talking about Sardinia, and saying that up until the 1960's a large part of the diet was based on bread and cheese - now that's my kind of diet!

[elceeuk]

Absolutely fascinating. New goals: get new friends, throw out the toaster, grow a garden.

[jeannamcgregor]

The Italians call it "cocina povera" or poverty food. Meat is an expensive treat for special occasions and holidays so the saturated fat in the diet is lower. Gardening and especially foraging leads to a high vegetable content at low cost.

[zch]

I signed up for Zoe 12 months ago. I would counsel some care should you be considering the plan. My blood, fat, and gut biome have changed from good to less good, according to Zoe, during the 12 months, this is because they are learning all the time. Now that's a good thing, but it's not so special when you think, a year ago they were professing their expertise. The second point is that as a Brit I do find the American style of advice and interaction a little childish, I find this over-enthusiastic approach off-putting, I think it stems from a need to please and overly praise. Finally, I did watch my Calories and later my protein intake. I know their mantra is calories don't matter, but for me they do. Post-exercise soreness increased until I looked at my protein intake, it had dropped to 60 gr, a healthy level for me is around 175 gr per day. So if you are going to spend £500ish on the program, make sure you pay attention. Am I going to continue, no, do I recommend it to friends, generally no, unless they have a pretty good understanding of this before they start. Good Luck!

[martinskov]

The number one thing that take years of my life is the “coming up” segments that almost all channels use. Why not start the video without it?

[evalindell]

Also I live in Sweden and garden all year round! There is always things you can do outside. Whenor if you have snow then you ski and skate. Play a form of hockey but with a ball! We have a saying in Sweden; There is no bad weather just bad cloths ( beeing badly clothed for the weather)

[sparkleinco]

So true. I came from a walkable town. Now I live in NC, a driving culture. I am on waiting list for Sr Housing in the North with sidewalks. this constant driving is terrible for people and the environment.

[evalindell]

In my family everyone on my fathers side got to be over 90. In 1979 we celebrated my fathers grandmothers 100th birthday! For me as 19 year old she was a fabulous woman. Clear as a sunny summers day and she had an eighty year old boyfriend 😊

[cabolynn]

My mom's cousin's husband will be turning 100 in April and he is a retired Dr. and still going strong. He has always been active. He is also not afraid of hard work, not only being a Dr., but owning a pig farm and working on that farm too. He has always and still does, consume a very clean diet and lots of grassfed meats and wild caught fish with lots of fresh lemon.

[DashShumilova]

Thank you for this talk! Mindfulness, slow-living, friends and family and simple foods

[FamilyGill-bz]

For Your Action: "[00:55:08] Jonathan Wolf: Yeah. We'll call it the The Dan Buettner Minestrone, and we will definitely share it".
I loved this discussion. I'm getting so much value from the ZOE podcasts (and loving my new kefir habit and 30 different veggies per week).
Really looking forward to learning to make Dan's minestrone - please share it <3

[ilotefft]

Good information. At 74, I spend 6 hours a week line dancing with others age 55--80+. We have been doing this for three years and have become close friends. We socialize in other ways as well. Most of us are conscious of what we eat because we want to stay healthy and light enough to line dance. Most are also believers in Christ Jesus and attend church and church activities regularly. Our meditation naturally revolves around the Bible and prayer. And, several in our group, including me, happen to love gardening and going on home and garden tours. I live in East Tennessee which unfortunately has a high obesity rate.

[kathygann]

I live in Westlake Village, CA which was designed by a landscape artist. He put meandering trails between houses and neighborhoods and there are people out walking all the time. One of my walking buddies was out walking by herself one day so we just paired up. Also I LOVE Silver Sneakers which pays for gym memberships so I can go to water aerobics 4x week which is so safe and good for you. It doesn’t hurt my knees and I can’t fall down.

[judithgebhardt]

The most important thing is to be happy regardless your circumstances which is to do with mindful caltivatio and how not to react to anything that is happening around you! Thank you for this very insight full discussion.❤

[terrytari]

Dan & Tim: I'm a Vegan, I go to the gym & also I walk up stairs, laundry my close, I dance, my faith is being a Vegan meditating etc,

[chewiewins]

Loved the series, loved this show. Simple message of eat well, move well, think well.