20+ Blue Zone Soup Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is the life expectancy in the blue zone? ›

A blue zone is a region in the world where people are claimed to have exceptionally long lives beyond the age of 80 due to a lifestyle combining physical activity, low stress, rich social interactions, a local whole-foods diet, and low disease incidence.

A big one is that the Mediterranean diet just focuses on the Mediterranean region of the world, she says—this diet focuses on the five different Blue Zones. “What's also different from a traditional Mediterranean diet is that it's much lower in fish, eggs, and dairy,” Cording says. “It's mostly plant-based.

Eggs are consumed in all five Blue Zones diets, where people eat them an average of two to four times per week. Cut down your consumption of cow's milk and dairy products such as cheese, cream, and butter. Try unsweetened soy, coconut, or almond milk as a dairy alternative.

In the world's blue zones, in most cases, the fish being eaten are small, relatively inexpensive fish such as sardines, anchovies, and cod—middle-of-the-food-chain species that are not exposed to the high levels of mercury or other chemicals like PCBs that pollute our gourmet fish supply today.

In the blue zones region of Ikaria, Greece, dementia among people over 85 is rare — over 75 percent less common than it is in the United States. (About half of Americans over 85 years old show signs of Alzheimer's disease.)

In addition to a daily cup of coffee, blue zones centenarians drink water, tea and wine. While coffee is often a hotly-debated health topic, it's shown to carry many health benefits. Most centenarians in blue zones regions drink up to two or three cups of black coffee per day!

Let's take a minute to celebrate peanut butter — if you're looking for the perfect blue zones lunch, this is where it's at. You can just do bread and peanut butter (which I like), or you can add some thinly-sliced banana, or you could add a natural, no-sugar-added jam (in place of typical highly-processed grape jelly).

Avoid dairy when possible. If cheese is a must, try ice-cube size portions of sheep (pecorino) or goat (feta) cheese to flavor foods. If you eat eggs, limit intake to three times a week.

Consider roasting them as a side or filling them with other vegetables and grains, like quinoa and tomatoes. The blue zone way of eating is not a strict diet, but a lesson in how combining flavorful, inexpensive whole, plant-based foods can be tasty and contribute to your longevity.

Here are the top eight fruits for healthy aging commonly consumed in the Blue Zones: 1. Avocados: They're a great source of healthy fats, fiber, carotenoids, and antioxidants.

Do Blue Zones eat sweets? ›

To eat like Blue Zones centenarians, eat a small handful of nuts daily. Mix it up by trying different types of nuts so you don't tire of them, but avoid sugar and salt coatings. People in Blue Zones areas don't eat foods with added sugar. Instead, they favor foods that are naturally sweetened with fruit and honey.

The best-of-the-best longevity foods are leafy greens such as spinach, kale, beet and turnip tops, chard, and collards. Combined with seasonal fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and beans dominate blue zones meals all year long. Many oils derive from plants, and they are all preferable to animal-based fats.

The centenarians from the blue zones regions of the world sleep about 7 to 9 hours per night and take frequent naps, further decreasing their stress load and reducing the risk of heart disease by 34 percent.

What do they drink in the blue zones? Easy: Clean water is the best longevity beverage on Earth. The Adventists believe you should drink seven glasses a day — which can keep your arteries flowing better and organs functioning higher. We also found that herbal and green teas probably have a strong longevity claim.

1 state for a long, healthy life: Hawaii. It's not surprising that Hawaii landed the number one spot as the best state for longevity. The Aloha State's life expectancy at birth is 80.7 years, which exceeds all other states and is three years longer than the national average.