Six areas across the globe are known as the blue zones , where a combination of culture, mindset, diet, and environment help their residents live longer and healthier lives than most. While there isn’t a straightforward rulebook for longevity, there are key lessons from the people who live in blue zones that can help you create and stick with new habits to age healthfully. One of those lessons resides in the food culture of an 80-mile-long peninsula in Central America, named a blue zone in the early 2000s.
The residents of Nicoya, Costa Rica—known for its coastal views south of the Nicaraguan border—have routinely enjoyed three foods together for at least 6,000 years old, Dan Buettner, the Blue Zones LLC founder shares in his recent docuseries Live to 100 on Netflix . “Without a doubt one of the reasons people in Nicoya are living a long time is because they are eating this diet of beans, squash, and corn,” Buettner says in the film. “They call it the three sisters.
” These plant-based foods are economical and practical sources of protein that have served Nicoya’s residents into old age. Contrary to the Western diet where meat is the primary source of protein, beans, corn, and squash provide protein at a low cost and without the cholesterol and saturated fat of red meat. “They are spending a fraction of what we do on meat and dairy, and they are getting all the protein they need,” Buettner says in the film.
“It just goes to show you do not need to be weal.