After visiting Blue Zones all over the world, today, we're visiting our home country, Australia. Not because Australia has been declared a secret seventh Blue Zone, but because, months after the first six episodes of this podcast dropped, an Australian researcher, Saul J. Newman, has been awarded an Ig Nobel Prize... for debunking the Blue Zones phenomenon.
In this bonus episode of Blue Zones: Revisited, we dissect Newman's award-winning paper, and the Blue Zones team's response to it.
Further Reading:
The 34th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony
UCL demographer's work debunking 'Blue Zone' regions
Dr. Newman has uncovered the 'secret' of living to 110 (ANU)
Scientist snares Ig Noble gong for work debunking 'Blue Zones' (RNZ)
Ig Nobel Prizewinner Debunks Supposed 'Blue Zones' (IFL)
Oxford don wins Ig Nobel Prize for debunking ageing research
Living beyond age 105: When the improbable becomes reality
The Science Behind Blue Zones: Demographers Debunk the Critics (the response)
Singapore is Live to 100's evidence that a Blue Zones approach can work in a modern city-state. But just how well does Singapore meet the Blue Zones definition - and, after exploring six different 'Blue Zones', three of which do not contain higher-than-average concentrations of centenarians, one of which was based on faulty data, and one of which isn't even a geographical zone, what does this phrase even mean? Furthermore, how well can these lessons be applied to completely different countries, cultures, and climates?
In this final episode of Blue Zones: Revisited, we examine the final evolution in the Blue Zones project: what started out as a humble research project conducted by an academic, then morphed into a worldwide phenomenon after being picked up by a National Geographic journalist, has reached its final, tradedmarked form with the corporate sponsorship of giant insurance companies. We search for the actual data on this great experiment, question just how likely it is that the entire US could become a 'Blue Zone' (whatever that now means) within 10 years, and reflect on what lessons we can actually take away from the Blue Zones book and series.
Thank you for listening to Blue Zones: Revisted. We hope you've learned something - most especially, not to worry too much!
Further Reading:
Life expectancy in the 1950s worldwide
Singapore's life expectancy projection
List of countries by past life expectancy (with links to each country's profile discussed)
Nicoya, Costa Rica is, according to Dan Buettner, home to the 'most extraordinary centenarians on the planet'. One which, for many years, he contends, went unnoticed because researchers couldn't believe the residents of 'such a poor country' could possibly live past 80, let alone 100.
In this very special episode of Blue Zones: Revisited (recorded live in Costa Rica!) we question exactly how 'poor' the 'Rich Coast' country really is, whether or not it's better to have a plan de vida or a pura vida, and whether pork lard and eggs constitute a 'plant-based diet'.
Further Reading:
Stanford article on longevity in Costa Rica
American insurers and medical tourism
Fact check: does corn on the cob provide enough protein?
The 2010 draft of the WHO calcium article
Dr. Steven Lin's TedX talk about dental health
Gallup analysis of religiosity and poverty
National Geographic fruit infographic
Ikaria, Greece might not have gotten a big feature in the first edition of the Blue Zones book, but it certainly made a splash in the second edition - and the Live to 100 Netflix series. After all, who doesn't associate the beautiful blue Mediterranean sea and sky with a healthy lifestyle?
In this fourth episode of Blue Zones: Revisited, we uncover where the idea that the Mediterranean diet is the ideal diet came from, just how closely actual Mediterranean residents' diets resemble those popularised in books like Blue Zones, and contrast the frequently communistic tendencies of some of the world's oldest communities with the capitalistic forces behind most of the food and health recommendations we hear.
Further Reading:
Lifestyle of those >90 in Ikaria
Greek communist election results
Loma Linda, California is the long-awaited American Blue Zone... or is it? Not only does it turn out to be not so 'blue' (we don't see a single centenarian), but it's not even really a 'zone' - at least in a geographical sense.
In this third episode of Blue Zones: Revisited, we discover just how much the definition of a 'blue zone' had to be stretched in order to find one in the US, uncover some conflicting advice about meat, wine, and spirituality, and take a little excursion filled with yoghurt enemas... and even more disturbingly... eugenics.
Further Reading:
Financial advice from Loma Linda residents
The long-term effects of depression
Sardinia isn't just a 'Blue Zone', an area with a higher concentration of centenarians than usual. It's better described as the beginning of the Blue Zones phenomenon. And it's also a place where you can buy a home for as little as one euro. In this second episode of Blue Zones: Revisited, we ask what happens to the people whose villages are designated as Blue Zones, consider whether red wine, goats milk, or even pizza might be the secret to a long life, and untangle what is knowable from what researchers maintain is unknown. Further Reading:
Questions raised in search for Sardinian centenarians' secrets
Review of the bioavailabilty of flavonoids
Review of goat's milk composition
Disease spread in Italian hospitals and nursing homes
Comparison of nursing homes in 10 developed countries
Okinawa is one of the world's 'Blue Zones', areas in which people live unusually long lives... or so we've heard. It's even been described as the 'land of the immortals'.
In this first episode of Blue Zones: Revisited, we ask just how unusual Okinawa's population really is, consider whether purple sweet potatoes might be the secret to a long life, and take seriously the advice of 99-year-old Fumi Chinen who says 'if anyone ever gives you something and tells you it's healthy, don't eat it.'
Further Reading:
Calorie consumption in Afghanistan
Adult BMI in Japan's 47 prefectures
Middle-aged and elderly hikikomori
Elderly population of Fukushima
Fukushima population statistics
World record centenarian beauty adviser
Elderly population of Chernobyl
Exceptional Longevity in Okinawa: A plea for in-depth validation
