Blue Zones: Revisited

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

Newman's acceptance speech

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

Supercentenarian and remarkable age records exhibit patterns indicative of clerical errors and pension fraud (the paper)

Living beyond age 105: When the improbable becomes reality

The Science Behind Blue Zones: Demographers Debunk the Critics (the response)

End government support for pro-alcohol research

Ig Nobel nominations

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!

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)

US health insurance costs

Drug use in Singapore

Making the Blue Zones

Neuroliberalism and Beyond

A Commentary on Blue Zones

Cedar Falls Blue Zone Project

Blue Cross Blue Shield

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'.

Telomeres in Costa Rica

Stanford article on longevity in Costa Rica

American insurers and medical tourism

Fact check: does corn on the cob provide enough protein?

20 foods high in vitamin C

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

US fruit consumption statistics

The Economist's Big Mac Index

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.

Meat consumption in Greece

Alzheimers and Blue Zones

Greek panegyri

Lifestyle of those >90 in Ikaria

Health of those >90 in Ikaria

Greek communist election results

Okinawan communist election results

Communism in Japan

Communism in California

Communism in Adventism

The concept of 'privacy' in Ancient Greek philosophy

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.

The Californian Blue Zone

Financial advice from Loma Linda residents

The long-term effects of depression

Worldwide meat consumption

The effects of a vegan diet

The Adventist Health Study

Drinking red wine for your heart?

Foods containing resveratrol

How to Live Forever documentary

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.

Questions raised in search for Sardinian centenarians' secrets

Sardinia DNA samples missing

Review of the bioavailabilty of flavonoids

Red wine and longevity

Review of goat's milk composition

Disease spread in Italian hospitals and nursing homes

One euro homes for sale

One euro homes for rent

Comparison of nursing homes in 10 developed countries

Mussolini's fascist new towns

Sardinia's pizza - the panada

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

Support for aging hikikomori

Ikigai and retirement

Elderly population of Fukushima

Fukushima population statistics

Last Fukushima town reopens

World record centenarian beauty adviser

Elderly population of Chernobyl

Exceptional Longevity in Okinawa: A plea for in-depth validation

Declining Longevity Advantage in Okinawa