People in the Blue Zones nurture strong social networks, consume a mostly plant-based diet, and incorporate daily, natural physical activity into their lives. They also do not overeat, learning to stop eating before they feel full. Long-lived people are not necessarily vegetarian, but they do eat mostly plant foods.
62% pray, meditate or engage in spiritual activity daily. Four in 10 stay active by walking or hiking at least once a week; 31% stay active by gardening. 32% of the centenarians eat organic foods regularly. 17% are currently doing some type of volunteer work.
One common characteristic of centenarians is their lower prevalence of diabetes.
Breakfasts. Centenarians from the blue zones typically eat a mainly plant-based diet. They favor beans, greens, yams and sweet potatoes, whole grains, fruits, nuts, and seeds. This recipe combines a few centenarians staples.
Many serious diseases have increased prevalence with age, including cancer, heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease, kidney disease, dementia, arthritis and osteoporosis.
Among humans, women's life span is almost 8% on average longer than men's life span. But among wild mammals, females in 60% of the studied species have, on average, 18.6% longer lifespans. The ratio is considerably different for different groups of mammals.
Longevity risk. can be defined simply as the risk of living too long such that one's advanced age hinders one's ability to continue adequately providing for oneself.
Increasing longevity can enable people to work longer, and working longer has benefits such as keeping people mentally engaged with work they value and/or enjoy, having a sense of purpose, preventing or reducing loneliness and providing more time to build financial security that will support longer lifespans.
"What does longevity mean? It's about optimal aging, in which your brain, body, mind, and spirit are all functioning at their best, well into your later years." So you not only have a high quantity of life, but a high quality of life. The good news: Healthy aging is less about genetics and more about your lifestyle.
The findings highlighted a paradox of ageing in centenarians - as their mental health digresses, their mental resilience strengthens. They suggested first and foremost that being stubborn and domineering could boost the chances of reaching 100.
At the end of the study, about 16 percent of the men and about 34 percent of the women survived to the age of 90. In fact, the authors found that women who were taller than 5 feet 9 inches were 31 percent more likely to reach 90, compared to those who were under 5 feet 3 inches.
1. Monaco. One of the smallest countries in the world, Monaco also has the UN's longest estimated life expectancy of any country as of 2023. Males in Monaco are expected to live an average of 85.17 years, and females are expected to live an even longer 88.99 years, for an overall average of 87.01 years.
Researchers also discovered that “shorter, smaller bodies have lower death rates and fewer diet-related chronic diseases, especially past middle age.” The lifespans of shorter people appear to be longer than their taller counterparts, the paper says.
Married men and married women live, on average, two years longer than their unmarried counterparts. One reason for this longevity benefit is the influence of marital partners on healthy behaviors. Study after study shows that married people eat better and are less likely to smoke and drink excessively.
Japanese life expectancy
This low mortality is mainly attributable to a low rate of obesity, low consumption of red meat, and high consumption of fish and plant foods such as soybeans and tea. In Japan, the obesity rate is low (4.8% for men and 3.7% for women).
This study showed that children's anthropometric traits predicted their parents' longevity better in the case of mothers than fathers. Mothers of small-bodied children and fathers of vigorous sons had higher chances of becoming longevous.
A recent study, The Big Breakfast Study: Chrono‐nutrition influence on energy expenditure and bodyweight, showed that breakfast as the biggest meal is the best strategy for weight control.
We found that most centenarians traditionally eat whole foods. These are foods made from single ingredient — raw, cooked, ground or fermented — and are not highly processed. They eat raw fruits and vegetables; they grind whole grains themselves and then cook them slowly.