The Secrets of the Blue Zones
I love the thesis of the Blue Zone study because it aligns perfectly with my personal belief and advocacy about having a healthy financial life, a high FQ. Let me show you what I mean.
American explorer and National Geographic fellow, Dan Buettner, studied the lifestyles and diets of regions where people live the longest (with many centenarians) and healthiest until their last days.
These are:
1.) Ikaria, Greece
2.) Okinawa, Japan
3.) Sardinia, Italy
4.) Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica
5.) Loma Linda, California, USA
The common lifestyle habits of the Blue Zone inhabitants that Buettner calls the Power 9 are as follows:
1. Move naturally – No gyms or marathon runners but they are just nudged by their environments to constantly move without thinking.
2. Purpose – Ikigai for the Okinawans and plan de vida for the Nicoyans give them the reason to wake up in the morning.
3. Downshift – Stress management that includes praying, napping, remembering their ancestors.
4. 80% Rule – This is called hara hachi bu by the Okinawans or stop eating when 80% full.
5. Plant Slant – Plants are the cornerstone of their diet with meat taken just five times per month on average.
6. Wine @ 5 – They consume alcohol moderately, usually with friends.
7. Belong – They are members of faith-based communities.
8. Loved ones first – They put their families first, committed to a life partner, invest in their children, and care for aging parents and grandparents who live with them or nearby.
9. Right Tribe – They were born into or choose social circles that support healthy behaviors like the Okinawans’ moai (groups of five friends committed to each other for life).
Years ago, I watched Buettner’s Netflix series and read his books, and the lessons there are very similar to the main point of FQ Book 3, i.e., the power of design, the power of our environment. In one of his books, he even wrote this in the Introduction:
“If you’re overweight, suffering from diabetes, heart disease, or even several kinds of cancer, it’s probably not your fault. Politicians like to shake their finger at us and tell us our health is up to us, that it’s our “individual responsibility.” I don’t buy it.”
He went on to enumerate the changes that have happened in the environment like the proliferation of fast-food restaurants, junk food, upsizing of meal portions, coupled with sedentary lifestyle, crisis of loneliness, etc.
His conclusion: People who live a long time in the Blue Zones don’t really know why they live a long time. They don’t have heroic discipline, don’t know something we don’t, and they certainly have no more “individual responsibility” than we do. Their secret: They live in an environment where the healthy choice is not only the easy choice, but often the only choice!
Choice Architecture
Clearly, we see how our lives are significantly shaped by our environment. In the five Blue Zones, the residents are lucky to be in an environment where doing the right thing is not just the easier option but sometimes the only option; consequently, making them take care of their health. Our bodies are designed to move, eat certain types of food already provided by nature, embrace our human nature of being social creatures surrounded by loved ones, and live with a sense of purpose. However, our current lifestyle has become sedentary where working is usually sitting down at your desk for long hours, usually alone, eating processed food, with hardly any time for faith-based activities, and away from loved ones.
This is where Choice Architecture becomes crucial.
Choice Architecture is the use of design to influence the choices that we make. The options are presented in such a way that we will easily pick the choices the architect is nudging us to make.
In the five Blue Zone areas, the main choice architect is nature.
Unfortunately, as we progressed and invented all sorts of comforts for our everyday life, we have designed our environment in such a way that the easier choices are almost always the unhealthy choices for us. I am not saying that we should totally abandon our practical present-day lifestyle, but we should at least be aware that we have the capability to do something about our environment to make it easier for us to do the right thing consistently. We don’t need to go to the boondocks to live healthier lives but we can use the power of Choice Architecture where we are right now.
As a matter of fact, Buettner recently declared our neighbor country, Singapore, as the world’s sixth Blue Zone. Unlike the original five, which developed organically through traditions and practices that have flourished through the years, Singapore is a manufactured Blue Zone through the effective use of Choice Architecture. Over 80% of its residents live in high-rise public apartment blocks designed to encourage interaction in playgrounds, fitness centers, community gardens, etc. Walking is encouraged and driving your own car is discouraged through their restrictive Certificate of Entitlement and the efficient public transport system. The government’s proximity housing grant (up to Sing $30,000 for married couples and half of it for singles) encourages adult children to live near their parents. This is their way of tackling the aging problem. On the nutrition aspect, their hawker centers sell various cheap and delicious meals under one roof allowing interaction, and now using “Healthier Choice” symbol, an easy-to-understand sign to denote healthier food options so that consumers can make better-informed decisions more effortlessly.
In our own immediate surroundings, let’s see what we can do to implement Choice Architecture to make it easier for us to:
- Move naturally.
- Live our purpose.
- Manage our stress.
- Stop eating at 80% full.
- Eat more vegetables and fruits.
- Unwind at the end of workday.
- Belong to a local group like church or civic organization.
- Have great relationships with our families.
- Be in the right tribe, your inner circle or moai.
I wish you a good week of tweaking your environment and creating your own Blue Zone wherever you are right now.
In the next article, we will discuss how we can apply the secrets of the Blue Zone to our financial life.
ANNOUNCEMENT
1. Living to 100 is great, but living to 100 with peace of mind is better. Align your money habits with the Power 9 principles of purpose, tribe, and downshifting.
How healthy is your relationship with money? Find out in minutes. Take the FQ Test Now!
2. You don’t need to move to Greece or Italy to find your Blue Zone. You just need to change the “Choice Architecture” of your home and heart.
Start your journey toward a high-FQ life with the complete FQ Trilogy. Because a life well-lived deserves a bank account that can keep up. Get your copy here.
This article is also published in Philstar.com
