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The World’s Healthiest Places to Live (part 3)

Centenarians in Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula

“Blue Zones” have been determined by scientists as places where the world’s longest-living people reside. One of these is Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula on the country’s northwest coast. Researchers spent nine months there in 2007 to determine why so many people live well into their 90s and 100s—longer than anywhere else in Costa Rica…or the world, for that matter.

The scientists studying the centenarians of the Nicoya Peninsula found eight key reasons for this longevity:

1. Diet. The people here are heavily influenced by the indigenous diet of the Chorotega, consisting of high-fortified corn and beans—healthy and high in fiber.

2. Water. With loads of calcium, the hard water encourages strong bones and fewer hip fractures.

3. Family focus. The Nicoya centenarians tend to live as couples or with children and/or other family members from whom they get support.

4. Eating lightly. They eat a light dinner early in the evening. (Eating fewer calories is proven to add years to your life.)

5. Dry climate. Nicoya is the driest part of Costa Rica, and in dry climates food doesn’t spoil as quickly, the sun is more intense, and people get fewer respiratory diseases and more Vitamin D.

6. Social networks. The centenarians here get frequent visitors and they know how to listen, laugh and appreciate what they have.

7. Work. They’ve enjoyed physical work all their lives and find joy in everyday chores.

8. Purpose. They feel needed and want to contribute to a greater good.

Sardinia: Ancient Island, Ancient People

Off Italy’s Mediterranean coast, Sardinia is a rugged island of 1.3 million people. It’s often synonymous with the jet-set lifestyle—Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s Prime Minister, owns a vacation villa here.

While Signor Berlusconi happily admits to a hair transplant and cosmetic surgery, he looks in good shape for a 73-year-old. Could it be something in Sardinia’s air?

Maybe, but by local standards he’s a youngster. Sardinia is another Blue Zone. Due to their extraordinary number of centenarians, the close-knit villages of its interior have attracted several major research teams.

Dan Buettner, a noted author on longevity, interviewed several centenarians in Barbagia for National Geographic. (Tavern calendars here feature a “Centenarian of the Month.”)

Most still live with one or more family members. The men are shepherds and continue that lifestyle. They typically walk five miles a day and eat similar diets: whole grain flatbread, fava beans, tomatoes, greens, garlic, various fruits, olive oil and pecorino cheese from grass-fed sheep (high in Omega 3). Among older people, meat often remains reserved for Sundays and feast days.

One interviewee is Guiseppe Mura, aged 102. He starts work at dawn, comes home, sleeps a little, and then spends some time with friends in the village square. He then returns to the fields until dark.

Maria, his 65-year-old daughter, estimates her father drinks a liter of wine daily. The local wine is Cannonau, a dark, red wine with the world’s highest levels of antioxidants.

Source: Internationalliving.com
Date of publication: 23rd of July 2010
Remark: LEX posted only an abridged version of the article. For detailed information on this topic visit the mentioned source website

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