Episode 185 with Dan Buettner
I Guess I Forgot to Die: How to Defy Retirement, Boost Longevity, and Transform Your Life
SHOW NOTES:
Purchase Dan's newest book, The Blue Zones Secrets for Living Longer: Lessons From the Healthiest Places on Earth here >> https://amzn.to/469qPrd
Watch Dan's four-part Netflix Documentary here >> https://www.netflix.com/title/81214929
Learn more about Dan and Blue Zones here >> https://www.bluezones.com/
and on Instagram @danbuettner
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SHOW TRANSCRIPT:
185 DAN BUETTNER
Ginny Yurich Are you ready? Can we hop right into it?
Dan Buettner Sure. Is it okay? I'm walking. Is that okay? I mean, it's more participatory.
Ginny Yurich Yeah, absolutely.
Dan Buettner All right, great.
Ginny Yurich I like it. It fits right with the theme.
Dan Buettner It's very blue zones, by the way, is.
Ginny Yurich All right, here we go. Welcome to the 1000 Hours Outside podcast. My name is Ginny Yurich. I'm the founder of 1000 Hours Outside. And we have today our first guest who has ever been actually outside walking during the podcast, Dan Buettner. I'm so thrilled that you're here. Welcome.
Dan Buettner Oh, well, it's a delight to be here. And, you know, it's consummately blue zones to walk and talk. So I am walking the talk.
Ginny Yurich It's perfect. I love that. So the end of the founder of Blue Zones, an organization that helps Americans live longer, healthier, happier lives. You've written so many books. I read The Blue Zones. I have the second edition of it, but I have the Blue Zones. Nine Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who've Lived the Longest. I read it years ago, and then recently I got your Blue Zones Kitchen Cookbook, which I know you have two of those different types of cookbooks. And then your newest book, The Blue Zone Secrets for Living Longer Lessons from the Healthiest Places on Earth comes out very soon. It'll already be out by the time the podcast goes and your Netflix series. So you have become this guru on longevity, and it is fascinating. I've learned so much from your books. Can we start with this topic, the topic of retirement? This is one of the things from your books that I had never heard of before. I didn't realize. You talk about how in some cultures the word retirement doesn't even exist. Wow.
Dan Buettner That's right. Okinawan. No word in the Okinawan dialect for retirement. Instead, it guy. The reason for which I wake up in the morning, imbues their entire adult life. And, you know, interestingly, the second most dangerous year of your life is the year you retire. The first most dangerous statistically, is the year you're born because of mortality. But there's a huge mortality spike to your you retire and it might be because you slow down abruptly. It might be because you lose your social network. You know, it might be because you get divorced. We don't know why, but it's a dangerous year. In blue zones, they wake up every morning with a sense of purpose and a sense that it's their job to contribute. And that sentence doesn't go away until the you know, till they die. Really. We met several 100 year olds who continue to have a market stall, continue to garden, continue to take care of their great, great grandchildren, continue to carry forth the agricultural or the culinary traditions of the village. It's a subtle idea, but important in the big picture of aging well.
Ginny Yurich And so this is your topic of expertise, longevity. You've been doing this for almost 20 years, is that correct? Starting back in 2004.
Dan Buettner Yeah. As you know, while I appreciate you calling me a guru, I really am not a guru. Well, I work for National Geographic. I'm a writer and I'm an explorer. And I'm good at putting together big projects that try to solve big mysteries. And about 20 years ago, with the idea of trying to reverse engineer longevity. I got a big grant from the National Institute on Aging and from the National Geographic to hire demographers to statistically find the longest lived parts of the world, which I've done blue zones. And these are places where the people have achieved the life outcomes we want. They make it to the capacity of the human body, which is about 90 or 95 years, largely without the diseases that are for sure in our lives in America. So they're not getting diabetes or heart disease or dementia or breast or prostate cancer anywhere near the rates we are in America. And the project Blue Zones really set out to reverse engineer once we find these places to go to each of them and find the common denominators or the correlates, as we call it, and we see very clearly the same trends happening in all five blue zones. And my writings are really just reflecting what these populations do. You know, I try to keep my opinion out of it. I'm more of an oracle. I'm more of a of a medium that translates what these populations are doing it and try to translate it into language. I mean, people can understand and put the ideas to work in their lives.
Ginny Yurich What a fascinating project, Dan to be able to go and see how people are living around the world in different areas. And then you recently went back partially for this Netflix series, is that correct?
Dan Buettner Right. For the Netflix series, we revisited all five blue zones. And since well, you know, the reality is I've been going to all of the blue zones fairly regularly for the past 20 years. But from the book, you have the original blue. Results book, there's probably been about 40% more insights we've been able to mine from these places because, you know, once people find out about other scientists, it draws a lot of scientific interest. And I am able to sort of skim the cream of what all these other scientists have found in these blue zones. And I report this new book, Secrets A Long Life, really updates everything we know about the five Blue Zones and then tries to offer sort of a manual, if you will, to help people kind of follow, you know, do the things that the centenarians do in blue zones so that they get the most good years out of life.
Ginny Yurich I love that. And so many of the things are surprising, like the retirement. I'd never heard of that thought. That was really interesting. It makes you think about, as you get older, keeping your mind sharp. Not that they're working in these hard jobs necessarily, but like you said, they're still gardening, they're still interacting with family, they're still interacting with grandkids. So I love that. One of the ones you talked about is just movement. And here you are. You're out walking. I was actually surprised, Dan, that a lot of the centenarians and in these different cultures, they're walking 5 to 6 miles a day is what some of the books said. I was thinking it was going to be like 20. So it's something that would take a bit of time, but it isn't all that out of reach. So can you talk to us about the movement that's happening in these blue zones? What are people doing?
Dan Buettner Well, they're not exercising, and I think that disrupts a lot of people's thinking. And it, I hope, gets us thinking about a different way of getting the physical activity we need. First of all, physical activity is absolutely necessary for healthy aging. Fewer than 25% of Americans get the absolute minimum, which is about a 20 minute walk per day. People in blue zones get their physical activity not from yoga classes or CrossFit or pumping iron or running triathlons, the sort of chore we call exercise they don't do. Instead, every time they go to work or a friend's house or out to eat it, occasions a walk. And in many blue zones, by the way, that's uphill. They have gardens out back. That's a ten daily. I mean, they do have an advantage in that they always have 2 to 3 growing seasons so they can have a garden almost all year long, which is hard for people in Minnesota to do. Right. And they haven't filled their lives with the mechanical conveniences that has engineered most of the non exercise physical activity out of our lives. So they're doing yard work by hand and housework by hand and kitchen work. They're grinding corn with a crank and they're kneading bread by hand. And all of this unconscious physical activity adds up to burning more calories than they would in a gym. But first of all, they do it every day. People, you know, have gym memberships show up on average about once a week. And number two, because it's spread out through the day, their metabolism is kept higher all day long. So they're the resting state. They're burning more calories than they would if they're sitting at their desk all day long. So it really starts to get us thinking about a different way of physical activity that's unconscious, which leads us to not necessarily trying to change our behavior, but change our environment and look for ways to set up nudges so we mindlessly move. That's the big idea.
Ginny Yurich Mm hmm. So how does that work in your life? So here you are. Now, I've had 150 podcast guests, and none of them have been out walking. You're the first one.
Dan Buettner I feel.
Ginny Yurich So awesome. Dan, how are you structuring your life beyond something like this to make sure that me? Because, you know, we work eight hour shifts. Are we? You know, the American lifestyle is not necessarily set up and kids are sitting in classrooms, all these different things. So, I mean, you've had 20 years. What are some of the changes that you've made?
Dan Buettner Well, I wish you could see me right now. I'm I'm carrying a carrier bag full of groceries. I have my cell phone in one hand and I have a coffee on my other hand, and I'm walking there, like in the aisles. Okay. So the number one thing is I live in a walkable neighborhood. So I walk from my house to the grocery store to my coffee shop. I see my friends. This is healthy. This is way more healthy than going to a gym. And people say, well, I can't move. Well, if you look at. U.S. Census data, you discover the average American moves residences about ten times in their adult life, giving them ten opportunities to move to a more walkable neighborhood, just living in a walkable neighborhood. Statistics show occasions about 20% more physical activity than living in, say, a cul de sac or a suburb where every time you go someplace, you're getting in your car. So that's what number two. So I live in walkable neighborhoods. I live mostly in Miami, Miami Beach, and and I visit Minneapolis where I both you know, where I sleep. I have walkability, both places. Then my friends. So, you know, I do have some friends who, you know, like to belly up to the bar and spend the night chewing the fat. But most of the new friends I brought online in the last ten years idea of rec of recreation is some activity. I have a whole gaggle of friends I bike with and another gaggle of friends I play pickleball with. So when I call up a buddy, it's almost always you do something active. I don't have to think about it. When they call me, they're calling to do something active. You know, the other thing is I figured out how to use public transportation. I know how to get downtown safely on my bicycle. So I my transportation is usually biking or public transportation. So I'm walking that way. It's thinking about how to engineer physical activity into your life rather than a sedentary life.
Ginny Yurich Mm hmm. Well, that's what you talk about, is that a lot of the centenarians, they're not trying to be centenarians. Their culture and their lifestyle. It helps facilitate that for them. So those are great ideas. And one of the things there was a couple of motivating things in here. One of the things is that if you continue with the physical activity that is going to help you with your balance. So you write, falls are the leading cause of death among older Americans.
Dan Buettner Well, a leading is yeah, it's not the leading. It's a leading. It's among the top five. But it is important, you know, if you die, if you fall down and break your hip and you're 50 years or older, there's a 25% chance you'll be dead in a year. So it's a real threat that we often overlook the way we sit on chairs or sofas, you know, that weakens our lower bodies and, you know, we lose flexibility over time. And look at Okinawans, longest of women in the history of the word Okinawa, by the way, is in the southern tip of Japan, produce more centenarians than any other place in the history of the world. I spend two days with 104 year old woman who lives alone, cooks for herself, runs her own garden. She sits on the floor all day long for breakfast, lunch, dinner. So think about that. She is getting up and down off the floor probably 30 times a day, every single day of her life. So her hips are much more open and flexible. Greater lower body strength. I mean, that amounts to 30 squats a day. It's not a gym, but so what? And then the balance that comes with having to get up, you know, I challenge most people listening right now to just go down to the floor, sit on your floor for one second and get up again. I'll bet you you're going to be slightly winded. So do that 30 times a day. She'll realize that. But she's strength in her body. She's getting physical activity. She's bettering your balance. And sure enough, in Okinawa, the chance of dying from a fall is about one fifth that of the United States. Wow. So this, once again gets to the bigger idea of blue zones is don't try to change your behavior, change your environment. That will last.
Ginny Yurich Yeah. So that's what you talk about, less furniture, less things to trip on. But then also you're getting up and down off the floor. I just talked to this woman named Katie Bowman, who's a biomechanics, and she says the exact same things. Dan, she says that your floor is the best piece of exercise equipment you didn't know you have.
Dan Buettner I love that.
Ginny Yurich She says, get up and down five, ten times, lay on your stomach, then lay on your back and get back up and down. And she said, It's a whole body workout.
Dan Buettner So the only difference I would say is rather than remember to do that every day, take your TV room, for example, and take the sofa and the couch out, maybe put in a beanbag chair or something as transitional. Then you don't have to remember to do it every day. Every time you want to go watch TV, go down the floor, sit down where that's where I'm sitting these days.
Ginny Yurich And that's what people are doing with their tables. Maybe you're eating your meal down there. So like you said, it's changing the environment, having these environmental cues that change your habits. I loved Dan. This is one of my favorite parts. I loved where you talked about likability. You said it's very rare to find a sad centenarian. That's a big statement. They're not grumpy and mopey. So talk about this factor of likability and longevity.
Dan Buettner Yeah. Where I put it, there was no grump in the bunch. I think the grumps are dead earlier. I know it sounds flippant, but I'll tell you why. We know that if you're lonely, it shaves about eight years off your life expectancy, as opposed to having a vibrant social circle of four or five friends who care about you on a bad day. Well, we live in a culture that there's no guarantee you're going to have five friends who like you if you're not interested or interesting, or have some degree of compassion or sympathy or generosity. And these are the things that are often overlooked. And, you know, taking the time to cultivate those qualities in yourself, I would argue, over your life expectancy much more than joining a gym over the long run. People who are likable, they get more visits from other people. By the way, there's studies that show they get better health care. Your nurse and doctor are going to spend more time with you and more care if you're a likable person. And there wasn't a grump in the bunch. That was just an anecdotal observation on my part, though. I did interview over 300 centenarians. It sure lines up nicely with the research.
Ginny Yurich 300 of them, not a grump in the bunch. And maybe this is a silly question. How do you become more likable?
Dan Buettner You remember people's birthdays. You reach out and invite them to lunch or over for happy hour. If you're the type of person who likes to dominate a conversation. You consciously ask them questions, be interested in their life. And if you're the type of person who kind of a bump on the log that you develop some interest and be able to share it. Learn how to tell a good story. Learn how to tell a joke. I think in general, it's been useful. It's think about how to be useful to others. Pay attention to them with open hearts. It's not hard, but we don't think about it. But it's important to think about It is.
Ginny Yurich Well, that's what I love about your books. They're surprising in a very positive way because these aren't huge things. Get up and down off the floor. Go walk. Be likable. Don't retire. Or if you retire. Still have things that get you up in the morning and that you're passionate about. I love all these different ideas. One of the ones that you talk about that's very common in all of these blue zones is that there's a lot of multi-generational living. What's going on there that's different than how things are in America?
Dan Buettner Well, if you're in America and there's over 50% chance you're going to end up in a retirement home, Wow. You end up in a retirement home. Your life expectancy draws between two and six years. It depends what condition you are and how old you are, but they're not good. And in blue zones, the idea of putting an aging parents in a retirement home is antithetical to their culture, which shame the family. So older people are kept at home where they get better care. And by the way, it's not just a free ride. Older people are expected to tend to garden and help take care of kids. In fact, they're really important role in taking care of children. It's called the Grandmother Effect, which actually increases the life expectancy of the child. You know, they're still making the wine. They keep the sour old bread culture and they lead the bread making every Friday afternoon. So it's this beautiful, virtuous circle of the younger generations benefiting from the wisdom and resilience of the older generation and the older generation feeling useful. And I underscore, feeling useful and nudged into being mentally and physically active, which does not happen in a retirement home. That's right. And it's so important. And they live and people miss the importance of that. We should have legislation in this country that gives families a tax break for keeping our aging parent nearby. They do that in Singapore and the life expectancy has up. You know, that's part of the reason they have the highest healthy life expectancy in the world. You know, we miss these things in our sad and corrupted search for some pharmaceutical solution to everything.
Ginny Yurich Well, talking about that, you had a statement that said that it was about supplements. I was so surprised to read it. It was about how supplements aren't really doing what we think they are. It says people who take supplements actually live shorter lives than people who don't.
Dan Buettner Right. I was citing a study that showed that for all people who take a supplements, they don't try to look at which one. But for all people take supplements, they have higher rates of mortality than people who take no supplements at all. So as a class, supplements aren't doing any good for the population. No, you guys, you know, vegans need vitamin B12. And there there's some argument that vitamin D is important for some people, but as a class, it's a waste of money.
Ginny Yurich A lot of money is spent on those.
Dan Buettner Over 100 billion.
Ginny Yurich Well, what do you think? Do you think it's because people are depending on those and not actually making these lifestyle changes?
Dan Buettner Yes, that's part of it. Okay. First of all, there's no supplement ever invented that has been showed, shown to reverse, start, stop or even slow aging. Number one. And number two, you're right, People take their multi-vitamin the morning they say, well, I got my vitamins. I want to have a Big Mac for lunch. And it doesn't work that way. First of all, you can get all the vitamins and minerals you need by eating a whole food plant based diet. So you shouldn't be giving yourself an excuse to skip out on those on those foods. My opinion. And then there are some vitamins that just aren't all that good for you. You know, we think they're good for you, but they're not taking too much iron for older men, too bad for them. And, you know, I'm not a doctor, but, you know, I've seen it in the studies.
Ginny Yurich Interesting. Well, then that leads into you talk a whole lot about food. I love that you say taste and you even have these cookbooks. And in this new book that's coming out, the Blue Zones Secret for Living Longer, there's all sorts of recipes right in there. Beautiful photos. Dan, I know you have a photographer that you've been working with for decades, and I read where did I read something like 20,000 photos your team had to go through to pick the photos for these books?
Dan Buettner Yeah, it's probably more so. You know, I write for National Geographic and I've written three to cover stories and another and then three other stories about blue zones over the years. And every time I get assigned one of those great photographers, it's usually David McClain, the photographer. And people realize that. But for one National Geographic article that might show 14 pictures, they have to take over 10,000 frames. Whoa. So, you know, I know the photographers and I had them do an edit. And there are so many gorgeous photographs that have never seen the light of day, this secretive long life book. We managed to get above 300 of the best photographs, so the book looks like a 300 page National Geographic article. But with all the good reporting that you would expect from National Geographic, and I think it's a winning combination.
Ginny Yurich It sure is. It's a gorgeous book and it has recipes right in there, gorgeous pictures that you can really kind of see what you're talking about. What does the lifestyle look like? So one of the things you say in your cookbooks and also in these other books is that in these certain places, they say with the thought is that taste is the most important ingredient in any longevity recipe. But one of the things I'd never heard of, Dan, I thought was very interesting was about dietary monotony. Can you tell us about that?
Dan Buettner Well in blue zones in any given day, they're only going to be using about 20 ingredients. And those ingredients change slightly with the seasons, you know, what comes out of your garden and so forth. But their diet is fairly monotonous. They're going to have the same breakfast in Sardinia, for example. They're going to have a minestrone soup for lunch just about every day and salad old bread and maybe a little glass of wine. It doesn't change a lot. And there's some research that suggests that with monotony, we tend to consume fewer calories. And a big thing to remember is these people in the blue zones are actually eating fewer calories than Americans eat, probably 3 to 400 fewer calories per day. And they're not achieving this because they're going hungry. They're achieving this because they're satiated. They first of all, hope for a plant based diet is much less calorically dense than, say, eating meat or processed food. But secondly, that they have these unconscious situations working for them where they're they're not eating as much. They tend to eat off a smaller plate, which telegraphs to our brain a bigger portion. I'm satiated. They don't have TVs in their kitchens or screens, so they're not eating to their favorite TV show and forgetting about being full. They're eating with family. And to your point, the monotony of the food is, by the way, even though we call it, but not it's not monotonous for them. You know, the Sardinians not centenarians after 100 years. You know, when I asked them why and I asked this question, a lot of times it's a fun question to ask people. Tell me what your last meal on earth would be. To a person, they say minestrone in Sardinia, no minestrone. And if it's in Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica, they may say, you know, a piece of fish or something, but they're also always going to say beans and tortilla, which is something they're going to eat at every meal most of their lives. So Malani figures in and it's a self satiating system.
Ginny Yurich It's so interesting. Well, I love this sentence. And it was in a cookbook. And the cookbook I have you have an American cookbook, and then you have this blue Jones kitchen. And in the Blue Zone's kitchen, it says the nine siblings of the MELLIS family. So this is a record setting family, a collective age, 852 years. They claim they ate minestrone every day of their lives. And I'm thinking, Dan, what a life. As a mother, if I could just serve the same thing every single day. This is a great solution.
Dan Buettner Try it. It might work for you.
Ginny Yurich Yeah.
Dan Buettner Well, I argue that this Sardinian minestrone is the greatest longevity cocktail ever invented. Why? Because it has beans in there. It has barley. That's a grain. So when you. When you combine a bean and a grain, you get a whole protein. So you're eating a bowl soup with whole protein, but you also have a half a dozen other kinds of vegetables in there which give you a variety of fiber. Only 20% of Americans get enough fiber. And fiber is the only thing that our healthy bacteria feeds on. And if we're fiber deficient, we're more likely to be in a state of inflammation. Our immune system doesn't work as well. We don't get the feel good hormones circulating through our system, super important. And then, of course, with the herbs and the garlic and you get the micronutrients, we need the antioxidants. And by the way, you start your day off with a bowl of Sardinian minestrone and you're good. You got about half of what you need for the day in the way of meaningful nutrients in your stomach is full. And because it's beans and a little bit of olive oil, you're satiated until noon. You're not reaching for the the mid-morning snack like you would if you ate a bunch of sugary granola or cereal.
Ginny Yurich Wow.
Dan Buettner And you're also not lethargic as you would be if you eat a fatty bacon and eggs breakfast. So great opportunity to increase your longevity and make you feel better today. Start your day with a bowl. Minestrone in.
Ginny Yurich Sardinia. Minestrone.
Dan Buettner Yes.
Ginny Yurich This is in the cookbook and it's also in the new book Secrets for Living Longer. So the recipe is right in there. People can find that. I'm definitely trying it. And then you talked about how this is an interesting thing, especially heading into back to school season, that when you eat too many types of foods, it puts a stress on your immune system. I had no idea. You know, you always think, well, you should be on this rotating meal plan and we should have all these different types of things. That's a very freeing thing to know that dietary monotony is an important component of longevity.
Dan Buettner Well, yeah. So there are studies that show that certain types of wide variety does put a toll on your immune system. It doesn't mean to say that you shouldn't have a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. You should, But it's a theory, and I try to just connect the dots. But that's not that's not evidence based. And it wouldn't be my number one. Well, it's evidence based in some cases, but it's more there for you to think about than it is an absolute.
Ginny Yurich Mm hmm. Interesting. Okay, well, let's talk about sour dough, because sour dough is all the rage, and my friends will be excited about this. So can you tell us why sour dough bread is such a healthy thing to add to our diet?
Dan Buettner Yes. Yeah. So if you are, we're talking about real sour dough. And the key is you usually have to make it at home or get it from a baker. But it's a slow rising bread. You know, it takes about a day for it to rise and before you bake it. In some cases, two or three days. But it's usually a day. And the leavening takes place because of a bacteria called lactobacillus instead of yeast, which is a fungus. So we know that in the process of this lactobacillus is the sourness and the sour dough. Most of the gluten is are metabolized. They go away. In fact, it's the metabolism of the gluten that makes the bubbles and makes, you know, the acid, which gives it that slightly sour flavor. And two big studies done in Sardinia found that people who eat sour dough bread with the meal actually have lower glycemic loads from that meal. So in other words, the sugars from that meal are absorbed 25% more slowly. And that's really important because first of all, it's easier on your insulin sensitivity in your organs, but also slow absorbed sugar that makes it so those calories are more likely to be used as energy and less likely to be put on your backside as fat. And again, one meal of plain old bread as opposed to sour is not going to make a difference. But in Sardinia, every day it's our dough bread with two or three meals a day for a lifetime. And so here you have a population living about eight years longer than we are, the fracture rate of disease. And I believe that sour dough bread contributes to that formula.
Ginny Yurich I think people are going to be thrilled to hear that. Dan, So interesting. How about vitamin D? So we're trying to get kids outside, families outside. They say that the average kid is only outside for 4 to 7 minutes these days, but they're on screens for 4 to 7 hours. What is vitamin B doing for people and their longevity?
Dan Buettner Well, vitamin D combined with calcium helps build bones for for children, but it helps decrease the rate of bone erosion for older people. So it's very important. There's all kinds of opponents in metabolism that require vitamin D, People with vitamin D deficiency are more likely to get depressed. They're more likely to have cardiovascular disease, they're more likely to die earlier. So we don't know for sure what's going on in all of these processes. But we do know that getting enough vitamin D stacks the deck in your favor, and it's very hard to get it from our diet. I know milk and so forth. Is vitamin D fortified, but your best source of vitamin D is to get out in the sun and expose your legs in your arms for at least 20 minutes. If it's between the northern Hemisphere, if it's between May and October, that's all you need is a little harder if you live up in Minnesota during the winter. But by the way, getting a lot of vitamin D in the summer, your body actually stores vitamin D so you get a little bit of a surplus. But Virginia is part of a bigger sort of ecosystem that, you know, we shelter our children, we drive them to play dates, we sanitize everything. They sit inside and play their video games instead of being outside too much. And if you look at kids in blue zones, they're out all day long. Of course, they live in neighborhoods where there's eyes on the street and neighbors care about your kids as much as they care about their kids. But they're all playing, which is natural movement. They're required to work in the garden. They're exposed to some dirt. They have to beat a little bit of dirt, which is on the vegetables. They're getting sunshine all day long. So it becomes this cluster of counterintuitive, healthy ecosystem that makes them grow up healthy in the first place and far lower rates of autoimmune diseases and the blue zones, while far lower rates of child. You know, you never hear of a child with anxiety or a child with depression. You know, maybe it's there, but you know it's not. Manifest enough for people to get up and pay attention to it like we do here.
Ginny Yurich Wow. Unbelievable. It's so encouraging. Can we get one more topic of rest? That was a topic that came up a lot. A low sense of urgency. Rest taking a Sabbath. Just not moving so fast. What are these other cultures doing to slow down?
Dan Buettner Well, this is the advent. Just pray there. Saturday Sabbath is all day long. So from sun set on Friday to sunset on Saturday, their focus, there's no TV in. They don't go to dances. They don't. Kids don't aren't playing football. They put their electronics away and they focus on their family. Saturday morning, they focus on their God. Saturday at lunch, they have a potluck with their faith based community. And then Saturday afternoon, they're taking a nature walk. There's enormous power in that. I'm not particularly religious myself, but I see it, and it's a big thing to remember when it comes to longevity. There's no short term fix. There's nothing you can do this week or this month or even this year that's going to add healthy years to your life other than not dying. You have to think about things you're going to do for the long run, and the Sabbath is something Adventist people do every Saturday for their entire life. So they're slowing down. I call it downshifting every week. They're rebuilding their social network. They're making their connection with their spiritual, their God. Who knows that might work, You know, proof it does or doesn't. And they get that nature walk every Saturday. The Sardinians, They do. Happy hour. At the end of the day there they walk down to the village and they have a glass of wine with their friends. The Okinawans start their day. Sitting in front of our ancestors shrine might have a picture of grandma. Her hairbrush she used to use it might have the ashes of great great grandfather in a beautiful urn. But it's this beautiful look in the house to help them remember that they're not a point in time, but part of a continuum. And they have responsibility for the next generation. But they can also turn to the departed ancestors for, you know, their belief is that their ancestors are looking over them a little bit. So that's their way of slowing down. And then in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, they take a nap a midday, you know, mid-afternoon nap. And that's probably more powerful than we think. A nap is towards 20 or 30 minute nap ideas been shown to be associated with about a third lower rate of cardiovascular disease, lower rates of dementia, far better than any pharmaceutical for the vast majority of the people is let yourself chill out mid-afternoon.
Ginny Yurich Wow. I love the whole concept of changing your environment. Like you said, these are long term plays that you really have to think about. And one of the things that really was encouraging was and I know this is just a story of one person, but you share the story of a man name and I'm not sure if I'm going to pronounce it right, but Stamatis.
Dan Buettner Yes, Demetrius.
Ginny Yurich Stamatis and he lived here in America and he was diagnosed with lung cancer, only given 6 to 9 months to live. Can you tell his story? Because I thought this was fascinating.
Dan Buettner Sure. He moved from Ikaria, which is this Greek island, a blue zone to Detroit when he was about 21 years old. And he got a job as a painter, hard worker. And he you know, he made a decent living earn enough money to marry a Greek American woman and buy a house in the suburb, buy a Chevrolet American dream. But by mid-sixties, he developed lung cancer. One, two, three doctors, all of whom told him six months to live. And instead of dying in Detroit, he says to himself, Well, you know, to this typical Korean, I could get buried back in my island for about one fifth of what it's going to cost here. So I had more money left over for my bride. And they move to Korea and he prepares to die and he reconnects with his faith. He reconnects with his friends. You know, they start hanging out every day. He starts to eating the Korean diet form of the Mediterranean diet, starts drinking the wine. Six months comes and goes, and he's forced to be dead. But he's feeling pretty good. And he goes out back and he plants a vineyard and he thinks to himself, I'm never going to see these grapes, but my wife will be able to pick them. And when she picks these grapes, she'll remember me. Well, to make a long story medium. 34 years later, when I met him at age 100 here, that the whole vineyard was producing 200 liters of wine a year, all of which he drank. And when I asked him. What is secret? Was he supposed fluent English and lived in America 30 years? When I asked him what his secret was, he shrugged and he goes, I don't know. I guess I just forgot to die. And that statement really resonated. It was really about then, this is about eight years into my blue zone research. The big epiphany came and that is that in blue zones, none of these five places does anybody pursue health. Nobody tries to live a long time. They don't go to gyms. They don't call the 800 number and buy supplements. They're not in any diet. All they do is live their life. And lo and behold, longevity ensues. So the big aha here is instead of spending all this money and time and effort and resources, all, you know, all the crap that we are marketed to get healthier or lose weight or live longer. Set up your environment so you mindlessly move more, eat less, more, plant based, socialize more. And in a way that we can live out our purpose. Those are the pillars of every blue zone in the world.
Ginny Yurich And don't be a grump.
Dan Buettner And don't be a grump. Yes. Until you grow up. But manifestly, you know, these people are living eight years longer with a fraction of the rate of disease. And there is no pill, there's no supplement, there's no longevity hack that will give you anywhere near eight years. But yet we spend $100 billion a year on these vile hacks and anti-aging nostrums looking for the silver bullet. When the answer really lies amongst these these ancient people who live in every continent of the planet. Wow.
Ginny Yurich Fantastic books. And I have enjoyed them for years. Like I said, I bought the first blue Zone book and I know it came out in 2008, but I bought it quite a while ago and just absolutely love the new one. The Blue Zone Secret for living Longer. So excited about your Netflix series. That's a four part series, correct?
Dan Buettner Correct. Beginning in August 30th.
Ginny Yurich Are we going to see you in it? What's that going to be like?
Dan Buettner You know, we have this amazing crew. I don't know if you saw Chef's Table, but they're it's an amazing director and amazing cinematography. We had 20 people traveling with us to all the blue zones. I can't wait. The only downside is we had very low rent talent. I mean, I was near I'm the sort of a presenter, so to speak. But it it's very good and very proud of it. The Secrets to the Long Lives, the book and this documentary series really represents 20 years of work. It's my capstone and I'm very proud of it and I'm very proud of these two, these two productions.
Ginny Yurich That's fantastic. Dan I'll tell you this. I will watch it while sitting on the floor.
Dan Buettner I love you. Yes. And eat. Eat some nuts. Two people eat a handful of nuts. Live about two years longer than people don't eat nuts. So. And by the way, popcorn is not a bad option either. Just don't slather it with a bunch of butter.
Ginny Yurich All right. So many interesting things in your books, Dan. I love them. I love the sentence in the very new one. People who possess generosity, a strong sense of purpose, a rich social life, and move naturally all day long, enjoy a manifest boost in happiness. We always end our podcast, Dan, with the same question. So here's a question for you. What's a favorite memory from your childhood? That was outside.
Dan Buettner My grandfather, when I was five years old, bought me a fire engine bike and it had a light on it. And I remember my very first night pedaling laps with this fire engine bike around the front yard as my grandpa and grandma sat and watched me, Angela and Irene performance. Well, my favorite memory.
Ginny Yurich I love it. I love that it's a multigenerational one, too, talking about how important that is. Dan, I know you are so busy. You have been working on this incredible work for 20 years. You have a Netflix documentary coming out, set of four, a series documentary. You have this new book, Secrets for Living Longer. I so appreciate your time. I know it's going to be so impactful for the people that listen in. Thank you for being here.
Dan Buettner Well, thank you. I don't work that hard. Great interview. Thank you for being so ebullient and informed. You can tell you did your homework and you said all kinds of nice things about my books. And I really appreciate that, Jenny. And I wish you the very best. And please do stay in touch. And if anybody wants if has a question that they didn't get answered in this podcast, if you reach me on Instagram at Dan Buettner, I answer all questions in the direct message. So that.
Ginny Yurich Is awesome.
Dan Buettner I want to, by the way, everybody, you sat around, listen to me. Thank you. And thank you, Ginny, but also especially thank your wonderful followers for. Honoring me with your time.
Ginny Yurich That's awesome. And people can find more at Dan Buettner dot com. You have many books in there all interesting great to add to the collection. They're all beautiful like you said very National Geographic with the stunning photos and very inspirational. So thank you. Can't wait to watch your new set that's coming out, your new series.
Dan Buettner I'm sending you an audio hug.
Ginny Yurich Right by Dan, enjoy the rest of your walk.
