50 Secrets of the World's Longest Living People

The inspiration for EatWellAgeWell originated in the movie "Julie and Julia" (2009) starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams.  The movie is based on a book by Julie Powell, a New York office worker who decides to cook her way through Julia Childs cookbook "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" in one year and to blog about it. Every day Julie prepares a meal from Child's cookbook and captures her culinary triumphs and failures in a blog.  In 365 days Julie manages to cook (and eat) her way through 524 recipes.  My fascination lies less with French cooking, and more with the interrelationship between what you choose to put in your mouth and swallow and your long-term health.  By this I mean the source and quality of our food and drink.  In an article published in the Wall Street Journal today (1/3/11), George Ball writes about the relationship between food, children and their health.  Quoted here from "2011 : The Year of the Vegetable": "American children are prematurely aging, suffering from sicknesses that were once the provenance of older adults.  Old has become the new young".  Young people aging long before they reach old age?   Surely in a country as affluent as the United States, this does not have to be!  So rather than indulge in French food, I am seeking to understand how the behavior we choose today might affect our well-being as we get older.  One of my favorite books on this topic is Sally Beare's "50 Secrets of the World's Longest Living People".  According to Sally, the human life span is around 120 years.  I doubt many of us would desire to live that long, but we all would like to be healthy and strong for the duration of the lives we have.  Sally investigates the reasons behind the sturdy health of centenarians in the world's five "blue zones".  Blue zones?  The term "blue zone" was first coined by demographers who were studying centenarians in Sardinia in 2004.  Blue zones are areas in the world in which people live active lives past the age of 100 years.  The emphasis is "active" as in healthy, happy and independent.  Sally has identified five such zones and seeks to unearth the reasons for aging well. She has summarized her findings in "50 secrets". Secrets no longer, as books are available for all.  My goal in this blog is to investigate - in chronological order - each one of these secrets.  How applicable are these lifestyle choices to an average person living in a relatively affluent country such as the U.S, Canada, Germany, France or Singapore?  Every week I will explore one of the secrets, try to "live" it and share with you my thoughts and new insights.  Come join me on this journey, comment on my musings and exploration, and perhaps towards the end of 2011 we will both emerge stronger, wiser and healthier and more able to age like the Hunza, the Okinawa, the Bama, the Campodimele and the Symi. Because aging is what we are doing right now without even trying.Come travel with Sally and me to Pakistan, Japan, China, Italy and Greece!  Let's go!