"Uncover the Secrets of Longevity with Dan Buettner's "The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who've Lived the Longest"

Brigitta Nyaradi: Great and easy read. Loved it, and learned a lot !

Italy on Feb 22, 2023

Emma: This book is written by an American for Americans and although it's very interesting, it doesn't really tell you anything that you couldn't figure out yourself.... those who live longer, eat healthier, drink less alcohol, take exercise in moderation every day, live a more manual based old fashioned lifestyle than those surrounded by technology that does everything for us i.e. lazy western world. The people in the blue zones are also those people who live the most basic lifestyles and use very little equipment to things for them Th4 have more manual output on a daily basis. They are surrounded by family and friends and included in family life - not stuck away in homes for the elderly.
Not really rocket science to most Europeans - but then again, Americans are a bit thick !

United Kingdom on May 30, 2017

DM: I was hoping to see Ikaria in this book, and somehow didn't realize that it isn't included. But the book is still fantastic. For a work of non-fiction, I find it spell-binding, since I love to learn the way other cultures have lived and thrived over generations. I've learned a lot, and some of the lessons come to mind often––including the benefit of living each day with a concrete purpose in mind. I come back to this book now and then for inspiration, which I know I'll keep doing over the years. It was a good purchase.

Canada on Jul 04, 2016

Amazon Customer: I've not read most of the book yet so would be unfair to make a full comment but the ethos behind it makes sense. Eating food indigenous to the area you're in seems the sensible option for anyone! Food that has grown naturally, without bunches of extra chemicals to make the environment amenable, food that hasn't spent days, weeks or months being shipped across countries, food that actually is food as opposed to processed no longer real stuff - just makes sense to me!

United Kingdom on Apr 01, 2013

Jay: This review is based on the audible audiobook.

I was not expecting much from this book at all, and I was pleasantly surprised. For one, I had just finished "The China Study" and "The Jungle Effect: Healthiest Diets from Around the World," by Daphne Miller, both of which were excellent. For another, the book was published by National Geographic, and for some reason I figured it this was more mainstream and would be a watered-down, feel good book for Americans. However, I was totally wrong and this book was honest, hard-hitting, and also excellent.

In fact, "Blue Zones", "The China Study" and "Jungle Effect" are extremely complimentary to each other. Part of the reason for this is that "The China Study" just focuses on a few areas geographically (granted, they are big areas), while "The Jungle Effect" and Blue Zones add other areas to the mix, with some overlap and some new geographical areas between the latter two books.

One small issue with "Blue Zones" is that it focuses on centenarians. While it does touch on this some, an important thing to understand is that even if people aren't living to be 100-plus, the people in these areas have incredibly less...

United States on Sep 15, 2012

The Prairie Chronicles: This booked irked me for a couple of reasons:

First of all, the information presented wasn't what I would call "scientific", meaning there wasn't much actual proof of things claimed, meaning statistics were made to suit whatever point the author was trying to make, and meaning a lot of the numbers didn't add up.

Secondly, the people the author describes have for the most part lived tranquil, relatively stress-free lives, and live in charming and warm and wonderful places where they have access to year-round fresh local food, they have family nearby, they have what I would call ideal lives (regardless of economic status: someone can be rich in life without having a lot of money).

Quite frankly, if almost ANYone could live this kind of life, then pretty much ANYone could live to be 100 or more.

I didn't read anything about these people spending their lives running an endless string of errands, shovelling snow-covered driveways till they can't lift their arms, fighting with traffic jams in the big city, hitting four or five grocery stores in one evening just to find ten things on a grocery list because the stores somehow can't keep things in stock and...

Canada on Jul 29, 2012

fredmango: I just read "The Blue Zones" which researched areas of the world that have an unusual concentration of centenarians (people reaching the age of 100).

I first became aware of this research when I was living in Costa Rica and a group of researchers came to the Nicoya Peninsula to discover that this area of the world was one of those coveted "Blue Zones" where there's a very high percentage of centenarians compared to the United States.

What I really liked about the book was the fact that it was based on actual, verifiable research.

In the past, many people have claimed that certain cultures have lived a very long time, such as the Hunzas in Pakistan or the Vilcabamba residents in Ecuador. The problem is that the record keeping in those areas was very poor and there was no way to verify the ages of the alleged centenarians. Someone could claim to be 110 years old and in fact be only 90. In fact, this kind of exaggeration was very common.

With The Blue Zones, the researchers had new scientific techniques that could verify someone's age, and using DNA data they could also trace back the ancestry of the people they met. Combined with verifiable birth...

United States on Jun 28, 2010