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Sardinia in Italy has become famous as one of the Blue Zones
Most of my writing over the years has been about the misunderstandings and mistakes we make when it comes to food. One thing you soon realise is that it is far easier to uncover other people’s false beliefs that it is to explore your own. When something appeals to our existing prejudices and just feels right, it can often be hard to shake our belief in it, even when compelling new evidence against it comes along
The concept of Blue Zones always appealed to me. This is the idea that certain population groups around the world were particularly long-lived and maintained good health into old age. Many of us can recite the list: Okinawa in Japan, Nicoya in Costa Rica, Sardinia in Italy, Ikaria in Greece. These areas are population pockets where there are far more centenarians than expected, perhaps holding a magical secret to health, happiness and longevity. They are not the richest or most health-conscious groups. Many regularly drink wine and eat rich meat or dairy dishes. But through some clever lifestyle alchemy, they outlive us all.
This idea always appealed to me as it focused less on extreme diets, workouts and privilege, and more on lifestyle, natural activity, drinking wine with friends and creating meaningful connections. I wrote a chapter about it in my second book, opining that we should all follow the lead of Sardinian sheep farmers, regularly cracking open some pecorino and a bottle of red for the sake of our health
It wasn’t just me. Countless bestselling books, Netflix documentaries, articles, diet plans, food products and lifestyle influencers have repeated the mantra that these magical zones hold the key to a better life. Many have cleverly monetised the premise. But of course, when something seems too good to be true, it usually is
The problems behind the data
In 2024, Dr Saul Justin Newman, a demographer at University College London, noticed some interesting patterns in the longevity data. When looking at the Blue Zone areas, he realised that some of the biggest predictors for achieving extreme old age were poverty, lack of birth certificates and pressure to commit pension fraud. He also found that many, if not most, of the centenarians living in Blue Zones were actually dead in reality, just artefacts of poorly kept records. As Newman memorably said when accepting an Ig Nobel award for his work, for a long life you should “move where birth certificates are rare, teach your kids pension fraud and start lying”.
This was not entirely new news; it was just that Blue Zone advocates had chosen to ignore it. In 2010 Japanese officials were sent to congratulate the country’s oldest man only to discover his mummified corpse, kept for 30 years in an upstairs room while relatives collected pension payments. Subsequent investigations found 82% – more than 230,000 – of the country’s centenarians were actually dead. Meanwhile in Greece in 2012, 72% of its supposedly 100-year-plus residents were found to have died years before.
These revelations have not stopped the Blue Zone industry train moving along, selling spurious longevity hacks to a willing public. The story is too compelling. The money to be made too attractive. But perhaps it is also because, if the Blue Zone longevity claims are wrong, the alternative is just too depressing. If you want to live a long life, it seems that being rich, eating moderately and having good medical care is actually the best way forward. Try writing a best-selling book about that
Anthony Warner is a development chef at New Food Innovation
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