happiness - longevity - a simple life - documentary - Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones
Watched a documentary on Netflix recently.
Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones.
The Host of the show found there had been efforts to identify regions, globally, where statistically there were concentrations of folks that were, or approaching 100yrs old. The show explains those areas were called Blue Zones.
During the documentary, the Host then visited many Blue Zones, and interviewed folks in those Blue Zones that were at or near 100yrs old. And observed their foods, activities, and social lives.
I may come back to this entry and edit it, but at this moment I noticed some patterns it seemed all the Blue Zone people that lived to an old age, yet were still active, sharp of mind, and happy, had in common.
Foods
The first thing I remember, for food was: they ate simply prepared foods, usually not processed, and consumed little meat. Even though the Blue Zones visited in the documentary were far apart geographically, and far apart culturally, the foods they consumed had that attribute in common.
The foods were wholesome, like minestrone, soups, pasta dishes. There was little or no meat used or part of the meal. There was little or no cheese used, or part of the meal too. There were plenty of carbs, but most from things made in the same kitchen and person that ate the food. Even breads were mostly (all?) home made. Rustic stuff. Like sourdough and such.
By "not processed" I mean: all the foods I remember being prepared or eaten on camera, were not from cans or packaging. Most of the food ingredients were raw: dried beans and legumes just kept in jars, potatoes and such just in the pantry stored in bins and such. Most of the ingredients were also local, things they'd get at locally.
Activity
In most of the Blue Zones (with one exception), they were what I consider rural. For the Blue Zone in Japan, it was a small part of Okinawa. From what the camera showed, it looked like a small village area, not urban city.
Most of the people in the Blue Zones did many activities manually. Walked mostly everywhere. Did gardening and chores manually. Didn't see use of any powered tools. Even kitchen food prep was just culinary knives, stirring pots and mixing ingredients all done by hand. Manually.
The show points that out: low intensity, but always active.
Socially
Another thing that was shown was, the folks in the Blue Zones had a sense of local community and camaraderie: They were around each other socially all the time. In a kitchen, it was not a single person cooking and eating alone. It was in small groups. They also visited each other regularly.
Happiness
The thing I felt most strongly about as a take-away from the documentary was, and that I want for myself: the Blue Zone old folks were happy. Contented. Of low stress.
They didn't watch TV much (that I could see), or read any global news via newspaper, or internet. The few reading news, was from a local village newspaper, if even that. They just focused their attention to things in their local lives.
A Simple Life
The show didn't say this one explicitly. I think it is my own take-away: if I remember correctly, all the Blue Zone folks had a simple life. They were not engaged in complicated, demanding, or stressful lives. They lived simply.
Myself
So, after watching the entire documentary (it was a series of episodes), I will see if I can start to adopt some of those life style decisions.
For me the biggest I want was one of the last ones I shared: happiness.
Before watching the documentary I thought being modern: having internet and maximally utilizing it as a source of news, shopping, convenience, communications, socializing, was the way to go.
Seems I may be happier minimizing using it, and instead use the time manually doing things around the house, like yard work, chores, and stuff. Not allowing stressors to be part of my life (internet global news, social media with all its arguing, etc).
Foodwise, guess I'll need to abandon trying to reward myself with trips to high-calorie food places to get burgers, fries, shakes, tacos, and such. Will try to instead reward myself by going to The Huntington to visit/walk. Going to The Arboretum to visit/walk. I'll probably still end up splurging on high-calorie stuff, but will try to do it less often.
Socially, that's still a challenge. For that one, if I want to minimize trying to use the internet, guess I just need to start to regularly go and "hang out" at local public places like the local libraries and parks, The Huntington, The Arboretum, and such. Find activities that my local city makes available to citizens. Maybe take a class for something fun, at a local college, and such. Will have to hope and/or have faith that through those, might meet like minds, and perhaps be invited to participate in local social groups they participate with.