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Nutrition & supplements

Blue Zones

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Blue Zones are regions reported to have unusually many centenarians. The popularly cited list (Buettner) includes Okinawa (Japan), Sardinia (Italy), Nicoya (Costa Rica), Ikaria (Greece), and Loma Linda (USA). Shared features include plant-based diets, moderate caloric intake, low-intensity movement, strong social ties, and purpose. Saul Newman has argued that supercentenarian counts may be inflated by age-record errors, pension fraud, and missing birth registries; this methodological critique was recognised when Newman was awarded the 2024 Ig Nobel Prize in Demography for the work, and the demographic robustness of the original Blue Zone identifications is now contested.

Sources

  1. Poulain M, Pes GM, Grasland C, Carru C, Ferrucci L, Baggio G, Franceschi C, Deiana L. (2004). Identification of a geographic area characterized by extreme longevity in the Sardinia island: the AKEA study. *Experimental Gerontology*doi:10.1016/j.exger.2004.06.016
  2. Newman SJ. (2024). Supercentenarian and remarkable age records exhibit patterns indicative of clerical errors and pension fraud. *bioRxiv (preprint)*doi:10.1101/704080