Get Me Some Blue Zone

People who know about Blue Zones can’t get enough of it. People who hear about it for the first time, well, they want to know how they can get some. First, understand there are only five on the planet. Okinawa, Japan. Sardinia, Italy. Ikaria, Greece. Loma Linda, California. And Nicoya, Costa Rica.

A Blue Zone is simply defined as places “Where the World’s Healthiest People Live.” One could also say, it’s where the greatest concentration of centenarians [100+] live. That’s the real draw. Afterall, it’s not uncommon for cities in the US to say, for example, we are the healthiest city in America. That data or claim, honestly, has holes in it. But we’re not here to poke at silly lists.

The concept of blue zones grew out of the demographic work by Gianni Pes and Michel Poulain which they documented in the Journal of Experimental Gerontology. From there, Dan Buettner, a National Geographic Fellow and New York Times best seller, has the claim of being the founder of Blue Zones which is captured in his book — Blue Zones.

For us ex-pats living in Nicoya, it doesn’t take long to see that a life drinking longevity water, eating clean food and embracing the land with an active lifestyle, work and play, surrounded by a chill community, that living to 100 is not an anomaly, but a natural path.

So when thinking about visiting or living in a Blue Zone, take note of the dividing lines in Costa Rica and other countries because the data doesn’t lie.