The quest for longevity is as old as human history itself. Who doesn’t want to live a long, vibrant life, free of illness and full of vitality?
For the past two decades, people around the world have bought books, watched documentaries, and enrolled in wellness programs sold by the man they’re convinced holds the key to postponing mortality.
‘The shared characterization of blue zones seems to be poverty, a poor lifestyle, and pressure to commit pension fraud.’
He’s Dan Buettner, the National Geographic explorer who’s claimed to have found the fountain of youth in far-flung “Blue Zones” — places like Okinawa, Japan, and Loma Linda, California — boasting greater-than-average populations of people who live to be 100 and beyond.
By popularizing and packaging this concept under his own brand, Buettner has turned these Blue Zones into a veritable fountain of money.
However, there’s just one problem with Blue Zones, and it’s a rather big one. The entire concept is built on questionable claims and even more questionable research.
Blue Zones or BS?
Dr. Saul Newman, a no-nonsense data scientist, enjoys nothing more than tearing down the myth of Blue Zones, exposing them as little more than a glorified wellness scam. The acerbic academic’s takedown is far more compelling than Buettner’s feel-good narrative.
Newman’s work, which recently earned him an Ig Nobel — an award given for research that first makes people laugh and then think — delivers a clear-eyed critique, highlighting the many problems with Buettner’s baby.
Newman tells Align that these zones are directly “linked to lifestyle ideas that do not resemble the lived experience or dietary intake of people who actually live there. The shared characterization of Blue Zones seems to be poverty, a poor lifestyle, and pressure to commit pension fraud.”
Fake ages
Newman points out the glaring statistical inconsistencies that Buettner conveniently glosses over.
For starters, in Okinawa, one of Buettner’s poster-child regions, authorities have uncovered rampant abuse of the pension system. Many of the supposed centenarians were either dead or had faked their ages to cash in on benefits.
When these fraudulent records were corrected, the number of centenarians plummeted.
Similarly, in Ikaria, Greece, another so-called Blue Zone, investigations into pension fraud revealed that, surprise, many “centenarians” were nowhere to be found. In Costa Rica, meanwhile, Newman notes that “42% of centenarians were found to be lying about their age. Once corrections were made, Costa Rica’s old-age life expectancy plummeted from world-leading to near the bottom of the pack.”
You really can’t make this up. Unless you’re Buettner, of course.
But it gets worse.
Okinawa, far from being a land of longevity miracles, now has the highest obesity rate for young people in Japan, along with elevated mortality rates among middle-aged residents. So much for that magical diet of tofu and fish keeping everyone spry well into their golden years.
Buettner’s Blue Zones don’t even boast the longest lifespans in their respective countries. There are regions in Japan and Italy that far surpass Okinawa and Sardinia in terms of average life expectancy.
Plant-based put-on
Newman’s critique doesn’t stop at just exposing fraudulent records and statistical misdirection. He also targets Buettner’s entire methodology, which is, at best, sloppy and, at worst, deliberately misleading.
Take Buettner’s “revolutionary” Power 9, little more than a recycled wellness checklist, cloaked in the mystique of exotic locales and clever branding. His approach, while dressed up as innovative, merely parrots well-known health tips.
None of these ideas are new. Some are downright silly. He advocates for a plant-based diet. Recent research suggests that plant-based diets may in fact harm rather than help long-term health.
Veganism, the most extreme form of plant-based living (or dying), is linked to serious health risks, including nervous system damage, skeletal and immune dysfunction, blood disorders, and mental health issues — all stemming from critical micro and macronutrient deficiencies.
Many plant-based foods, including popular meat-free alternatives like sausages, burgers, and nuggets, are often marketed as healthy options, yet they fall into the category of ultra-processed foods.
Drinking and thriving?
Buettner regularly promotes daily alcohol consumption as part of his longevity blueprint. But according to Newman, “There’s no amount of drinking that’s actually good for you.” He’s right; there’s not. In other words, if your health strategy involves drinking a glass of wine every night because some centenarian in Sardinia supposedly does it, you might want to rethink things.
Buettner’s success isn’t due to the scientific validity of his ideas but rather their sheer marketability. People love the notion of ancient, hidden wisdom that unlocks the secret to a long, healthy life. Buettner has masterfully tapped into our fear of death, turning Blue Zones into a lucrative empire that now even sells citywide “community” health programs. Quite an achievement, considering the whole concept is based more on fiction than fact.
Back to basics
The reality is that good health doesn’t require a passport to a Blue Zone or adherence to some mystical set of lifestyle rules.
It’s pretty basic, actually: Eat well, exercise regularly, get enough sleep, spend time in nature, and stay connected with your community. These habits are backed by decades of solid research, not folklore repackaged by a car salesman with a very fine tan.
However, despite being thoroughly debunked by experts like Newman, the Blue Zone charade persists, moving forward like an unkillable zombie racewalker. Singapore — a nation currently grappling with an obesity crisis — has just been declared the latest addition to the zonal family.
If you’re still tempted to buy into the Buettnerian fantasy, it’s important to remember that behind every self-help guru’s success story lies at least one inconvenient truth. In this case, it’s that Blue Zones are a neatly packaged myth designed to sell you products, not prolong your life.
As Newman puts it, “If you want good health advice, don’t buy a self-help cookbook that puts other cultures through a blender. Go talk to your doctor.”
Or, you know, a trusted friend. A pastor. A Haitian migrant. Literally anyone but Dan Buettner.
