Buettner walks the walk, along with the talk. While he travels a lot, he always takes his Blue Zones mentality with him. He is based in Miami, a city that is walker-friendly and full of healthy eating spots. He visits his parents in Minneapolis once a month. Wherever he lands in the world he makes sure to check in with a buddy as soon as he can.
“I travel with a simple backpack wherever I go, and it very quickly feels like home. And I have friends sprinkled all over the world.”
Ironically, after 20 years on this journey to discover how to achieve a healthy and happy long life, it has brought him back to where he started.
Buettner comes from a big Italian family, and he remembers that when he was growing up they would always sit down as a family to eat, they went to church on Sunday, meat was expensive and thus an occasional treat, their neighbourhood was walkable and kids played outside.
“When you’re a young adult and in your teens you want to break away from that and do something new and different – and I now realise there’s so much wisdom in what my grandmother used to do.”
They are not, though, particularly glamorous things to do, and Buettner knows it.
“Nobody makes money from you walking and being with your friends. They make money from you buying some huckster supplements or superfood.”
Instead of looking for the secret to a long and healthy life in test tubes and laboratories, he wants us to find it at home, with our friends and in our gardens.
“These are the things that work. And they manifestly work for people like us around the world.”
Most importantly he wants us all to see that longevity can – and should – be joyous. “It doesn’t have to be a chore,” he says.
Okinawa, Japan
Balance: Japanese sit on the ground and get up and down a lot
Diet: low in calories and fat while high in carbs; it emphasises vegetables and soy products and foods such as tofu, squid ink soup, mugwort and seaweed
Hara hachi bu: eating until you’re 80 percent full
Moai: “meeting for a common purpose”, often shared hobbies or interests bringing people together who then support each other
Ikigai: having a sense of purpose
