01x01 - The Journey Begins

[bunniefuu]

[birds chirping]

[suspenseful music playing]

[man] Most of us

don't even wanna think about dying,

getting frail, losing vitality,

closing our eyes for the last time.

Wow, my friend.

[man] But one thing's for sure.

It's coming.

The question is, when?

How many years

will you get out of your body?

And do we even have any say in the matter?

I have found that most of what

people think leads to a long, healthy life

is misguided or just plain wrong.

[machine whirring]

[Dan] It's not like

we don't care about this stuff.

Every year, Americans spend

billions of dollars

on diet plans,

gym memberships, and supplements.

But it's clearly not working for us.

The fact of the matter is that most of us

are leaving good years on the table.

Worldwide, about two-thirds

of the eight billion people on this planet

will die prematurely

from an avoidable disease.

And in America,

for the first time in a century,

life expectancy is dropping.

So, how do we fix this?

I believe

it's not by trying to prevent death.

It's by learning how to live.

[mysterious music playing]

[Dan] What if we could

reverse engineer longevity?

Well, I spent the last 20 years

trying to do just that.

But instead of looking for answers

in petri dishes or test tubes,

I found five places around the world

where people are getting

the outcomes we want.

Some of these places are islands.

Other places are mountains.

Some are impossibly remote,

but some are surprisingly urban.

And though they're vastly different

on the surface,

remarkably, they all share

the same common denominators.

They all follow roughly

the exact same formula

that produces the longest-lived people

on the planet.

These people live to 100

at the highest rates in the world.

They're living vibrant,

active, happy lives,

and perhaps the biggest takeaway

is they live longer without trying.

And their secrets

could help every one of us

to get every good year

we can get out of this body of ours.

[uplifting music playing]

[Dan] That is the promise of Blue Zones.

[applause in background]

[man over PA] Tonight's speaker

has spent the last 20 years

finding the longest-living people

in the world and learning their wisdom.

Dan Buettner is

a National Geographic Explorer

and best-selling author.

He's put that wisdom to work

to raise the life expectancy

of dozens of communities across the US.

Dan, welcome.

[applause]

[Dan speaks Spanish, laughs]

[Dan] I never set out

to be a longevity guru

or fix America's health care system.

I got here in a very unexpected way.

It began with my dad and his dad.

My dad was a great father for instilling

this sense of adventure in me.

His idea of fun, when we were kids,

was to go into the wilderness

for weeks at a time,

taking me and my brothers along.

[playful music playing]

[Dan] And my grandpa,

he always wanted me to be a great athlete,

and I was always on the bench.

But he gave me my first bike,

and that became

my ticket to see the world.

By the time I graduated from college

in an age when most people

were doing useful

and productive things with their lives,

I struck off to set three world records

by bicycling across five continents.

You know, we went through hurricanes

and earthquakes and floods,

and we didn't think we were gonna make it.

All right, now,

here we have a map of the entire world.

Show us where you ended up.

[Dan] The Soviet leg, um,

got the Guinness World Record.

- Congratulations.

- Thank you.

Good to meet you, Dan.

Thank you for being here.

[Dan] When you've biked around the globe

and broken all these records,

where do you go from there?

I needed to find adventure with purpose.

And for me, that meant I needed to find

an expedition that solved a great mystery.

And I remember one day,

I came across

a World Health Organization study

that found that Okinawa, Japan,

produced the longest-lived people

in the history of the world,

and I said, "That's a good mystery."

At about 900 miles south of Tokyo,

you find a cluster of islands,

which is sort of like the Hawaii to Japan.

Sugar sand beaches,

tropical jungles,

turquoise waters.

But more importantly,

for hundreds of years,

this has been the Land of the Immortals.

Okinawa, Japan, has produced

the longest-lived population

in human history.

They have a fraction the rate of diabetes.

They have one-fifth

the rate of heart disease,

very little dementia,

and they are making it to 100

at a rate far surpassing

the United States.

And the numbers are

particularly extraordinary among women.

[people chatting and laughing]

[all exclaim]

[all cheer and laugh]

[woman in Japanese]

If only I'd got number one!

- Fourteen points.

- That was so close.

- [woman] Did you go?

- He did, yes.

- [woman 2] Everyone's done?

- Yes.

- Next up is Granny.

- Good luck!

[chanting] You can do it!

[all cheer]

[woman 1] Oh, so close.

[cheering]

[woman 2] Amazing.

[in English] So I'm wondering

how you are all related to Umeto-san.

[speaking Japanese]

[translator in English] Three of them

are my granddaughters.

And this is my second son.

[speaking Japanese]

[translator] That is the first daughter

and the second daughter.

[Dan] Okay, so we have

three generations here.

I'm a young child of 61.

[laughter]

[Dan] If I want to live to be 101,

what's her recommendation?

[Umeto in Japanese] You're still a kid!

[all laugh]

[in English] I'll take it.

[Umeto in Japanese] Always have fun.

Don't get angry.

Have fun with everyone.

Make everyone happy.

I don't get angry.

[Dan in English]

So, the key is to be easygoing,

to not let things upset you,

and to forgive quickly?

[Umeto speaking Japanese]

- [translating] So this

- [speaking Japanese]

[in English] This laughter

brings us longevity.

[Dan] Oh, I love that. I feel it.

- [shamisen music playing]

- [people clapping along]

[in Japanese] Don't catch a cold ♪

Don't fall down ♪

Don't forget to laugh ♪

And talk often ♪

[singing continues]

[Dan in English] 101 years old Umeto-san.

She's vital, vigorous, funny, positive.

And then she plays

this Okinawan sort of banjo instrument,

with the plucking, with precision.

Not missing a note.

Singing this song.

And to have that cognitive ability,

that vitality,

that positiveness all in one package.

I look at her, and I say, "I want that."

[mysterious music playing]

[Dan] The first time I came to Okinawa

20 years ago,

I didn't really know

how to research longevity.

What could it be?

What are these people doing

to produce so many hundred-year-olds

and to produce a life

where they're living long

and staying sharp to the very end?

My mission was to find out.

I pulled all the academic research

I could in Okinawa

and buried myself in it.

I found this map that showed

the centenarian concentration of Japan.

It was so clear there were

very few centenarians in the North,

and the farther south you got,

the concentration of centenarians grew,

with the highest concentration

being in Okinawa.

You realize that the farther south you get

towards the equator here,

it's gonna be warmer.

So, what does warmer climate mean?

They have more growing seasons.

There must be something here

that these people are taking,

consciously or unconsciously.

Maybe an extract from a vegetable.

Maybe it's an herb or a spice

that would be the secret of longevity.

So I started

looking into these dietary surveys,

and I found one

that compares the diet of Okinawa

with the rest of Japan circa 1950.

And you go down the chart

of what Okinawans are eating,

things like meat, eggs, and fish,

and it's only 1 to 2%

of their caloric intake.

And then there's one food

where it's about 70%,

and that one food is beni imo,

purple sweet potatoes.

In the rest of Japan,

they were only eating 3%

of their calories from sweet potatoes.

And perhaps the main reasons

Okinawans ate so much beni imo

was because sweet potatoes

were typhoon-proof.

The beni imo was safe underground.

These sweet potatoes are

full of complex carbohydrates and fiber,

and they even have about 150% more

of the active antioxidants

than blueberries do.

So then, of course, you start going,

"This has gotta be it!"

So I've been traveling around the world

for 20 years,

trying to understand

how people live a long time.

What is the one Okinawan food

people should try

if they want to live longer?

[in Japanese] Well Just one thing?

[Dan in English] One.

[Yukie in Japanese]

There is no one ingredient that is best.

[in English] How about beni imo?

This purple sweet potato.

[Yukie in Japanese] Well, Okinawa had

a period of food shortage,

and we were saved by these potatoes.

But all foods have

potent medicinal powers.

Mulberry leaves are good for sore throats.

Squid ink soup is for detox.

Okinawa is very hot,

and asa seaweed

releases heat from the body.

[Dan in English] There's mugwort,

a well-known anti-inflammatory.

And goya. It has some compounds

that actually lower blood sugar,

which might explain

lower rates of diabetes here as well.

And then there's tofu.

Tofu is made from soybean curds

and can offer several health benefits.

It's been shown to lower cholesterol

and therefore lower

the risk of heart disease.

And, in some cases, it may even

slow the progression of some cancers.

Okinawans eat an average of three ounces

of soy products per day, including tofu.

And Okinawan tofu is special.

It actually has a greater concentration

of protein and good fat

compared to tofus produced elsewhere.

So when it comes to diet,

there's no single ingredient

or compound

responsible for Okinawan longevity.

They're consuming an array of foods

which all have

medicinal properties or health benefits.

So it's actually the range of foods

that is likely fueling long lives here.

And what Okinawans are eating is actually

just part of the longevity equation here.

The other question is,

how much are they eating?

In the United States, the FDA recommends

about 2,000 calories per person per day,

but Americans are actually consuming

3,600 calories per person per day

on average.

In order to get to the bottom of this,

the person I need to talk to

is Marion Nestle.

You probably know

better than anybody else in America

how we got to 73%

of America obese or overweight.

Yeah, it's astonishing.

In the early 1970s,

the secretary of agriculture said

we need to produce more food

to feed the world.

He got farmers growing more food.

So, all of a sudden,

from 1980 to the year 2000,

the number of calories in the food supply

went up from 3,200

per person per day to 4,000.

The food industry had to sell that.

In an environment

in which there's 4,000 calories a day

available for everybody

means that you have to get people

to eat more in general.

So what you saw was

portion sizes got bigger.

And more than that, it's formulated

to make you wanna eat more.

Part of it is texture, so they're crunchy

or have this wonderful mouthfeel.

They're colored

to make them really attractive.

They have lots and lots of additives

to make them taste good.

You're going to take in more calories

than you ordinarily would,

and you won't realize it.

[Dan] But in Okinawa, we saw people

that were eating much less food every day,

about 2,000 calories.

Part of the reason is

they had this nutritionally dense food

that didn't have a lot of calories.

So, in America, for lunch,

we might eat a little hamburger,

and we can wolf that down

in a minute or two.

But in Okinawa, lunch might be

this chanpuru, this stir-fry,

nice herbs and tofu.

They could just indulge

in this huge pile of food.

And you guys eat,

you think you're being a total glutton,

but that has fewer calories

than a hamburger does.

[people chatting in Japanese]

[Dan in English] And the second piece

to this is shockingly simple.

So they have this ingenious little trick.

Before a meal, they intone three words,

"hara hachi bu,"

which literally means "eight out of ten."

But to them, it means "Stop eating

when your stomach is 80% full,"

and it's resulting in being satiated

without being stuffed.

So, when you're eating

these low-caloric density foods

and you're reminding yourself

to stop eating when you're 80% full,

you're naturally eating less.

And over time,

this has produced a population

that's suffered less obesity.

Today, in Okinawa's big city,

you see all the trappings

you'd see in any major city.

Freeways, a crush of traffic,

and fast food restaurants.

But if you wanna find

Okinawans' real culture of longevity,

you have to get out of the city

into the rural areas,

where you can still see a lifestyle

that has produced centenarians

for centuries.

[placid music plays]

[Dan] Look at, look at, look at.

Already, I see signs of longevity.

That, if I'm not mistaken, is lettuce.

Hope they're not watching.

[Naomi] Sorry. Uh-oh.

[Dan] Let's go this way.

Do you know what this dragon means here?

I see them all the time.

[Naomi] This is not a dragon.

This is called Shisa.

Shisa, you've gotta remember

because this represents Okinawa.

Okay.

Wow, check this place out.

- Wow.

- [Dan] I love that garden.

[Naomi in Japanese] Hello.

[Dan in English] She's got a nice bike.

I mean, I already like her.

[Naomi in Japanese] How old are you now?

[speaking Japanese]

- [in English] Ninety-four.

- [Dan] Oh my gosh.

[woman laughs]

[Dan] She's sewing.

And what is she sewing?

[in Japanese] We noticed

that you sew things.

I use a sewing machine!

[Dan] Did she make her dress?

- [in Japanese] Yeah, I made it.

- [Naomi] I see.

[Dan in English] Beautiful.

[speaks Japanese]

[clapping]

[all laughing]

[in Japanese] It went through!

[Dan in English] That's amazing.

Hi!

[in Japanese] I'm about 97.

Pretty old now.

[speaking Japanese]

[Naomi translating] Now she said

she still has muscles!

[Dan] I can see them!

[Naomi] Yeah!

[in Japanese] Impressive muscles.

[Dan in English] What is the secret

to living a long time

and staying so vital?

[man in Japanese]

It's not enough for humans to only walk.

You must have speed.

Speed, like this.

Whoa! [laughing]

[Harumasa] You need to do this.

[laughing] Oh my God!

[Dan] So, after spending a lot of time

with older people in Okinawa,

I noticed in their houses,

there was no real furniture

except a low table and a tatami mat.

These people were sitting on the floor.

We found 103-year-olds

who would get up and down 30 times a day!

That's like doing 30 squats.

They're strengthening their core.

They're strengthening their lower body.

They're improving their balance.

Well, how would that map to longevity?

Well, it turns out, in America,

one of the top ten reasons

older people die

is 'cause they'd fall down.

They have weak lower bodies

and bad balance

because they're sitting on chairs

and La-Z-Boys all the time.

So the other thing I noticed

is that everybody,

even people into their hundreds,

have a garden.

So every day, they're out weeding

or watering or seeding

or harvesting fresh fruits and vegetables.

And this could be one or two hours a day

of gentle,

low-intensity physical activity,

range of motion.

And when you think about it,

these people weren't exercising.

They have much better lower body strength,

much better balance,

and they're not dying from these diseases.

So hence emerges yet another insight

that we might think about

if we want to live longer.

- [speaking Japanese]

- [in English] Look at that!

[Dan laughing]

[women speaking Japanese]

[woman 1 in Japanese] I'll pour some tea.

[woman 2] Thank you.

[woman 1] Let's have some.

After I retired in 1983,

all I did was go back and forth

from the garden to my home.

It was boring.

So I went around to all the houses

and said, "Let's do a moai for 1,000 yen."

[Dan in English] I started to learn about

groups of people called moais.

Moais, essentially,

a committed social circle

of people who originally got together

by pooling their money

and helping each other

in times of hardship.

[in Japanese] One of our friends fell

when they went to the bathroom at night

and is in the hospital now.

Our moai is continuing to help

by pooling money and giving it to them.

[Dan in English] So, on the surface,

a moai is simply a financial arrangement.

But I believe

the benefits transcend money.

I'm wondering if belonging to a moai

has helped you reach your 90s

with such vitality.

[in Japanese] We're all friendly and learn

how to sing and dance together.

We get together and chat.

That is the secret to long living.

[singing in Japanese]

[Dan in English] And you might think,

"Well, big deal!" You know?

What is it about hanging out

with other people that helps?

Well, in the United States,

we have a loneliness epidemic.

A population that's increasingly lonely,

increasingly isolated,

and increasingly needs human connection

more than ever.

[singing in Japanese]

[Dan in English]

Now we're discovering in America

that loneliness can cost

15 years of life expectancy.

Think about that. Fifteen years!

There is no pill,

no supplement, no blockbuster drug

that could give us anywhere near 15 years.

But here in Okinawa,

they're getting those years

by simply finding friends,

committing to those friends,

and spending time

with those friends every day.

So I started

looking at the obvious longevity factors,

like diet and exercise,

but then I stumbled onto this moai idea,

and it completely takes off my blinders.

It opens my mind to the possibility

of other surprising insights

that might turn out to be

incredibly powerful factors

at producing longevity.

[g*nf*re]

[Dan] For the people of Okinawa,

World w*r II is very present.

They suffered incredible hardship.

They suffered many more deaths

than the Americans did.

[man] In the wartime,

200,000 people are k*lled in Okinawa.

I think they have very strong PTSD maybe.

[speaking Japanese]

[Naomi in English]

She worked for the government

[speaking Japanese]

[Naomi in English]

and they gave them a grenade.

[woman in Japanese] "If the enemy gets you

and tries to harm you,

use this grenade."

And we were this close

to giving up and committing suicide

when we were saved by soldiers.

They told me,

"The w*r is over. Life is a treasure."

When my mother and my brother died,

I wasn't able to be there

for their last moment.

[Dan in English]

They remember the w*r so well.

It's what they talk about first or second,

and I'm sure it was a tragedy

but somehow a legacy as well.

[woman in Japanese] I am so glad I crawled

out of that hellhole and survived.

I tell my children,

"No matter what,

no matter how poor you are,

you can survive."

"Endure everything."

[in English] And I like to say

that the past experience

was a terrible experience in Okinawa.

But in spite of that,

they established

healthy, happy conditions.

Enjoy the present. That's important.

[Dan] You'd think, on the surface,

that this would destroy longevity

among a population.

But I actually got to thinking

maybe this is contributing

to their long life

in counterintuitive ways.

[machine whirring]

[Dan] There's this concept in Okinawa

called ikigai,

and I believe

it's one of the most powerful factors

contributing to their longevity.

[man in Japanese]

I contribute to the world.

The art I've created

will remain for hundreds of years

after I pass away.

This is my ikigai.

I'm blessed.

[in English] We would visit

the centenarian house.

And we would check

the physical and medical condition,

and after that, I would ask,

"What's your ikigai?"

Ikigai is a kind of mission.

A sense of purpose.

I think ikigai is the main factor

of spiritual health of the centenarians.

If we lose the ikigai, we will die.

Okinawans have no word for retirement.

When they get to be 60, 70, 80, 90,

they're still working.

They might only be working in their garden

to bring some vegetables home.

They may have a stall in the market

where they're only working in the morning.

They're keeping their minds engaged.

They're keeping their bodies moving.

They could sum up their life meaning,

the reason for which

they wake up in the morning.

They're told constantly that,

"You count. We need you."

[speaking Japanese]

[in English] People imbued with

this constant sense of purpose,

they know their values,

and it makes

those day-to-day decisions very easy

because you know your core.

So my experience at Okinawa

was teaching me

that counterintuitive,

little-explored things

are driving longevity

more than anything else.

I didn't realize it then,

but I was only beginning

to piece together a much bigger puzzle.

You see, around this time,

I started reading reports

of another longevity hotspot,

completely different environment

on another island

on the other side of the planet.

A cluster of whitewashed villages

high in the mountains of Sardinia,

and almost vertical streets,

surrounded by rugged terrain.

Were they doing the same thing

as the people in Okinawa?

Or was there

another set of secrets to discover?

My mission was to find out.

[light music playing]