It sounds nice. We've all thought about it

But there are certain places in the world called Blue Zones, where people just live longer without any strict diet, expensive foods supplements or a rigorous exercise routine.

It probably sounds too good to be true, but it's true.

Our next guest has some answers for us in his latest book on Blue Zones.

And he also has a New Netflix series out.

Let's take a look at it.

What's the best tea to drink on a daily basis?

Wine.

I like the way you roll.

I have found that most of what people think lead to a long, healthy life is misguided or just plain wrong.

What if we could reverse engineer longevity?

I spent the last 20 years trying to do just that.

Joining us now is New York Times, best selling author, Nat Geo fellow award winning journalist and producer.

And that list goes on, but we don't have the time.

Dan Buettner is in studio with us,

Dan, thank you so much.

And you know, people will start by listening to that and go, "Oh, he has a silver bullet. He knows how to do this."

But this book and your research for 20 years shows that it is not a silver bullet, that it's actually a lot of different things. - Right.

And you found these places, tell us about them and why you wrote this book.

Well, on assignment for National Geographic, we set out to reverse engineer longevity.

So instead of looking for it in a test tube or a Petri dish,

we work with demographers to find areas around the world where we know people are making it to 90 to 100 at the highest rates without the diseases that are killing Americans.

And then we brought a second way of scientists to find out the common denominators or the correlates and no matter where you go in Asia or Latin America, North America or Europe,

essentially the same things are showing up over and over and over again at producing long lived people.

And what are some of those things?

Well, if you wanna know what 100-year-old ate to live to be 100, you would have to know what they were eating their whole lives.

So we got dietary surveys over the past 100 years in all five Blue Zones.

And we found that overwhelmingly, they're eating a whole food plant-based diet.

The five foods in every Blue Zone are whole grains, greens, tubers like sweet potato, nuts and beans.

And if you're eating a cup of beans a day, you're probably not only getting all your protein and most of your fiber,

but also it's associated with living an extra four years.

Exercise and supplements because I know from just talking to you before we went on, so fascinating.

It's not just about food.

So, exercise supplements 100 and $51 billion a year industry.

I know you say exercise has something to do with it, but supplements?

Well, actually I think exercise is an unmitigated public health failure.

Only 23% of Americans get the minimum, which is about 15 minutes a day.

In Blue Zones, they're not pumping iron or going to the gym.

They simply live in places where every time they go to work, get occasions a walk.

They have gardens out back and they haven't, they don't use all the mechanical conveniences that have engineered physical activity out of our lives.

They keep their metabolisms higher all day long because they're nudged into movement.

And that seems to be the big idea.

You spent time in these Blue Zones, you're spending more time in them coming up.

What is it about a place like Sardinia or Okinawa that they're doing something that we here in America or not?

See, that's just it, you know, in America, we tend to pursue health and longevity.

We think, "Ok, I want to live longer. I wanna be healthier. I'm gonna find this diet.

I'm gonna find this supplement, regimen. I'm gonna get on this bio hack and I'm gonna get healthier."

In Blue Zones, they don't do any of that. Longevity ensues.

They are simply a product of their environment.

If this was, this was interesting.

I asked you if I wanted to do this, you know, personally, how long would it take for me to get started?

You say about a month, but it's beyond what I wanna do, right?

It's what my community is doing.

And when you talk about the community around you, whether it's a Blue Zone or anywhere that we're living,

it's not just exercise, it's not just these choices you make, you say the unconscious choices.

It's even about who you hang out with.

Yes.

If your three best friends are obese and unhealthy, there's about 150% better chance that you'll be overweight yourself.

You know, there are areas in Kentucky where the life expectancy is 20 years less than that of, say, Boulder Colorado.

That's not because people in Kentucky aren't good Americans, but they just live in an environment where it's much harder to be healthy and find healthy food and move.

So you're in the right environment to make the best decisions for you.

A place like Singapore. You talk about Singapore.

What did they do in Singapore to buck the trends and increase average life expectanc?

So I announced that Singapore is a new Blue Zone. It's in the book

And it's a manufactured Blue Zone.

In my lifetime, they've seen life expectancy go up by almost 25 years.

They now have the longest healthiest life expectancy in the world.

That's because they, it's not because people in Singaporeans have better diets.

They just live in a place where healthy food is subsidized and junk food is taxed.

Driving your car is taxed and walking is subsidized.

They're very hard on drugs and the most interesting thing.

If your aging parent lives with you or within about 500 yards, you get a tax break,

and that kind of assures that older people are cared for and doesn't rely so heavily on retirement homes which aren't necessarily healthy.

All right, Dan, thank you so much.

The book is The Blue Zones Secrets For Living Longer and it's out today and the Netflix series is streaming starting tomorrow.

Dan, thanks so much.

Really nice to meet you.

Hi, everyone, George Stephanopoulos here.

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