How to Live a Long Life
I finished a pretty good book by Dan Butner called the Blue Zone. Butner spent five years traveling to pockets of the world to study the lifestyles of populations that live the longest. There’s a lot of good stuff in this book about the ordinary but remarkably fulfilling lives of people like Sardinian sheep herders, Japanese grandmothers and Seventh Day Adventists, some of whose particular idiosyncratic habits are worth following:
- Eat off of smaller plates.
- Eat until you’re only 4/5ths full.
- Don’t eat in front of a tv. Eat with your family and friends.
- Put good foods on display and make them easier to grab. Put junk foods away from sight.
- Eat foods with anti-oxidants, omega 3 fatty acids, seeds, grains, and legumes.
- Eat more nuts.
- Exercise is good, but better if it’s not forced and is a natural part of your lifestyle. Walking and gardening being examples.
- Know why you wake up in the morning outside of your work and play.
- Cultivate your relationships with friends and family.
- Surround yourself with people who bring goodness into your life.
- Don’t take supplements.
NPR has good a good interview with Butner worth listening to, here.
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