The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer, Better

The Blue Zones recounts Dan Buettner's travels around the world to several special communities where people live longer and have more active years than anyone else. Buettner visits the Mediterranean, Japan, and Southern California to better understand the lifestyles of the long-lived.The book has a number of highlights. In particular, Buettner's stories of finding and meeting centenarians around...more

The Blue Zones recounts Dan Buettner's travels around the world to several special communities where people live longer and have more active years than anyone else. Buettner visits the Mediterranean, Japan, and Southern California to better understand the lifestyles of the long-lived.The book has a number of highlights. In particular, Buettner's stories of finding and meeting centenarians around the world are a joy to read. Likewise, Buettner provides a fascinating look into the effects of globalization by contrasting the lifestyles of the centenarians and their children, grand-children, and great-grand-children.But as interesting as The Blue Zones is when Buettner is telling a story, the book cannot escape being awfully dull at all times. Buettner occasionally talks about his meetings with scientists and doctors, but these portions of the book lack the story telling component of his meetings with centenarians and other long-lived characters. Instead, Buettner gives the impression that the only thing scientists are good for are data.Which brings me to why the book fell flat: though the book bills itself as an explanation of how or why the people in The Blue Zones live so long, I felt as though very little was explained. Oftentimes, Buettner recounts a meeting with a scientist who makes conjectures at length, but has little else to show for himself. Or, in perhaps the most cringe-inducing moment in the book, Buettner and another journalist have a conjectural conversation of their own in the back of a moving van.That is not to say that The Blue Zones is not an enjoyable read. It's just that there's a lot of speculative material to wade through in between the fascinating conversations with some of the world's healthiest people.   hide