There is an ongoing interest—from ordinary people to researchers alike—in what it takes to live a long and healthy life. From cookbooks to research papers to the hundreds of articles you can access with a quick Google search, the amount of information to digest and advice to receive can become overwhelming.

But there are simple approaches you can take and easy-to-implement changes if you’re hoping for increased longevity.

Five lifestyle choices that seem to help people live longer are highlighted in this column and are based on research that includes Dan Buettner’s work in “The Blue Zones.”

1. Eat a healthy diet

“Diet is by far the most important factor” in longevity, said Valter Longo, the Edna M. Jones Professor of Gerontology and Biological Sciences and director of the Longevity Institute at Southern University … who has studied longevity for about 20 years, he told CNBC earlier. this year.

Countless experts studying the world’s longest-living communities cannot stress enough how much the food you eat can affect your lifespan. An eating pattern similar to the Mediterranean diet is what longevity experts recommend the most.

According to Professor Longo and Dan Buettner, (co-produced the three-time Emmy-winning documentary TV mini-series, “Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones”), longevity expert who interviews centenarians and visits Blue Zones, a longevity diet . should be mostly plant-based and include:

Legumes, especially beans

2. Move your body often

Some longevity experts recommend daily exercise, while others recommend daily movement through low-intensity physical activity.

Strength training twice a week and aerobic exercise three times a week, even for 10 minutes a day, is one of the daily practices that increase a person’s chances of living to 90, according to the New England Centenarian Study (New England Centenarian Study).

In the blue zones, physical activity is much less vigorous, but centenarians still move daily, Buettner said in his Netflix documentary, “Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones.” Residents of blue zones typically walk from place to place, build things by hand, and take care of their own gardens, which allows them to engage in low-intensity physical activity every day.”

3. Believe in something

By the end of 2023, Buettner had interviewed 263 centenarians during his lifetime. All but five of those centenarians belonged to a faith-based community, he wrote in a Make It article.

“People who go to a church, a temple or a mosque live four to fourteen years longer than people who don’t have a religion,” Buettner said on an episode of “Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris.”

It turns out that people who have a faith or a philosophy of life are also happier than those who don’t, according to Arthur C. Brooks (Parker Gilbert Montgomery Professor of the Practice of Public Management at the Harvard Kennedy School and Professor of Management), a leading happiness expert who teaches a free online course on the feeling of joy from Harvard.

When you follow a religion or a spiritual practice, it helps you find meaning in life, he explained in his course.

4. Maintain positive relationships

Having positive relationships in your life is the most important thing that can help you live a longer and happier life. This ongoing, 86-year-old study found that people with strong, supportive relationships were happier, healthier, and lived longer than those with weak or troubled relationships. Researchers call this “social aptitude.”

“Whether it’s a thoughtful question or a moment of devoted attention, it’s never too late to deepen the connections that matter to you,” Marc Schulz and Dr. Robert Waldinger, directors of the Harvard study, wrote in 2023.

Catering to social connections is also a value of blue zone centenarians. “People in blue zones make their partners a priority, nurture their relationships and invest in them,” Buettner said in his documentary. “Having the right friends is the biggest secret to helping these people in the Blue Zones do the right things and avoid the wrong things.”

5. Prioritize your purpose and lifelong learning

In Okinawa, Japan, one of the blue zones with many centenarians, ikigai, which loosely translates to “the happiness of always being busy,” is seen as an important value. So much so that a book called “Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life” is one of the most popular books on longevity and an international bestseller.

Ikigai means finding your purpose and committing to it daily. And that’s exactly what Buettner recommends doing for longevity: “People with a sense of purpose live about eight years longer than people without a rudder.”

There are seven practices that researchers in Harvard’s 86-year study of adult development found led to “being happy and well in old age, rather than ending up sad and sick,” explained his happiness course Brooks. One of these practices is fostering a growth mindset by investing in lifelong learning and education.

“Aging happily and well, instead of being sad and sick, is at least under personal control,” Dr. George E. Vaillant, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and one of the pioneers of the many-year-old study, told the Harvard Gazette. in 2001.

Mark A. Mahoney, Ph.D. has been a Registered Dietitian/Nutritionist for over 35 years and completed postgraduate studies in Nutrition and Public Health at Columbia University. He can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on the Tallahassee Democrat: Five Important Lifestyle Habits to Practice for Longevity