The 8 Best Blue Zones Recipes | 8 Easy Plant-Based Recipes for weeknight dinners - What's in the fridge? (2024)

FAQs

What do blue zone people eat for breakfast? ›

Breakfast in the blue zones looks vastly different than the standard American breakfast of eggs and bacon. Beans are a common breakfast staple in Costa Rica, while miso soup and rice are popular in Okinawa. In Loma Linda, centenarians often eat a hearty breakfast of oatmeal or a somewhat non-traditional tofu scramble.

Avoid dairy when possible. If cheese is a must, try ice-cube size portions of sheep (pecorino) or goat (feta) cheese to flavor foods. If you eat eggs, limit intake to three times a week.

Eggs are consumed in all five Blue Zones diets, where people eat them an average of two to four times per week. Cut down your consumption of cow's milk and dairy products such as cheese, cream, and butter. Try unsweetened soy, coconut, or almond milk as a dairy alternative.

A healthy diet is one of the Blue Zones' 'Power 9,' but Dr Newman told The Sydney Morning Herald that there is no proof supporting the Blue Zone diet advice. He said: 'People are being sold this illusion there are these islands where people live forever. Look at the number of people who buy into the dietary advice.

In the Loma Linda Blue Zone, people live on average 10 years longer than the rest of the US. They eat oats as part of their high-fiber, high-carbohydrate diets.

For Whole Grains: You can include 100% whole grain pasta and bread in this category, but the whole grains (like the ones listed above) are preferable. For Beans: We include all pulses and legumes in this category, including chickpeas, lentils, broad beans, and green beans.

Let's take a minute to celebrate peanut butter — if you're looking for the perfect blue zones lunch, this is where it's at. You can just do bread and peanut butter (which I like), or you can add some thinly-sliced banana, or you could add a natural, no-sugar-added jam (in place of typical highly-processed grape jelly).

Consider roasting them as a side or filling them with other vegetables and grains, like quinoa and tomatoes. The blue zone way of eating is not a strict diet, but a lesson in how combining flavorful, inexpensive whole, plant-based foods can be tasty and contribute to your longevity.

The drawbacks of the Blue Zones diet

Growing your own food and eating local produce can be impossible due to time, space, and weather constraints. For many people, eating a diet that's 95 percent plants is challenging, especially if they are starting from a place where they eat very few plant foods.

Is coffee on the Blue Zone diet? ›

In addition to a daily cup of coffee, blue zones centenarians drink water, tea and wine. While coffee is often a hotly-debated health topic, it's shown to carry many health benefits. Most centenarians in blue zones regions drink up to two or three cups of black coffee per day!

Consume only 28 grams (7 teaspoons) of added sugar daily. People in the blue zones eat sugar intentionally, not by habit or accident. They consume about the same amount of naturally occurring sugars as North Americans do, but only about a fifth as much added sugar—no more than seven teaspoons of sugar a day.

People in Blue Zones areas eat meat about once a week and typically their servings are no larger than a deck of cards. Their diets do not include processed meats like hot dogs, bacon, and sausages. Instead, they favor free-range chicken and family-farmed pork or lamb.

People in Sardinia's Blue Zones eat Sourdough everyday. Low in gluten it also lowers glycemic load of your entire meal by up to 25%. That means, your calories are more likely to be used for energy than belly fat.

Life Principles That Slow The Aging Process. Every morning, at dawn, before the men of Nicoya ride their horses through the mountains of the Costa Rican peninsula, they eat a healthy breakfast. The daily breakfast consists of gallo pinto (rice and beans) with a basket of homemade corn tortillas and hot coffee.

In terms of meals Ikarians typically have a late morning breakfast comprised of goat's milk, yogurt and or cheese, fruits, herbal tea or coffee, whole grain bread and local honey.