The Blue Zones, Second Edition: 9 Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest

“We learned that nonvegetarian Adventists had about twice the risk of heart disease as vegetarian Adventists,” Fraser said, “particularly men but also younger and middle-aged women.”

We’re more likely to die the year we retire than we are during our last year of work.

Soy has the ability to lower the level of “bad” (LDL) cholesterol in the body and the potential to reduce the risk of heart disease. It can be found in a wide variety of forms, from tofu, to soy milk, to edamame (whole soybeans in their pods)—all reliable sources of soy’s nutritional benefits. Protein content may vary among forms and producers, so ... See more

“You can’t just focus on the Mediterranean diet or any other diet. If you live by yourself on the ninth floor of an apartment building and you don’t know your neighbors and you have no friends, you can eat the perfect Mediterranean diet and it may not do you as much good.”

The brutal reality about aging is that it has only an accelerator pedal. We have yet to discover whether a brake exists for people. The name of the game is to keep from pushing the accelerator pedal so hard that we speed up the aging process. The average American, however, by living a fast and furious lifestyle, pushes that accelerator too hard and... See more

“Why is that?” I asked. “It’s vitamin S,” he said. “You smile in the morning and it fortifies you all day

On average, an American has only two close friends he or she can count on, recently down from three, which may contribute to an increasing sense of stress.

Eating a lot of tomatoes also seemed to have an effect on reducing prostate cancer for men.”

Scientific studies suggest that only about 25 percent of how long we live is dictated by genes, according to famous studies of Danish twins. The other 75 percent is determined by our lifestyles and the everyday choices we make.

And when we looked at that data, it was really so clear: The Adventists who consumed nuts at least five times a week had about half the risk of heart disease of those who didn’t.