Blue Zones refer to five specific regions around the world where people are known to live healthier and longer lives. As it's the Mediterranean diet that's been going viral over the past few years, I decided to compare it to the Okinawan Blue Zone diet and see what they have in common.
While the foods in the Okinawan Blue Zone diet do differ from those found in the Mediterranean diet, the two different approaches to eating actually share several common characteristics, perhaps hinting that the key to health and longevity doesn't lie in any single regional superfood, but can be attributed to overarching principles that lead to greater well-being.
In addition to Okinawa in Japan, the four other Blue Zones include Sardinia in Italy, the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica, Ikaria in Greece, and Loma Linda in California. They're not just places that have an unusually high number of centenarians, but they also have relatively low rates of chronic illness within the community.
Here are the four principles the Okinawan Blue Zone diet has in common with the Mediterranean diet.
1. A focus on balance rather than extremes
The Okinawan Blue Zone diet, like the Mediterranean diet, is not one to eliminate any single food group. Instead of trying to eliminate macronutrients such as fats or carbohydrates — macronutrients that are necessary and essential for well-being — there's a greater emphasis on balancing different food groups together in a single meal.
For example, in traditional Okinawan cuisine, it's very common for rice not to be served plain but to be cooked and steamed with diced sweet potatoes. In this way, the sweet potatoes add B vitamins, iron, magnesium, and more to the rice, as well as fiber, to help slow down digestion and signal satiation.
Rather than any single vegetable, focus on incorporating variety.Kaki Okumura
2. A variety of fruits and vegetables in each meal
This many fruits and vegetables a day may seem like a lot of work, but Okinawan dishes make it accessible. One of the most popular and famous Okinawan dishes is called chanpurū, which means "to mix together." It's traditionally a combination of bitter melon, tofu, egg, and bean sprouts and is often supplemented with vegetables such as carrots, cabbage, and onions.
Other stir-fry dishes such as irichi, a dish made by braising ingredients like kombu kelp or root vegetables together, or rice dishes such as jushi, which is when rice is cooked together with a mixture of vegetables, are also common in Okinawan cuisine, and these dishes make attaining variety much easier. Like the Mediterranean diet, rather than being reliant on any single superfood, the Okinawan Blue Zone diet puts a strong emphasis on eating a variety of fruits and vegetables.
3. High in antioxidant-rich plant-based foods
The Okinawan Blue Zone diet is also rich in plant-based foods that contain antioxidants, molecules that help our body fight off the damage from free radicals, which have been linked to chronic illnesses and cancers.
Sweet potatoes, which have been found to make up a significant portion of the diet among centenarians in Okinawa, are particularly rich in carotenoids, a type of antioxidant. Other common antioxidant-rich foods in the Okinawan diet include goya, or bitter melon; winter melon; sea vegetables, such as sea grapes; and legumes, such as soybeans, which are often served as tofu, edamame, or miso.
The Mediterranean diet relies on other antioxidant-rich foods, such as tomatoes, cucumbers, legumes such as chickpeas, and more, but both diets put a heavy focus on including lots of antioxidant-rich plant-based foods.
Watermelon and winter melon at a farmer’s market in Okinawa.Kaki Okumura
4. Low in meat and dairy products
Both the Okinawan Blue Zone and the Mediterranean diets are very minimal in meat and dairy. While neither food group is completely eliminated, in the Okinawan diet it was found that less than 2% of their diet was dairy or meat. Instead, individuals would get protein from soy-based foods or protein from moderate amounts of fish or seafood.
While I believe there's no single best way to eat and our personal preferences, lifestyle choices, and genetic makeup influence what's best for our well-being, overarching principles from the Okinawan Blue Zone and Mediterranean diets can hint at how we might eat to live longer and healthier lives.
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