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Dan Buettner

Writer and National Geographic Fellow · founder of Blue Zones · author of The Blue Zones and host of Netflix's Live to 100

Go-to expert for: lifestyle habits of long-lived communities

Who and why

Dan Buettner is an American writer and explorer who popularised the term Blue Zones for places where unusually many people reach 100, such as Okinawa in Japan, Sardinia in Italy, Ikaria in Greece, Nicoya in Costa Rica and the Adventist community of Loma Linda in California. Working with demographers and other researchers, he distilled their shared habits into the Power 9, a simple list of everyday lifestyle principles. He is a journalist and communicator rather than a scientist.

Why it matters after 50: Buettner argues that daily habits and surroundings shape how long we live far more than genes do. The Blue Zones habits are low-cost, social and easy to start at any age.

What Buettner recommends

  • Move naturally: build movement into the day through walking, gardening and housework rather than relying only on the gym.Some evidence
  • Eat a plant-slanted diet built on beans and lentils, with meat about five times a month in small portions, and stop eating when about 80% full.Some evidence
  • Know your purpose (the Okinawan ikigai) and have a daily way to downshift from stress, such as prayer, a nap or time with friends.Personal habit
  • Put loved ones first, belong to a community (for many centenarians, a faith community) and keep friends whose habits support good health.Some evidence
  • The Power 9 includes 'wine at five': 1–2 glasses a day with friends or food, because people in every Blue Zone except the Adventists drink moderately. The Adventists, one of the longest-lived groups, don't drink. Our plans never include alcohol.Note

Signature: The Power 9

Nine shared habits of the world's longest-lived communities: move naturally, purpose, downshift, the 80% rule, plant slant, wine at five, belong, loved ones first and the right tribe. His Blue Zones Project applies these ideas to whole towns, changing streets, food options and workplaces.

In your plan

Choose him for eating and lifestyle: plant-heavy meals, daily natural movement counted as steps, and time with others. Alcohol is never part of a plan.

Build my mix

Research and honest caveats

Blue Zones: lessons from the world's longest lived

Describes the five Blue Zones and the nine shared lifestyle habits, and reports that a community pilot in Albert Lea, Minnesota, was linked to longer estimated life expectancy.

Buettner & Skemp, American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, 2016

  • Demographer Saul Newman has argued that many extreme-age records, including in Blue Zones, may reflect record-keeping errors or pension fraud (a preprint that won a 2024 Ig Nobel prize); Blue Zones researchers respond that they verified ages against civil and church records. The habits come from observing communities rather than from trials, and Buettner founded Blue Zones LLC, a business selling books, programmes and community projects that Adventist Health acquired in 2020.

Career highlights

  1. 2005Wrote the National Geographic cover story Secrets of Long Life
  2. 2008Published The Blue Zones
  3. 2020Blue Zones LLC was acquired by Adventist Health
  4. 2023Hosted the Netflix series Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones

Sources