Cornucopia of nutrient-rich foods posited as elixir of longevity in Nicoya Blue Zone diet

27 Jun 2023 ---Interest in blue zone diets continues to rise as researchers try to pinpoint the factors leading to a longer life span. Nutrition Insight speaks with two of the foremost experts on the topic about the simple foods at the heart of the diet’s benefits.

We analyzed the “blue zone” diet of the Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica with recent claims of higher rates of centenarians than the Okinawa population, one of the more celebrated benchmarks for longevity.

“What I find fascinating about this diet is the combination of healthy habits that benefits the body in ways that together help you to stay healthy for a long time,” Sylvia Klinger, licensed and registered dietitian and owner of Hispanic Food Communications, tells us.

The foods eaten by the population have been described as peasant food and their lifestyle has been attributed to at least half of the longevity benefits. Factors such as strong social connections, a deep-rooted spiritual life and a solid work ethic have been identified as having a psychosocial effect on good health. 

“The Nicoya’s are known for their high consumption of beans, their native corn, a purple corn used for tortillas and cocoa. Fruits and vegetables are abundant in this Costa Rica blue zone region.” 

Another significant contributing factor pinpointed by the experts we spoke to was that the Nicoya population drinks “hard water,” which contains more calcium and magnesium and has been associated with notable heart health benefits.

Scrap the superfood sentimentPurple corn is one of the stand out ingredients of the Nicoya blue zone diet.
The nutrients consumed by the longest-living populations, like the Nicoya people of Costa Rica, are sourced from ordinary foods that are readily available. 

“They mostly eat beans, black beans, proteins, corn and tropical fruits, which are full of vitamin C and antioxidants. These aren’t superfoods. These foods supply the fiber to the microbiome to keep you from getting leaky gut syndrome (for example),” Dan Buettner, National Geographic fellow and New York Times bestselling author of the Blue Zones Secrets to Long Life, tells us.

Buettner has explored the blue zones around the world where people live the longest, healthiest lives. He implements blue zone projects around the country. His latest book is called “Blue Zones: Secrets to Long Life.”  

“Centenarian is not the best marker to rate longevity. The longevity scenario is fast disappearing from the discussion. It’s allowing us to allude to Type 2 diabetes and other diseases like cardiovascular disease. Diet is part of it, but the environment plays a role; it’s the ecosystem; they have a vocabulary of purpose and move every five minutes,” explains Buettner.

“I paired up with Harvard to look at the Blue Zones and 90% of it is whole-food, plant-based foods with whole grains, rice, wheat, corn, greens and tubers. With the Okinawans, it was purple (sweet) potatoes. It’s cheap peasant food. It’s what grows in the garden.”   

Maximizing landscape resources
A few of the primary sources of nutrients on the peninsula, where people, farms and livestock are always in close proximity to a volcano, are corn, beans, pork and garden-grown vegetables. Oranges are the most consumed fruit on the Nicoya peninsula, followed by lemons and bananas.

Fruit which contains high levels of potassium and antioxidants, has been identified as an essential part of the blue zone way of eating. The Nicoya diet also includes guavas, bananas, watermelon, papaya, pineapple, dragon fruit, guanabana, uchuva (golden berry), grapes, tamarind, cantaloupe, passion fruit, apple, lemon and strawberries.

However, the population has a balanced diet that includes dairy, vegetables and grains as well. Fish, a lean source of protein and omega fatty acids, is a common food source across all blue zones, according to experts.An active social lifestyle has been identified as a major contributing factor to longevity in the blue zones. 

“Rural people in the Nicoyan region produce their own food. Mangos, papaya and many other fruits and vegetables are free to the locals,” explains Klinger.

“Also, the local markets have kiosks in every little town where the locals sell their produce to other markets as well as to national distribution centers that provide produce to the markets providing access to abundant fruits and vegetables to most rural areas.”

Social connection and spirituality
Lifestyle choices have been pinpointed as a major contributor to the longevity of people from the blue zone regions. 

“I believe this diet is already spreading to other regions thanks to the availability of local produce markets in most areas. There is a big movement to adapt the blue zones diet,” Klinger continues. 

Longevity contributing factors associated with the Nicoya include having a spiritual life, good work ethics, a strong sense of service to others and care for their family coupled with a strong sense of purpose called plan de vida in Spanish.

“We tend to eat only what we like and we forget that your body needs specifically for your age, your gender, your activity level, your social life. Our bodies need all these things. You have to take care of everything,” she says. 

According to Buettner, processed foods lead to high death rates in the West. “We should not be worried about organic or non-organic. We should minimize the meat, cheese, eggs and those rich, fatty foods.”

“The average US citizen consumes 22 teaspoons of sugar a day. For a woman, that decreases her life expectancy by ten years; for a man, it’s 13 years from his life expectancy. It’s doubling Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer and the chances of developing dementia.”

Eating for longevity
In other recent research investigating the role of diet in lifespan, Danish researchers studied the gut microbiota of 176 Japanese centenarians and found their combination of intestinal bacteria and bacterial viruses to be “unique.” The specific variety of bacteria has shown to be beneficial for overall health and aging through the intestinal flora.

Among other developments, researchers probed the effects of taurine on the health span and life span across several living species. In a new study, they measured the blood concentration of taurine during aging while seeing how supplementing with this amino acid can help support life quality. 

By Inga de Jong

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