Last week I heard the most interesting fact, that interested me beyond measure last week, a wellness junkie that I am and a keen believer of the Blue Zones first classified by Dan Buettner, it thrilled me beyond belief that Singapore, a tiny island-country in the Indian Ocean is the latest entrant to the blue zone list. For the unacquainted, blue zones are areas where life expectancy and quality were found to be the longest and best respectively. The people who were found to be living in the blue zones were healthy beyond measure, without doing anything in particular for health, their lifestyles were woven into structures that were genuinely good for the living. What makes me love the blue zones life is the laissez faire nature of it, the whole do nothing about anything feels, where living is mindful and goals per se are not really chased.
The original blue zones were Ikaria in Greece, Loma Linda in California, Sardinia in Italy, Okinawa in Japan and Nicoya in Costa Rica. While the cultures in all these zones are very different from each other, including what people eat, what they wear, the way they relate to one another, all so different, yet they record a high life expectancy, that too in the pink of health. In fact it makes me wonder why Buettner did not call it the Pink zones! The people in Sardinia eat all the cheese and pasta, their delectable Arabiatta sauce, yet they live in close social ties, looking out for one another and climb steep hills to meet each other as is the lay of the land. In Okinawa the blue zoners eat the rainbow, I mean not literally but their diversity in food is a plenty and a little bit of this and a little bit of that brings microdosing into the mix, making for a very happy microbiome.
Now I have never lived in any of the blue zones, it is all just hearsay, or rather what I have lived vicariously through Netflix, in their show Live to 100. (I have put in the link here https://www.netflix.com/in-hi/title/81214929) and I always have found the concept and the zones amazing. I have been to Okinawa to see a Frank Llyod building, and my time there was simply stunning. The islands are beautiful with spectacular views, but even more engaging was the air and the food, I literally felt so beautiful and at peace, that feeling was something that stayed with me in a couple of more places, the Butchart Gardens in Vancouver was one, yet the feel of the land is something else. While in Okinawa, admiring Wright’s buildings, I vividly remember the food, the crunchy textures, a delight for a vegetarian, then vegan with all the colours on my plate. That was an encounter with the blue zones that was brief, but my encounter with Singapore was a considerable bit longer.
Though working, studying, doing way too much, I was a keen observer in how Singapore and its people, the Singaporeans are always so youthful, in spirit and in looks. And a few secrets of what gets them to be Centegenarians did not miss me too. Here are a few that I took great delight in, and if you live in Singapore or one of the blue zones, ofcourse consider yourself lucky and if you do not, then well live harder for you may not live longer! In Singapore, the humid weather is great for not aging the skin, the steam, sauna street feels are quite real, and moisturisers are really put to shame by the clean air and water vapour in the air. And then comes the walking, with streets so well laid out and the five foot walkway project that has pathways all across the island, it is by far one of the most easily walkable cities in the world. Then there is the housing that is sorted out so well that when a child turns an adult the first thing parents or rather the government think of is a home for them and upon marriage too couples are preferred to have a home of their own, partially funded by the government, what a lovely gesture for people to literally have their space! Then comes the food scene, where healthy and nutricious food not to mention tasty too is available so very easily and matter of factly. At a buffet, the ceiling time for consumption of food is 2 hours and all food prepared is aimed to be consumed within the 2 hours. That was quite something in a world where food is stored for a while. Finally what really works is the zest for life, the looking forward for tech, for change and for novelty in the island. People look forward, streets look forward and reinvention happens a dime a dozen. Leaving the island I may not live to a 100, but blooming where I am, I could turn Bengaluru into a blue zone too or enjoy the fewer years amongst the fine blooms of the city.
Blue as in blue? Well not quite. Blue is in the pink now!
Vedasri Siddamsetty 