hey we've been talking about food fads
and things that come and go in nutrition
whether they're worth your time today
we're talking about what is the
healthiest diet I'm Robin Openshaw I'm
the green smoothie girl and I would talk
to you a little bit today about what is
the healthiest diet on the planet so in
terms of data collected and what
specific set of nutrition principles
lead to health the most data the most
data has been collected on the
Mediterranean diet and so it's very well
known to have yielded millions of people
who have very low rates of cancer and
heart disease well the Mediterranean
diet if you don't know involves a little
bit of seafood it involves a lot of
legumes there's a little bit of red wine
in the diet it's quite high in fat
there's olive oil but a lot of
vegetables some fruits lots of beans
another thing we really should bring up
is the Blue Zones some researchers
published a book not very many years ago
about the five areas of the world that
have the highest concentration of
centenarians so in other words they have
a disproportionate number the population
you live to be over a hundred and the
diets were not all the same one of the
places was in Greece one was in Costa
Rica one was in Italy one was actually
in the u.s. one was in Okinawa so let's
talk which is part of Japan so let's
talk for a minute about what we learned
from the Blue Zones where these diets
apparently contribute to longevity
first of all in one of these communities
that they deep dived into to learn about
what they did it wasn't all their
nutrition when people have really deep
family roots and a lot of connection to
their community and they take time to
de-stress they move their body every day
these are also things that they found in
common in these communities but let's
talk about some of the things that we
think we know about nutrition that might
these blue zones might shake up what you
think a little bit
first of all in Costa Rica the group of
people they studied that live a very
long time only ate about seven foods so
this whole idea in America where we have
to have lots and lots of variety and
most of us are eating tons of different
foods that's not been available to most
people who are eating off of the land
and so that Costa Rican called one of
the Blue Zones was primarily vegetarian
and it was real
seven foods that they ate a lot of I
think the most interesting group it was
in Loma Linda California and it was a
group of seventh-day Adventists who'd
been practicing their religion for a few
generations and they live to be very old
and they are pretty much vegans there's
a a minority of them who eat a little
bit of animal protein but these people
live to be very old eating a plant-based
diet so some of the things that came out
of that research are things that lead to
longevity is to eat till you're 80% full
not till you're stuffed
they don't drink anything besides water
also don't eat after 7:00 p.m.
people who live a really long time eat
meat only rarely maybe three or four
times a month and it's like three ounce
portions these cultures eat tons of
plants especially beans and finally
their smallest meal is dinner we kind of
have that on the flip in the United
States that we tend to have our largest
meal be dinner and that is not a healthy
practice so what do we learn is the
healthiest diet the healthiest diet
across the board all five of these Blue
Zones and the Mediterranean diet doesn't
have processed food in it that's what
they have in common so I love to teach
you inexpensive easy delicious ways to
eat whole foods make sure that you sign
up for the green smoothie girl comm
newsletter and I share lots of tips with
you lots of recipes digests of research
like this one but the bottom line is if
you want to live a long time you want to
live disease-free your very best bet is
to eat lots of whole foods whether you
eat animal products or you don't have
the bulk of your diet be greens
vegetables fruits legumes whole grains
nuts and seeds that's what the longest
living people on the planet eat see you
next time
you