The Health Diaries

What We Can Learn From the World’s Centenarians

After 20 years of studying the world’s healthiest people, Dan Buettner has embraced midday naps, social connections over work, and a plant-based diet

There are many ways to live a healthy life. The Health Diaries is a weekly series about the habits that keep notable people living well.

Dan Buettner’s career sends him around the world in search of the healthiest habits, climates, and diets out there. He was working as a journalist when he wrote a story for National Geographic in 2005 about the world’s five so-called blue zones—places where people live the longest and healthiest lives on record. These zones include Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece; and Loma Linda, California.

Since then, Buettner has become something of a longevity and health expert. He’s the executive director and founder of Blue Zones, a company that offers lessons on longevity and a suite of products that includes meal planners and self-assessment quizzes. Buettner is also a National Geographic fellow and helps implement Blue Zone projects all over the world. He’s currently finishing a book about the world’s healthiest diets.