This week another illusion was shattered. It’s surprising I have any left. I have long been a fan of Stephen Dubner’s Freakonomics podcast, but it has taken quite a grim turn in recent weeks with its in-depth reports on the opioid crisis and I’ve been giving it a miss. However, last week’s interview with Tom Whitwell promised to be a much more light-hearted offering.
I had never heard of Tom Whitwell before, but every December he publishes a list of 52 things he learned in the previous year. These things vary from surprising to entertaining to disappointing to heartening to alarming, but they’re all diverting. However, one item from Tom Whitwell’s 2023 list really shocked me. He suggests that all the stories about those wonderful life-lengthening blue zones scattered across the world might be just that. Stories.
Blue zones, for those of you not familiar with them, are specific areas in the world where people are supposedly living incredibly long lives. These little population pockets are dotted around the globe in Japan, Greece, Italy, Costa Rica and, somewhat surprisingly, the USA. Theses supercentenarians are reputed to achieve their great age in the ways we’ve come to expect, by eating lots of beans, getting up off their sofas, chatting to their neighbours, the usual stuff. It’s all very wholesome and reassuring and seems to have made quite a career for Dan Buettner, who has popularised the story. His six-part Netflix series and seven books on the subject must have kept him pretty busy over the past few years. However, number 15 on Tom Whitwell’s 2023 list states: The number of supercentenarians in an area tends to fall dramatically about 100 years after accurate birth records are introduced. It’s all starting to look a bit suspicious.
Tom Whitwell cites a study by Dr Saul Newman, an Oxford academic, which pretty much debunks the whole blue zone idea. So, are these old people exaggerating, mistaken, confused or simply lying? It seems to be a combination of all these things, involving lax American record-keeping, pension fraud and a great deal more. The podcast is well worth a listen. But perhaps not if you really like the idea of blue zones, which I do.
I lapped up stories of blue zones, reading every article that came my way and avidly watching the TV series. I wanted to believe in Dan Buettner and those jolly, healthy old people with their simple, wholesome lives. Who wouldn’t eat a bit more broccoli, do a few loops of the garden and say good morning to their neighbours if it meant living 110 healthy and productive years? Now that we’ve largely lost religion (in the UK anyway), we’ve latched onto long, healthy lives as our only salvation. We all need our delusions.
Sigh. Maybe this week I’ll learn something really useful and hopeful. Like a slice of coffee and walnut cake meets your daily requirements for iron, potassium, folate, magnesium and calcium. Maybe Tom Whitwell would like to feature that on his list this year.
The stat I liked in the Netflix series was about the blue zone in Sardinia. It said that it wasn’t how high up the mountain a settlement is that determines the proportion of centenarians. It’s how steep the hill is on which it is placed.
It really makes sense. After all I can imagine that the keeper of the records of births 100+ years ago really could not be bothered to walk up those steep hills…….
…and now they probably wouldn’t be able to!
I believe in the BlueZones! The thing is they are just saying everything health experts say. Eat lots of vegetables, exercise and connect with people . It just tells the story in a more exotic and entertaining way . Which is what exercise and vegetables need to make them seem exciting . Coffe cake can hold its own
It’s true. No-one would be interested if the blue zones were in less photogenic places! I haven’t seen Dan Buettner hanging around in Newbury recently.