13 Eating Habits That Make You Live Longer

Anti-aging secrets

For more than a decade, I've been working with a team of experts to study hot spots of longevity—regions we call Blue Zones, where many people live to 100 and beyond. They are the Greek island of Ikaria; the highlands of Sardinia; the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica; Okinawa, Japan; and Loma Linda, Calif., home of the highest concentration of Seventh-day Adventists in the U.S. Remarkably, we've learned that folks in all these places share similar rituals and practices surrounding food. (Hint: They don't count calories, take vitamins or weigh protein grams!) After analyzing more than 150 dietary studies conducted in Blue Zones over the past century, we came up with a global average of what centenarians really eat. Here are 15 age-old diet tips to borrow from the longest-living people on the planet.

1. Get 95% of your food from plants
2. Consume meat no more than twice a week
3. Eat up to 3 ounces of fish daily
4. Cut back on dairy
5. Enjoy up to three eggs per week
6. Add a half cup of cooked beans every day
7. Switch to sourdough or whole-wheat
8. Slash your sugar consumption
9. Snack on two handfuls of nuts per day
10. Stick with foods that are recognizable for what they are
11. Up your water intake
12. Drink this kind of tea (Okinawans nurse green tea all day long, and green tea has been shown to lower the risk of heart disease and several cancers.)
13. Get your caffeine fix from coffee