Dan Buettner must be very used to being called “young man” by now– despite being nearly 50 years old and quite well-accomplished, he’s been researching the communities with the oldest citizens in the world, and has begun to unlock the secrets to a long and full life.

So what is it, exactly, that makes people in some parts of the world (Buettner calls them “blue zones”) live so long?
There are five things he has found as a common thread from Japan to Costa Rica to Loma Linda, California.

5. A Sense of Faith

Loma Linda, California, boasts the highest concentration of Seventh-Day Adventists in the world, and the average Adventist man lives 11 years longer than the average American man. This is also a factor in Sardinia, where a large Catholic population fuels one of the “Blue Zones” and lives far longer than the average Italian.

4. A Sense of Purpose

Japan possesses an overwhelming sense of purpose, Buettner reports, and the concept has a name: ikigai. Loosely translated, it means “that which makes one’s life most worth living.” It strikes him then, as no coincidence that Okinawa has the longest disease-free life expectancies in the world.

3. Low-Intensity Activity

Low-intensity activity does a phenomenal job of keeping the body in working order without placing too much stress on an aging system: getting out an walking, or enjoying some form or recreation also contributes to a sense of independence that allows the mindset needed for the other points to flourish.

2. An Investment in Family

Family, like the previous item, helps develop support structures, as well as an essential mindset of caring; Buettner simply states that he’s never met a mean centenarian.

1. A Plant-based Diet

Finally, yes, there is one essential oddity– a diet that’s drastically different from that of most Americans.

Consistently, Buettner reports people eating small portions and not much meat in their diets. This accounts for the widespread success outside of the United States, especially in places like Italy, Japan, and Costa Rica, where culture has embraced a different style of cooking.

丹·布特尼（Dan Buettner）肯定已经很习惯别人称他为“年轻人”了--尽管他已年过半百，成就卓越，他对世界上最长寿的地区做了不少研究，向人们揭开了生活丰富、健康长寿的秘诀。

那么秘诀到底是什么呢？确切地说，是什么让世界上这些地区的人们（布特尼称他们为“蓝色宝地”）寿命如此之长呢？

他认为有五点秘诀，这些是居住在日本，哥斯达黎加及加利福尼亚的罗玛琳达的人们的共同之处。

5. 信仰

加州的罗玛琳达以其高度集中的基督复临安息日会教友闻名于世，而在那里信仰基督再临的人比一般美国人的平均寿命要长11岁。在另一块“蓝色宝地（意大利的）”撒丁岛，居住着大量的天主教信仰者，他们的平均寿命也比一般的意大利人长许多，信仰也是这块宝地人口长寿的一大因素。

4. 目标

日本人的目标感是全世界无与伦比的。布特尼称，这种概念有一个名称：ikigai，笼统翻译过来的意思是“目标使人的生命充满价值与意义。”而让布特尼震惊的是，不出意外的是冲绳岛的人口寿命长度为世界之首。

3. 低密度运动

低密度的运动对保持身体正常运作有着显著的成效，它能抵抗压力对衰老的影响：出门散散步，或是进行一些娱乐消遣。同时，这也能促使心智的独立，使它在其他时间活力充沛。

2. 对家庭的重视

和前面提到的因素一样，家庭能建立起一个人情感上的最大支持，同时它也是心智舒缓的一个重要源泉；布特尼只是很简单地说到，他从未见过一个吝啬的百岁老人。

1. 遵循素食为主的饮食原则

对，最后一个重要的特点就是--他们的饮食原则，这与大多数美国人是截然不同的。

布特尼始终说道，长寿的人的饭量都不大，饮食中肉类含量也很少。这种做法对健康的重要性在美国以外的地区已经广泛得到证实，特别是在意大利，日本和哥斯达黎加这些地方，那里的文化奉行的是一种不同于美国的烹饪方法。