20+ Blue Zone Soup Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What do the Blue Zones eat for breakfast? ›

In blue zones regions, the routine is similar. Ideally, breakfast or the first meal of the day consists of protein, complex carbohydrates (beans or veggies) and plant-based fats (nuts, seeds, oils) and a majority of the day's calories are consumed before noon.

Eggs are consumed in all five Blue Zones diets, where people eat them an average of two to four times per week. Cut down your consumption of cow's milk and dairy products such as cheese, cream, and butter. Try unsweetened soy, coconut, or almond milk as a dairy alternative.

People in Blue Zones areas eat whole foods. Whole foods are not processed in factories—they're made with ingredients that are recognizable as coming from the earth, like rice, corn, soy, fruits, and vegetables, or prepared food like tofu or manna bread.

Their diets do not include processed meats like hot dogs, bacon, and sausages. Instead, they favor free-range chicken and family-farmed pork or lamb.

Avoid dairy when possible. If cheese is a must, try ice-cube size portions of sheep (pecorino) or goat (feta) cheese to flavor foods. If you eat eggs, limit intake to three times a week.

Eat only sourdough or 100 percent whole wheat. Blue zones bread is unlike the bread most Americans buy. Most commercially available breads start with bleached white flour, which metabolizes quickly into sugar and spikes insulin levels.

Pasta: Pasta gets a bad rap, but centenarians from the blue zones, particularly in Ikaria and Sardinia, eat pasta frequently. Look for pasta made with just a few high-quality ingredients. Gluten-free varieties are available in many stores and are often made with quinoa and brown rice.

In addition to a daily cup of coffee, blue zones centenarians drink water, tea and wine. While coffee is often a hotly-debated health topic, it's shown to carry many health benefits. Most centenarians in blue zones regions drink up to two or three cups of black coffee per day!

Minimize your consumption of cow's milk and dairy products such as cheese, cream, and butter. Cow's milk does not figure significantly in any Blue Zones diet except that of the Adventists, some of whom eat eggs and dairy products.

Do blue zones eat yogurt? ›

Traditional cheeses made of sheep or goat's milk do feature in some Blue Zones regions of Italy and Greece, as well as other gut-healthy fermented foods like yogurt. These low-sugar, high-protein options can be a healthy part of the Blue Zones diet in moderation, included a few times per week.

In fact, a 2022 research review found that diets with moderate to high levels of carbohydrates were associated with longevity—but only if they were unrefined carbohydrates (think: whole and minimally processed plant foods like vegetables, fruits, legumes, and whole grains).

In Ikaria, Greece, one of the original blue zones that are home to the world's longest-living people, many older residents eat honey at least twice a day. They stir it into their coffee in the morning and prior to dinner. Ikarians also use honey to treat everything from the common cold to minor wounds.

One of the most visually striking recipes in the book is made from purple sweet potatoes, which Buettner considers a key longevity staple for people in the blue zone of Okinawa. “The dietary intake of Okinawans until 1975 came from purple sweet potatoes,” he said.

In the Loma Linda Blue Zone, people live on average 10 years longer than the rest of the US. They eat oats as part of their high-fiber, high-carbohydrate diets.

The healthiest breakfast foods include a protein, healthy fat and source of carbohydrates, according to Smolen. For a healthy breakfast, consider eating foods like oatmeal with nut butter, avocado toast with an egg, chia seed pudding or a greek yogurt parfait with nuts and berries.

Eat a breakfast that contains multiple food groups

A healthy breakfast on the longevity diet might contain whole grains, nuts, and fruit. Longo himself likes to have friselle, a whole-grain bread from Italy, with a nut spread containing almond and cocoa, as well as an apple.

Whole Grain Bread Made From Whole Wheat, Rye, and/or Barley. In addition to sourdough, many people living in the Blue Zones tend to eat whole grain bread.