Introduction
Welcome to Eat This Not That, the ultimate guide to the #1 eating habit for weight loss from the longest living people. Here, you will learn how to make simple changes to your diet that will help you lose weight and improve your overall health. We will discuss the importance of eating whole, unprocessed foods, and how to make healthy swaps for unhealthy foods. We will also provide tips on how to make healthy eating a part of your lifestyle. So, let’s get started and learn how to make the most of your diet for weight loss and better health.
The #1 Eating Habit for Weight Loss From the Longest Living People — Eat This Not That
If you’re looking to lose weight and live a longer, healthier life, you may want to take a page from the longest living people in the world. Studies have shown that the #1 eating habit for weight loss from the longest living people is to eat a diet that is mostly plant-based.
This means that the majority of your diet should consist of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds. Eating a diet that is mostly plant-based is not only beneficial for weight loss, but it also helps to reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.
In addition to eating a mostly plant-based diet, the longest living people also practice mindful eating. This means that they take the time to savor their food and enjoy the experience of eating. They also pay attention to their body’s signals and stop eating when they are full.
So, if you’re looking to lose weight and live a longer, healthier life, the #1 eating habit for weight loss from the longest living people is to eat a diet that is mostly plant-based and practice mindful eating. This will help you to not only lose weight, but also reduce your risk of chronic diseases.
If the old adage is true, with age comes wisdom, then people who live the longest are among the best resources to ask just about anything. From lifestyle to mental health to work and overall outlook, lived experience can help make anyone an expert, in time.
Luckily, research has been done on how to track down these wise, well-aged people and glean their life advice. The Blue Zones Project, led by founder Dan Buettner, identified the five places in the world where people live the longest: Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece, and Loma Linda, California. Then, he and his team studied these communities and took note of the wide array of life advice we have to learn from them.
That advice, of course, includes knowledge about how to eat for optimal health. While Blue Zone communities have a lot in common in terms of eating habits, the number one practice they share is simple: they are all largely plant-based.
The longest-living people largely eat a plant-based diet.
“People in the Blue Zones eat an impressive variety of garden vegetables when they are in season, and then they pickle or dry the surplus to enjoy during the off-season,” says the project. “The best-of-the-best longevity foods are leafy greens such as spinach, kale, beet and turnip tops, chard, and collards. Combined with seasonal fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and beans dominate Blue Zones meals all year long.”
These long-livers do eat meat, but only as a small side, very sparingly. Instead, protein comes from beans, nuts, seeds, and greens—all foods that can support weight loss.
The link between a plant-based diet and weight loss.
A plant-based diet has already been proven to help with weight loss by a myriad of other studies; perhaps the amount of evidence out there that correlates plants with lower body weight is to blame for our current cultural shift towards meat alternatives.
As far back as 2010, a study showed that meat consumption was associated with weight gain, even if other healthy weight loss techniques were employed. Then, in 2018, a comprehensive review of several studies showed that plant-based diets were correlated with better overall health—including more successful attempts at weight loss. As recently as 2020, another study was published linking a plant-based diet with weight loss.
We’ve known for a while now that plants are the answer, at least, according to the research. But thanks to the Blue Zones Project, we can feel confident that the idea is based on something beyond academic research: it’s affirmed by the wisdom of the world’s longest-living people.
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Kaley Roberts