What I eat in a day: eating like the blue zones – here’s what I learnt

Plant-Based Eating is the Foundation

Across all five Blue Zones, plants make up the majority of the diet. Especially legumes, whole grains, nuts, and fresh vegetables. Meat, if consumed at all, is eaten in small amounts and only on occasion.

They ate lots of carbs! 

But often chose whole grains over processed 

Although ultra-processed foods and refined sugars were not part of Blue Zone diets. There was absolutely no carb cutting in sight! Actually all of the blue zone diets were rich in carbohydrates. Often relying on whole grains like barley, corn, and rice. All providing fibre, micronutrients and steady energy for the day!

Soups and stews 

I found myself very often making stews when I followed these diets. Lots of throwing various things into a pot and hoping for the best (which is actually very similar to how I ate at uni when I was trying to spend as little money as possible on food). There IS actually evidence that soups and stews can help with weight management because the water content in the food helps to keep you full. Eating a hot soup or stew will also slow you down, forcing you to be more present with each mouthful.

Movement is their Lifestyle, Not a Workout

Most people in the Blue Zones don’t hit the gym (apart form loma linda where they are slightly more intentional). But every blue zone had constant movement in their lives! I did this challenge over winter (and blue zones tend to be in warmer countries) so I did lots of my movement at the gym on a treadmill and I am SURE they get even greater benefits from going outside and connecting to nature. Walking, gardening, and daily physical activity are built into their routines.

No “high protein diet” but beans & legumes everywhere

The blue zones didn’t have a crazy focus on protein like we seem to do on social media at the moment. However, they all consumed beans and legumes in some form almost daily! These plant protein sources are naturally low in saturated fat and high in fibre! 

Savory breakfasts

Now this surprised me and i’m not sure why. The savory 30g of protein breakfast trend is blowing up on socials – but this wasn’t quite that. The blue zone diets weren’t aiming for high protein for breakfast but instead had really simple savory foods like tomatoes on toast, potatoes, rice and beans for breakfast.

Very often I was thrown by the blue zone breakfast options as lots of them are not foods we traditionally eat for breakfast here in the UK. The only outlier was Loma Linda where they eat a little more similarly to the western diet – just much healthier.

So you don’t HAVE to eat savory for breakfast to get those longevity benefits but maybe there is something to it? Although I will be going back to my oats and smoothies most of the time, maybe i’ll try and switch it up more often in future.