“Blue Zone” is a term used by Dan Buettner and a team of scientists at National Geographic for five regions they discovered as the home of the world’s oldest and healthiest people. Interestingly, they dubbed them Blue Zones when Buettner and his colleagues drew blue circles around these regions on a map.
Today, I am going to share with you the 80% Rule, the fourth secret of the nine BLUE ZONE secrets to a healthy and long life. If you missed the first three parts of my series on the BLUE ZONES, go to www.TheOtherSideofMedicine.com to get an update.
In Okinawa, the 80% Rule is better known as “Hara Hachi Bu.” This 2500 year—old Confucian saying is said before each meal to remind them to stop eating when their stomachs are 80 percent full. The 20% gap between not feeling hungry and feeling full is one of the secrets to staying fit and trim for the inhabitants of the blue zone. In concert with the 80% rule, people in the BLUE ZONES regularly eat their biggest meal in the morning, and their smallest meal in the late afternoon or early evening. In other words, they eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper. They normally don’t eat anything else the rest of the day.
Here are a few of the benefits of the BLUE ZONE lifestyle. BLUE ZONE inhabitants have 6-12 fewer heart disease deaths, 2-3 times fewer colon cancer deaths, 7 times fewer prostate cancer deaths, 6 times lower risk of dying of breast cancer than here in the United States.
Take Home Message: To avoid stuffing yourself at mealtime, use ten-inch plates. Research shows when you switch from a 12-inch plate to a 10-inch plate, you eat 23 percent less food.
If you are interested in adding 10+ years to your life in good health, I can help. The first step in the journey is to enroll in my 3—month plan to reboot your body to the BLUE ZONE. During the 3—month healing phase, symptoms and chronic health problems you may have been suffering with for years are resolved. A pleasant side effect of my 3—month program is you can shed 20, 30, 40 or 50 lbs. of unwanted pounds without counting calories, carbohydrates, or restricting any food group. If you are interested in rebooting your body to the BLUE ZONE call our Northfield office at 330-908-0094.
