Life in the Blue Zone

When I studied the world's Blue Zones and searched for an answer to why Hungary hasn't become a Blue Zone, I quickly found the answers. The following characteristics are common to all Blue Zones:

• The importance of family, its cohesive and caring power
• The cohesive power of community, forming strong social connections and caring for each other
• Daily activity
• Regular consumption of a few, but appropriate, foods
• Living in the present

Needless to say, in Hungary, we have no chance with any of these; we simply weren't socialized that way. Not only is there no family cohesion here, but I can think of few things more unpleasant, or indeed a form of punishment, in a Hungarian person's life than family gatherings, be it Christmas, birthdays, or any event where every family member is present. I won't delve now into the atmosphere created by a foolish father-in-law, a toxic mother-in-law, siblings at odds, stupid parents, or couples wishing they would just divorce, but unfortunately, everyone knows what I'm talking about.

Here, an elderly person is a burden, whereas in the Blue Zones, they are the most esteemed member of the family, from whom everyone is descended, and in Okinawa, for example, they remember this so well that meals eaten at the family grave are not uncommon on the Japanese island. This might seem a bit morbid to us, of course, but then again, so is regular vegetable consumption back home.

We would fundamentally need to rethink our relationships with family, but I consider this virtually impossible, because while current and especially future generations are absolutely open to developing their personalities, changing their patterns, stopping flawed intergenerational habits, engaging in longer-term therapies and inner work, our parents are completely incapable of this, and our grandparents would consider anyone who even mentions the word 'psychology' to be crazy.

I don't want to get into deeper sociological explanations; I assume the 40 years of communism didn't do this country any good, and I'm not sure about the beneficial effects of the political systems that have reigned since, but I am sure that if there's one thing we shouldn't put on display, it's the harmonious, supportive functioning of Hungarian families. One might say this doesn't matter, but for some reason, we die 30 years earlier than most people living in Blue Zones. But if it were just about dying earlier, unfortunately, it's not just about that, but about the 10-15-20 years preceding our death, and that is truly shocking. That quality of life, or rather, that lack of quality of life. Waiting for it to end, sick, tired, taking 23 different medications, narrow-minded, in pain, angry with the world, quite likely tormenting the family, utterly broken. 

The condition and attitude towards life of a country's elderly people best reflect the current state of a society, and this is precisely what confirms the strength of the Blue Zones, where people aged 90-110 live full, healthy, and active lives with their families. Centenarians who continue to assist their families, rather than tormenting their children at 65-70, criticizing their decisions, and burdening their environment purely with their messed-up, toxic presence.

To be honest, I see no chance for change, because although there always will be, and indeed there are, a few thousand, perhaps a few tens of thousands of families here where destructive rat-like behavior is not the norm, but rather a family can genuinely sit down at the table normally. But how many people does this represent in Hungary? 200,000, perhaps a little more, but if we only look at the adult population, which is about 6.5 million people, then we are talking about 3% of our society. And this is just about 3% of Hungarian families being able to eat a meat soup and a carp with sour cream twice a year, for example, in relative calm, without unbearable tension. This is terrifying in some ways.

I think we should move on, because if I wanted to annoy myself, I would sit down and talk to my mother. But since I don't have Valeriana with me right now, I'd rather talk about another important aspect of the Blue Zones, which is not about family, but about the cohesive power of Hungarian communities.

That legendary Hungarian cohesion. Especially abroad. So, before there's any misunderstanding, this is not a post laughing at ourselves, but merely the reality of why we are so far behind compared to those parts of the world – and here I'm not even necessarily thinking of the Blue Zones – where people live to a ripe old age, and moreover, do it in good health, and what we should do to bring about some change. Unfortunately, it's the same here as with the family point. In Hungary, there is no community cohesion whatsoever, and anyone who doubts this should just go to a residents' meeting. A friend of mine once said very aptly: residents' meetings should be declared a Hungaricum. 

Community cohesion refers to the totality of people who belong together by location, without kinship ties, and how these strangers positively influence and ease each other's lives. Now, what are we even talking about after all this, when a community can offer so much? I remember after my grandfather died, my grandmother lived alone in a large family house in Érd, with zero neighborly cohesion. No matter how much we told her to come, she wouldn't, until she became very ill, and we finally managed to place her in an institution run by nuns, where my grandmother completely recovered. She sat outside, talked to the other patients, walked. My grandmother, who hadn't wanted to even sit up before, walked. This is what the community did for her; she had someone to talk to, she had a reason to get up. Maybe they just gossiped, but it's better to talk to someone than to have your thoughts talking to you while you go crazy alone.

Community, people. Very important. Now, without getting into religious matters, churches have an undeniable role in offering community, forming a kind of protective umbrella over people, providing security that no one is alone. One of the most important secrets to the longevity of the Blue Zones is community, and the supportive and sustaining power of that community. This will be more observable than anything else in the Loma Linda Blue Zone in California, for example. 

It is my undisguised intention to shape Tiian into a supportive, mutually sustaining community, because often just the knowledge that we are not alone is enough.

Daily activity is the third point, the essence of which is that while the Western world's solution of "going to the gym" is undoubtedly useful, if there's one thing that doesn't characterize the Blue Zones, it's conscious, focused exercise. Within the Sardinian Blue Zone, a small village called Silvanus stands out, where most people earned their living as shepherds, which meant walking 11-13 km daily, often including mountain slopes. Now, I'm not saying everyone should get a yak or a mountain goat and herd them in Népliget, but I'm trying to draw attention to the incredible impact movement can have on our lives, health, and quality of life if it's involuntary, if it's part of our daily routine, if we do it without even noticing that we are, in fact, constantly moving for most of the day.

And since we're talking about quality of life, let's move on to the fourth point, the essential part of Blue Zone nutrition: what people eat in the world's Blue Zones. Locally grown, naturally produced, a small number of ingredients. In the Blue Zones, they don't eat a lot of different foods, and here I'm referring not to the quantity of food, but to the ingredients. Mostly vegetables, spices, herbs, a little fruit, a little fish, even less meat, but these are mostly for festive occasions, with dairy products almost entirely excluded. I think in Ikaria, they consume goat's milk, but that's about it; cows are not abused in any of the Blue Zones.

That's it. They don't overthink it, they don't color the dishes to death, they just take those 25-30 ingredients and make meals out of them. You can add color to this, and we will, you'll see these colors in the downloadable Tiian diets.

I've saved a very important point for last, which is also the final principle of the Blue Zone tenets, and that is living in the present. People in the Blue Zones are able to live to such old ages thanks to their mindset. The ability to live in the present is a wonderful gift from life, and it greatly simplifies the life of anyone who can think this way. 

Living in the present means not dwelling on the past and not worrying about the future; we live exclusively in the present, knowing that what is happening now, what is occurring now, is the only thing we can influence. The unchangeability of the past was discovered by the ancient Chinese, as from them originates the great saying that there are three things about which it is useless to grieve and which cannot be changed: an arrow shot, a word spoken, a deed done.  The Nicoya Blue Zone in Costa Rica stands out even among the other Blue Zones, perhaps because the residents of Nicoya believe in and follow the ideology of living in the present most closely. 

I am aware that it is impossible to transplant the Blue Zone lifestyle into a big-city lifestyle; this is precisely why we live 30 years less than the people in the Blue Zones. However, if we simply try to live consistently, I repeat, consistently, according to the rules of the Blue Zones, then I am certain that in the long run, we can gain at least 10, or even more, years.

10 years of quality life. 

This is extremely important. When I discovered the Blue Zones and knew that this was what I needed, this would be Tiian, I thought of this extra ten, fifteen years, not to mention the quality of the journey until then.

Tiian is not a rapid "lose weight in 2 months" program, but an investment in your next 30-45 years, which you can live without obesity, with healthy organ function, and with quality, and here I am only talking about the dietary part of Tiian.

I could talk about the future too, but we live in the present, don't we? I'm writing the future right now.