The Blue Zones Were Never Plant-Based: What These Long-Lived Cultures Actually eat
BLUE ZONES — LONGEVITY + DIET + ANTHROPOLOGY
The Blue Zones Were Never Plant-Based — Here’s What These Long-Lived Cultures Actually Eat
Blue Zones are often used as evidence that humans thrive on plant-based diets. In this long-form breakdown, I examine what these populations truly ate — including meat, dairy, and properly prepared plants — and why oversimplifying their diets ignores anthropology, food quality, lifestyle factors, and nutrient density.
Author
Craig McCloskey
Board-Certified Nutritionist
For years, the “Blue Zones” have been held up as proof that humans thrive on plant-based diets. You’ve probably heard the talking points before: the world’s longest-lived people supposedly eat very little meat, rely mostly on beans and whole grains, and avoid animal foods almost entirely.
But when you look closely at the anthropology, nutrition research, and historical food practices of these cultures, a very different picture emerges.
The truth is more nuanced — and far more interesting — than the plant-based narrative suggests.
Yes, Blue Zone populations eat plants. But they also eat animal foods, including meat, organs, and dairy. More importantly, they prepare their foods in traditional ways, live radically different lifestyles than modern Americans, and consume foods that are almost unrecognizable compared to the ultra-processed versions we eat today.
In this article, we’ll unpack what the Blue Zones actually eat, why the plant-based framing is misleading, and what lessons are truly worth learning if longevity, metabolic health, and fertility matter to you.
What Are the Blue Zones?
The term “Blue Zones” refers to regions around the world identified for having unusually high numbers of centenarians — people who live to 100 years or more.
The most commonly cited Blue Zones include:
Sardinia
Okinawa
Nicoya Peninsula
Ikaria
Loma Linda
More recently, places like Singapore have also been discussed in longevity conversations, though not always officially classified.
These regions differ culturally, geographically, and historically — which makes it unlikely that a single dietary rule explains their longevity.
Watch the Full Breakdown
To see the science, anthropology, and cultural context explained step-by-step, watch the full video below:
Read the full transcript
There's a whole fad of meat eaters thinking they're going to eat meat and get healthier. They're not in the long run. They may feel better in the short run. They may lose weight, but it's a bad strategy. If you look at the diets, the world's longest lived people, and I found six of them. Now, got to got to add an extra finger here. You see that they're predominantly plant-based. about 90% of their diet, whole grains, greens, tubers like sweet potatoes, nuts, and the cornerstone of every longevity diet in the world is beans. So, if you want to live long time, get rid of this. When we're talking about the blue zones, there's six of them now. There used to be five, but now there's a sixth one. But this is Sardinia, Italy, Okinawa, Japan, the Ncoya region in Costa Rica, Icaria, Greece, Lominda, California, and Singapore. These are all the blue zones. And if there's one thing in common, all these blue zones are closer to the equator. These aren't in Canada. These aren't in Northern Europe. These aren't in Australia. These aren't further north or south away from the equator. And what this means is that by default, these cultures have longer growing seasons. there's going to be fruit available year round. There's going to be vegetables available year round. Whereas cultures in Canada, Northern Europe, Australia, New Zealand, these cultures do have fruits and vegetables that grow there, of course, but they don't have as long of growing seasons. So, how would cultures that lived there before the past 100 years have access to eating a plant-based diet outside of growing season? they just wouldn't have that ability where it's been shown in a ton of anthropological data that humans tended to migrate out of Africa into northern Europe and Asia across the plane of Russia into Alaska and down into North America because they were following animals. They were following herds of woolly mammoths and other large animals because that meant that they could eat. They had fat. They had protein. They had tools because they used the bones to make tools. They used the hides of these animals, the bison to provide clothing and shelter. There was over hundreds of different uses of these animals. The early Native Americans in North America used bison for virtually everything. They relied off the bison. They followed it. When the bison migrated, the Native Americans would migrate with them because it was literally their way of life. Now, these blue zones, I'm not doubting that they eat a lot of plants, but the way that they're eating those plants and veggies and fruits is vastly different than how we're eating it here in America in civilized society. Because when they talk about eating whole grains, they're not going to the store and eating whole grain bread that has been fortified with a ton of vitamins and minerals and and synthetic folic acid and cyanocobalamin unmethylated forms of these vitamins and minerals. They're eating sourdough bread. They're eating traditionally prepared vegetables like sauerkraut, kimchi. Their beans have been prepared a certain way and probably soaked and sprouted. Because if you were to eat beans, like brown beans or black beans that haven't been soaked or sprouted, this would kill you because these are literally one of the most toxic foods on the planet, you need to properly prepare your plants because they have defense chemicals in them. And it's not trying to scare you. It's not trying to make you fear these foods. It's just saying that our ancestors have known about these foods for a long time that they need to be prepared properly externally outside of our bodies because other animals, cows, ducks, other animals that have maybe four stomachs or like a rin for instance, they have four stomachs. They have evolved internal technology to be able to render some of these defense chemicals harmless. Humans on the other hand, we don't have this internal technology. We have to do that externally. So, it's not saying that you have to avoid plants. It's just saying learn how to prepare them properly like they do in the blue zones because they eat plants, but the way they eat those plants is vastly different than how we eat plants. And not to mention, they're also not eating vegetables that have been sprayed with glyphosate. They're not eating a lot of toxins. Their toxin load is relatively low. They're moving to detox their bodies. They're doing a lot of other healthy lifestyle factors that contribute to their longevity and high quality of life. Now, he went on to mention that they only eat meat maybe about five times a month, but this is not true. All of these cultures cherish meat and organ-based dishes in their life and they eat meat in plenty. And there's some science here that I want to show you today. In regards to Sardinia, Italy, there was a study published titled Sardinian dietary analysis for longevity, a review of the literature, where the authors were quoted saying, "There are many other ancient Sardinian foods such as trekka, which is a roasted lamb intestine dish, horse steak, pigeon, sea urchin, row, and seeds. Some have been recognized as a delicacy such as a sea urchent row. They prize these organ and meat-based dishes because they know that they can get nutrients. They can get calories. They can get protein. They can get nutrients in these foods that they otherwise can't get elsewhere. Vitamin B12, zinc, choline, and more. Later on in this study, they also went on to say Sardinians blue zone people rely heavily on the consumption of dairy products, particularly goats and sheep milk products for their calorie intake. Dairy is a health food. when you do it right, when it's been unpasteurized, when it's been non-homogenized, when it's in its raw form. Dairy can be an incredible health food for a majority of people out there. And even the people in the blue zones in Sardinia, Italy, they are consuming a lot of animal products, just they're doing it differently than we are in America. Even in Okinawa, Japan, one of the blue zones, they eat a ton of meat as well. There's a paper titled nutrition for the Japanese elderly. And what they found in this study is that 52.9% of their total protein came from animal protein. Over half of their protein every day came from animal protein. The authors went on to conclude, quote, "Unexpectedly, we did not find any vegetarians among the centinarians. No vegetarians, no vegans, no vegetarians. They were all meat eaters." Now, Linda, California, this population, this blue zone is the only blue zone where they don't eat a massive amount of meat. And this goes back to religious beliefs by John Harvey Kellogg in the 7th Day Adventist. But when you look at their sperm quality, the Lomol Lindons, it's very, very low. There was a study titled food intake, diet, and sperm characteristics in a blue zone. The Lomol Linda study authors quoted this by saying, "The study showed that the vegetable-based food intake decreased sperm quality." What's the point in eating a plant-based diet if you're not going to be able to extend your species? But if your sperm quality isn't the best because you're not getting in bioavailable nutrients that are needed for producing healthy sperm, zinc, which comes predominantly from meat-based foods and bioavailable sources, vitamin B12, vitamin D, choline, carnosine, carnitine, all these nutrients that you're really only going to find in animal foods. And your sperm count is low. What's the point in eating that diet if you're not able to extend your species? that culture will die out eventually. Now, something not mentioned in his video, there are plenty of other cultures out there that have the opposite inverse association. Cultures that eat a lot of meat, that have nice longevity and health span. Hong Kong is one of those populations. But Hong Kong isn't considered a blue zone. Although men are living to 81 years old, while women are living to 87 years old on average, residents eat about 1 and 12 lbs of meat per day, yet they are living to mid80s. Now, in Iceland in 2019, the life expectancy of people living in Iceland was 81 years old for men and 84.2 years for women. Again, into their 80s. And what their diet consists of is a big breakfast eaten at home instead of on the go. So, they're not eating a lot of fast food, but they're eating a lot of fresh seafood. And the quality of meat and dairy products that they're eating are high quality. Another culture that thrived eating meat heavy diets were the Native Americans. These Native Americans were observed by the United States at this time, you know, they were being forced out living on reservations. But the the Native Americans that stayed living in their primitive traditional ways, relying off the bison, these were observed in our own United States census. And here's what was found. Now, these Native Americans were observed from 1898 to 1905. And what they found is that they ate a diet that was extremely rich in buffalo meat. nose totail. Obviously, no processed food, no refined grains, added sugar, seed oils. They were literally just living off of bison meat. And in the United States own 1900 census, here's what was found. The Native Americans had a staggeringly high rate of centinarians. The Native American men lived to be 100 224 per million. Whereas Native American women lived to be 100 254 per million. When that was compared to the United States American men, they were only living 3 per million and American women 6 per million. This was in the United States own 1900 US census. Now, we can't say for certain that eating a meattheavy diet caused the Native Americans longevity, but what we can say for certain is that it definitely didn't shorten their lifespan. Now, there's also plenty of other cultures that thrive eating meat heavy diets that have virtually no chronic disease and that have long lifespans and long health spans. The Hodza, the Chimani, Australian Aboriges, the early Native Americans in different parts of the US and Western now tribes like the Ner tribe. These are all cultures that were studied either by Dr. Weston A Price, Dr. George V. Man, who we've talked about before, but all these cultures eat meat heavy diets that don't struggle with chronic disease like we do. It's because we are doing other unhealthy lifestyle factors here in America. If one thing is clear from this conversation, it's that meat is not the problem. It's what meat is eaten with. It's how we live our lives. It's because we've changed our lives in a complete 180 in the past 150 years. We are living sedentary lives. We are high stress. We're exposed to too many toxins. Tens of thousands of new pollutants are added into our environment every single year. The quality of the meat we're eating is different. Animals are raised in terrible, filthy conditions, pumped full of hormones and vaccines, fed GMO feed that's not their natural diet. Close to 70% of our calories from ultrarocessed foods, refined grains, added sugars like high fructose corn syrup, seed oils like canola, corn, sunflower, safflower, soybean, we're doing a lot of unhealthy lifestyle factors. And because meat has been a part of our human history for so long because we are used to eating a lot of meat, we are now eating that meat while doing all these other unhealthy lifestyle factors. And meat is just associated with the poor health outcomes that have been caused from these unhealthy lifestyle factors. If you want to live a long healthy life, continue to eat meat in your diet. Red meat, unprocessed red meat is great. Steaks, burgers, just don't eat it with the bun. Just don't eat it with seed oils. Just don't eat it with the Coca-Cola and the sugar-filled drinks. Don't smoke with it. Don't live a sedentary life. Get high quality sleep. Don't work a highly stressful job. It's all these other things that are going along with the meat consumption. The meat consumption has never been shown to be causal of cancer. It's never been shown to be causal of heart disease. It's never been shown to be causal of poor health outcomes. It's only ever had a very, very, very tiny association. And as you learned today, the association was negligible. So, if you like this content, be sure to hit that like and subscribe button below. We have a lot of incredible content coming your way very soon. Be sure to send this video out with somebody that you know needs to hear it most.
The Geography Problem Nobody Talks About
One overlooked factor is geography.
Nearly all traditional Blue Zones are located closer to the equator. This matters because longer growing seasons mean consistent access to fresh fruits, vegetables, and tubers year-round.
Contrast that with Northern Europe, Canada, or Arctic regions. Before refrigeration, global shipping, and greenhouses, plant foods were seasonal and unreliable in colder climates. Humans living in these regions survived by following animal herds, preserving meat, rendering fat, and consuming nose-to-tail animal foods.
Plants were part of the diet when available. They were never the sole foundation.
Plants Were Eaten — But Prepared Very Differently
One of the biggest misunderstandings about Blue Zone diets is how plants were consumed.
These cultures were not eating fortified bread, boxed cereal, industrial seed oils, or vegetables sprayed with glyphosate. Their plant foods were traditionally prepared to reduce natural defense compounds and improve nutrient absorption.
Examples include:
Sourdough fermentation instead of commercial yeast bread
Soaked, sprouted, or fermented beans
Fermented vegetables like sauerkraut and kimchi
Long-cooked tubers and roots
Many plant foods contain lectins, phytates, and enzyme inhibitors. Traditional cultures understood — long before modern science — that these compounds needed to be neutralized before consumption.
Unlike ruminant animals with multiple stomachs, humans must process many plant foods externally. Blue Zone cultures did exactly that.
Blue Zone diets are often labeled “plant-based,” but this framing ignores context. These cultures consumed animal foods, dairy, and properly prepared plants within traditional lifestyles that looked nothing like modern diets.
Sardinia: A Case Study in Animal Foods
Sardinia is often cited as a “mostly plant-based” culture, yet dietary analyses tell a different story.
Roasted lamb intestines
Horse meat
Pigeon
Sea urchin roe
Organ meats
These were not survival foods — they were prized delicacies.
Sardinians also relied heavily on sheep and goat dairy for calories and nutrients. When dairy is traditionally produced — non-homogenized, minimally processed, and often raw — it can be an extraordinarily nutrient-dense food.
This is a far cry from the industrial dairy products many people associate with poor health today.
Okinawa: Not Vegetarian, Not Vegan
Okinawa is often portrayed as the poster child for plant-based longevity. Yet research on elderly Okinawans paints a more balanced picture.
Even more telling: researchers reported that no vegetarians or vegans were found among centenarians.
Animal foods supplied nutrients that are difficult — or impossible — to obtain in adequate amounts from plants alone:
Vitamin B12
Zinc
Choline
Carnosine
Carnitine
These nutrients support neurological health, fertility, muscle maintenance, and metabolic resilience — all critical for healthy aging.
Loma Linda: The Outlier (and Why It Matters)
Loma Linda is the one Blue Zone where meat consumption is genuinely low, largely due to religious beliefs within the Seventh-day Adventist community.
While this population does show some positive health markers, it also highlights an important limitation of plant-exclusive diets.
From an evolutionary standpoint, fertility matters. Longevity without the ability to reproduce is not a sustainable biological strategy. Nutrients like zinc, B12, and bioavailable protein — most abundant in animal foods — play essential roles in reproductive health.
Longevity in Blue Zone populations cannot be explained by food alone. Daily movement, low toxin exposure, strong social ties, and traditional food preparation played a critical role alongside diet.
Other Long-Lived Cultures That Don’t Fit the Narrative
If meat truly shortened lifespan, we would expect meat-eating cultures to die young.
Yet examples around the world suggest otherwise.
Meat was not the problem.
So What Is the Problem?
Modern health decline cannot be blamed on meat alone — or plants alone.
The real issue is context.
Today, meat is often consumed:
With refined grains and seed oils
Alongside sugar-sweetened beverages
In sedentary, high-stress lifestyles
From animals raised on unnatural diets
At the same time, over 60–70% of calories in the modern diet come from ultra-processed foods.
When meat is eaten within this environment, it gets blamed for problems it didn’t cause.
Traditional cultures didn’t eat burgers with buns fried in seed oils. They didn’t live under chronic stress, sleep poorly, or sit all day indoors.
They walked, worked, rested, and ate real food.
Anthropological and historical evidence shows that meat has never been absent from long-lived cultures. When consumed in its whole, unprocessed form and paired with healthy lifestyles, animal foods have not been shown to shorten lifespan.
What the Blue Zones Actually Teach Us
The most important lesson from Blue Zones is not “eat less meat.”
It’s this:
Quality, preparation, and lifestyle matter more than macronutrient ideology.
Blue Zone diets worked because:
Foods were minimally processed
Plants were properly prepared
Animal foods were nutrient-dense
Toxin exposure was low
Movement was built into daily life
Community and purpose were strong
These are the principles worth copying — not oversimplified dietary labels.
The Bottom Line
The Blue Zones were never plant-based in the modern sense of the word.
They were traditional, contextual, and nutrient-focused.
Meat has been part of the human story for hundreds of thousands of years — and when consumed in its proper form, alongside real foods and healthy lifestyles, it has never been shown to shorten lifespan or cause chronic disease.
If you want longevity, focus less on dietary dogma and more on how humans actually lived when health thrived.
