1. Red wine
You might be surprised to see this one on the list, and Buettner freely admits that saying it is good for your health in any way is controversial. “I’m well aware of the recent studies around alcohol showing that it increases the chance of breast cancer in women, or that it can cause falls, car crashes, and other fatal events,” he says. “But I can tell you that in all five Blue Zones, they drink a little bit every day and it adds to their quality of life,” he says. “If you drink a little bit of red wine with a plant-based meal, it will about quadruple the flavonoid or antioxidant absorption and lower cortisol levels at the end of the day.”
He also says that there are studies that show a link between it and a lower risk of death.
Still, as Buettner points out, there are a lot of caveats to this. We shouldn’t drink more than one drink a day, and some studies have shown that there is no safe amount of alcohol. So, the wine argument is still very complicated and open to debate, but Buettner says that the Blue Zones make a strong case for drinking in moderation.