Natasha Vaughn-Holdridge April 20, 2024 – The Post-Star
Glens Falls will celebrate Earth Day Saturday April 20 with a special
presentation about the Blue Zones movement, which looks at lifestyle
and environmental changes to promote healthy living.
“Crandall Public Library is honored to host Mr. Buettner in
recognition of Earth Day,” said Kathleen Naftaly, director of the city’s
library. “We wanted this year’s event to focus on sustainability in a
holistic sense, and The Blue Zones Project is dedicated to empowering
communities to embrace sustainable practices for healthier lifestyles
— nothing can embody sustainability better than that.”
Buettner’s presentation will be held at the Charles R. Wood Theater
located at 207 Glen St, Glens Falls, from 6 to 7 p.m. There is no cost to
attend, but registration is required for this event, you can register
through the Crandall Library’s events and program’s calendar.
Other Earth Day events begin in City Park at 11 a.m. and run to 2 p.m.
at Glens Falls City Park.
“Here in America, we’re leaving about ten good years of life on
average, on the table,” Buettner said in an interview with The Post-Star this week. “There are small tweaks to your environment and
lifestyle that can add significant years to your life, and happiness to
your longevity. It’s a very entertaining presentation.”
Buettner has done about 500 of his presentations around the world
about Blue Zones and the research behind longevity.
The term “Blue Zones” was a phrase started by Dan Buettner, a
National Geographic Explorer, journalist, and Tony Buettner’s
brother. He led an exploratory project to investigate the longevity in
people’s lives in Okinawa Japan, and then set out to find other parts of
the word where people were living longer.
The 2023 Netflix documentary series, “Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue
Zones” looks at the five areas of the world which were discovered to
have people live the longest around the world. The series discusses the
nine commonalities those groups of people have, including: eating
wisely, with mostly plants and beans, having a profound sense of
purpose, having strategies to not overeat, moving naturally instead of
doing things like going to a gym or running a marathon, regularly
drinking wine, having traditions of relieving stress.
Buettner said that the “Power 9” commonalities led to hundreds of
strategies that cities can implement to increase healthy living and
longevity.
Tony Buettner says they have been able to take that information and
turn it into a community health model which has now been
incorporated into about 100 communities around the country.
“We provide some high-level strategies that the community and
individuals can implement in their own lives to help them live longer,
better lives,” Tony Buettner said.
Tony Buettner’s presentation Saturday will discuss the five original
Blue Zones, the nine commonalities, community health strategies over
the past 50 years which had not been successful, and then the Blue
Zone approach to health strategies.
