National Geographic researchers believe they may have discovered a new “blue zone.”
A blue zone is a geographic region where residents show unusually high rates of longevity and survival into old age. The newest blue zone candidate is a small village called Bolotana, located on the Italian island of Sardinia.
In a 2024 snapshot, 10 of the village’s 2,262 residents were at least 100 years old, according to National Geographic — roughly 10 times the Sardinian average and 11 times the U.S. average.
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A team of researchers, including Dan Buettner — founder of Blue Zones, a company focused on longevity, and a National Geographic Fellow — set out to investigate Bolotana’s exceptional lifespan.
The findings were published in Frontiers in Aging.
Buettner highlighted three lifestyle habits that are common among Bolotana’s long-lived residents.
The study did not establish that these habits directly cause longevity, but researchers are examining how the village’s environment and traditions may contribute to its unusually high survival rates.
“The international team of demographers, their population scientists … were able to examine the birth records, death records and baptismal records and see that this is probably the richest, most complete data on centenarians in the world,” Buettner told Fox News Digital.
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“For those of us who want to make it into our 90s and 100s in full health, this place does it better than anyplace else in the world.”
The strongest longevity advantage appeared among Bolotana’s women, who ranked second only to Hong Kong for life expectancy at age 70 and survival from age 70 to 100.
The original Sardinian blue zone was identified in the late 1990s and formally described in research published around 2000. Located in the mountainous region roughly 68 miles from Bolotana, it is known for unusually strong male longevity, according to Buettner.
Although Bolotana remains partly pastoral, it is also an agricultural community. Buettner suggested that this may mean men spend more time at home helping with household responsibilities, potentially reducing the burden on women.
“In the original blue zone in the highlands, the [women] worried about the finances and raising children and the leaky roof,” he said. “They’re all alone. Here, men are participating more, and that could explain why women are doing better, because they’re only bearing half the stress load instead of almost all of it.”
Buettner believes the village’s strong social connections may be one factor behind the women’s longevity, although the study did not establish a cause.
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“We see women gathering in the library, baking bread together, making sweets together and going to church together,” he said. “So, you see a much more socially connected society among the women in Bolotana than in the other blue zones.”
As in many parts of Italy, Bolotana has a strong Catholic tradition. Buettner said church attendance may provide residents with faith, social connection and a sense of belonging.
“It’s a sense of community, but it’s also people proactively understanding that sitting down with a friend and talking about your troubles and your day with somebody who cares about you is a much more powerful drug than a pharmaceutical,” Buettner said.
“The human species has shown this over and over, and Bolotana is a perfect example.”
Diet varies among blue zones, but Bolotana’s traditional fare is largely plant-based, with a focus on beans, vegetables, wheat, olives and olive oil, along with some cheese and meat.
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“About 90% of a centenarian’s diet has been all plant-based,” Buettner said. “Not protein, by the way. These aren’t protein loaders. These are complex carbohydrate loaders.”
A Bolotanese breakfast might consist of a piece of bread or cheese with local olives and a cup of coffee. Lunch, the biggest meal of the day that starts in the early afternoon, is “almost always” a minestrone soup made with locally grown seasonal vegetables and lots of beans.
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“Beans are the cornerstone of the longevity diet here,” Buettner said. “Garbanzo beans, lentil beans, pinto beans, cannellini beans — these are really the all-star of the diet.”
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Traditionally, residents ate meat about five times per month, usually as a celebratory food.
In the highlands, people traditionally cooked with lard, Buettner said, while Bolotana residents use olive oil from ancient trees.
Researchers are studying whether the oil’s unusually high levels of odd-chain fatty acids could be relevant to longevity.
Bolotana residents are not deliberately pursuing longer lives, the longevity researcher noted. The region has little emphasis on gym culture or biohacking.
“These are real humans with an average set of genes,” Buettner said. “These aren’t superhumans with superhuman discipline or better genes.”
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“They’re not chasing longevity,” he added. “It is the product of their environment.”
Because Bolotana’s streets are steep and residents rarely drive within town, they typically walk to shops, cafés, workplaces and friends’ homes, Buettner said.
“It’s this sort of unconscious walking that’s far more important for longevity than going to the gym.”
Buettner said Bolotana is an example of how daily routines and surroundings can encourage movement without requiring residents to schedule formal exercise.
Residents of walkable American communities have a three- to five-year life-expectancy advantage over those in less-walkable areas, he said.
“If we want a healthier America, we have to start thinking about shaping our neighborhoods and our cities so people can unconsciously move and not rely on heaping another obligation on their busy lives to remember to go to the gym,” the expert said.
“Most of the things that lead to Bolotana longevity are also pleasant and make the journey a joy,” he added.