Italy has the second-lowest obesity rate in Europe and a region, Sardinia, where men grow as old as women. Cucina povera with legumes, vegetables and olive oil, family across three generations and a life on hills and stairs carry the 83.2 years.
The short answer
Mediterranean food, little excess weight and strong family ties, with Sardinia as a Blue Zone. The lesson: eat simply, legumes, hills and family.
What you can adopt
- Cook cucina povera: minestrone, pasta e fagioli, vegetables with olive oil. Cheap, filling, high in fiber.
- Pasta in Italian portions: 80 grams dry as a first course, not 200 grams as a main.
- Seek hills: Sardinian shepherds walk climbs daily, which trains heart and legs into old age.
- Three generations at one table: whoever is needed in old age lives longer. Grandparents who look after grandchildren have a lower mortality risk.
Life and daily routine
Italy sits in Europe’s top group with 83.2 years and has one of the lowest obesity rates on the continent at 12 percent. The mountains of Sardinia are one of the five Blue Zones: in the villages of the Barbagia an unusual number of men pass one hundred, a pattern found nowhere else. The shepherds there walk eight kilometers over hills every day, eat beans, barley bread, goat cheese and vegetables, drink Cannonau wine in small amounts and live within the family until the end.
Food
Traditional Italian cooking is cucina povera, the food of the poor: legumes, vegetables, grains, olive oil, little meat, fish on the coast. Pasta is a first course, not a mountain. Italians eat slowly, in courses, in company, and rarely between meals. Soft drinks and ready meals are less common than in Northern Europe, sugar comes as one spoon in an espresso, not by the liter.
Movement and community
Italian villages and towns are built on hills, stairs are daily life, the vegetable garden behind the house a duty. The evening passeggiata is movement and social life at once. The family holds together across generations; grandparents look after grandchildren, grandchildren visit grandparents, and nobody eats alone.
What we can adopt
Legumes as the main dish, pasta as a side, olive oil as the fat, slow eating in company. Stairs and hills as training, the garden as movement, and family or friends as a daily net.
For travellers
Eating healthily in Italy is easy: antipasti of vegetables, a small primo, fish as secondo, water and one glass of wine. Cities on foot, villages by stairs, gelato as an event, not a habit.
Try it
Longevity ScoreTwelve questions about sleep, movement, food, stress and habits: your estimated biological age and the three levers with the biggest effect.Vitamin D CalculatorMonth, city, skin type, minutes and how much skin is exposed: how much vitamin D your skin makes and whether it is enough in winter.Frequently asked questions
Why do so many men in Sardinia reach one hundred?
A combination of daily movement on hills as shepherds, a diet of legumes and barley, moderate wine, isolated genetics and a family system in which the old are needed and respected.
Is pasta healthy?
In Italian portions, yes: 80 grams as a first course with vegetables or legumes, cooked al dente, has a moderate blood sugar effect. The problem is the Northern portion size.
What is cucina povera?
The traditional food of ordinary people: beans, lentils, vegetables, bread, olive oil, little meat. Today it is the pattern nutrition scientists describe as ideal.
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