Dan Buettner – Blue Zones
Michel Poulain received a PhD in demography at University of Louvain where he studied international migration statistics and longevity studies.
In 2000 Poulain introduced the concept of Blue Zones with Gianni Pes that related to a population experiencing exceptionally high longevity in Sardinia. With a team of researchers supported by National Geographic, Dan Buettner, Professor Poulain and Dr. Pes identified additional Blue Zones in Okinawa, Costa Rica, Ikaria (Greece) and Loma Linda (California) were identified.
He published an article Secrets in Longevity in National Geographic Magazine’s November 2005 edition. In April 2008, Buettner released a book on The Blue Zone: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who’ve Lived the Longest, through National Geographic Books.
A sixth Blue Zone was identified in 2024 – the island nation of Singapore.
A second edition is due to be published in 2027.
The Blue Zones 1.
The Blue Zones – Second Edition 2.
On 28 September 2024, the ABC [Australian Broadcasting Corporatation] presented a Health Report program Do People Really Live Longer in “Blue Zones”? 3
Dr. Saul Justin Newman (Centre for Longitudinal Studies) presented evidence that claimed,
These results build on a long history of scepticism. Dr Newman has previously disproved a 2016 study published in Nature on extreme-age research that accidentally rounded off a substantial amount of its data to zero. His peer-reviewed paper demonstrated that if corrected, this error eliminated the core findings claiming that human lifespan had a defined limit.
Then, Dr Newman also countered a 2018 paper which made the opposite claim and, in the process, demonstrated a theoretical result predicting that patterns in old-age data are likely to be dominated by errors.
In investigating this theory, Dr Newman demonstrated fundamental and comedic mismatches between longevity claims and observed patterns. In the process, Dr Newman revealed that the well-publicised “Blue Zones” claims for the secrets of longevity are infallibly flawed.
Newman is the only person who has made such claims regarding the “Blue Zones”. This does not prevent many news organisations from reporting the myth of the “Blue Zones”.
A 2025 paper, The validity of Blue Zones demography: a response to critiques by Professor Steven Austad and Dr. Giovanni Pes concludes, 4
However recently, validity of the ages of people living in the Blue Zones has been questioned. Here, we address these concerns by describing in detail the age validation process undertaken in Blue Zones and comparing it to the prevailing standards in gerontological demography. As discovered a century and a half ago, most self-reported claims of exceptional longevity are false.
However, using methods developed by gerontological demographers over the past decades, the true age of people claiming exceptional longevity can be determined by cross-checking multiple independent documentary sources. This procedure minimizes, and usually eliminates, errors due to fraud, honest mistakes, poor memory, or identity switches, especially between homonymous siblings. All Blue Zones described herein have been extensively validated based on thoroughly cross-checked data from multiple independent sources plus state-of-the-art demographic methods.
Consequently, age data from these Blue Zones are valid and reliable.
Below is a link the the “Blue Zones” website with a detailed response by Dan Buettner.
Are Supercentenarian Claims Based on Age Exaggeration?Opens in a new window
www.bluezones.comOpens in a new window
Last updated on Wednesday 21 October 2026 at 00:55 by administrators
Post Type: postFootnotes
- Buettner, D. (2012) The Blue Zones. First Edition. Washington DC: National Geographic
- Buettner, D. (2027) The Blue Zones. Second Edition. Washington DC: National Geographic
- Swan, Norman, and Tegan Taylor, hosts. 2024. Do People Really Live Longer in “Blue Zones”? ABC – Health Report. September 28 2024. https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/healthreport/blue-zones-longevity-debunked/104394182.
- Austad, S. N. & Pes, G. M. (2025) The validity of Blue Zones demography: a response to critiques. The Gerontologist. 65 (12), 1–7.
Discover why researchers, popular commentators and the food industry is more concerned with maintaining corporate profits than ensuring that we have valid health information.Who is going to get wealthy by encouraging people to eat their fruit and vegetables?
Featured Posts
Why Consume a WFPB Diet?Brief Overview of WFPB Diets
Introduction to Wise Nutrition Coaching
Introduction to Sex-hormonal Related Cancers and Endometriosis
Where do You Get Your Protein?
The Problem with Cow's Milk
Breast, Endometrium and Ovarian Cancers
Eating Red Meat is Not Natural
Taiwan, Buddhists and Moderation
Autoimmune Diseases, Biomimicry and Type 1 Diabetes
Glucose Tolerance
7th-day Adventists and Health
Worried about eating eggs?
How Cooking Changed Us
Deception from The BMJ
Endometriosis is Curable
Changes to our Health Indicators
Cause of Type 2 Diabetes
DNA, Genetics and Epigenetics
The Myth of Good and Bad Cholesterol
The Traditional Diet of Inuit
Wheat and the Distorted Views of William Davis
Vegan Starter Kit
