EDITORIAL: Living long and better

Explorer/author Dan Beuttner traveled the planet to learn from the world’s longest living people. He calls the five places he visited “Blue Zones” — where people manage to live better and typically 10 or 12 years longer because they share common elements of lifestyle, diet and attitude.

He could just as easily could have come to Hutchinson, because one of the five Blue Zones he visited — Loma Linda, Calif. — has something in common with Hutch: a significant population of Seventh-day Adventists.
Loma Linda, population 18,000 in 2000, has about 9,000 Adventists.

Their faith endorses healthy living. It’s because of their healthful lifestyles, diets and attitudes that, as a group, they lead the nation in longest life expectancy.

Hutchinson’s Adventists makes up a much smaller proportion of this city’s population, but their influence on healthy living doesn’t go unnoticed. The rest of us in Hutchinson stand to learn a great deal from them. And some of us have already learned from their modeling of healthful living habits and by attending cooking classes they teach.

In his book, “Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest,” Mr. Buettner points out reasons why Adventists live so long. In Loma Linda, shrouded in smog 60 miles east of Los Angeles — certain practices are normal or routine. People there:

< Find a sanctuary in time. Mr. Buettner writes, “They take a weekly break from the rigors of daily life, the 24-hour Sabbath provides time to focus on family, God, camaraderie and nature. Adventists claim this relieves their stress, strengthens social networks, and provides consistent exercise.”

< Maintain a health body mass index. Keep active and eat meat sparingly.

< Get regular moderate exercise. It appears that regular, low-intensity exercise such as daily walking does a world of good.

In his book, Mr.