Eat 'at least' half a cup of this food daily to help you 'live to 100'

A longevity expert has shared a "superfood" we should all be consuming daily to extend our lives. Drawing inspiration from the diets of those living in Blue Zones, he encouraged people to eat at least half a cup of this food each day. Blue Zones are areas around the world with reduced rates of chronic illness and extended life expectancy. They generally have more centenarians than anywhere else on the planet. Numerous factors contribute to this, but diet is recognised as a significant one , with residents in these regions consuming plenty of plant-based foods and minimal to no processed products. Dan Buettner, the founder of Blue Zones LLC, stated on his website : "It starts with food choices. Most of the Blue Zones residents I've come to know have easy access to locally sourced fruits and vegetables - largely pesticide-free and organically raised. If not growing these food items in their own gardens, they have found places where they can purchase them, and more affordably than processed alternatives. "They have incorporated certain nutritious foods into their daily or weekly meals-foods that often are not even found on the shelves of convenience stores or on the menus of fast-food restaurants across the country. They have inherited time-honoured recipes or developed recipes on their own to make healthful foods taste good-a hugely important part of the Blue Zones diet, because if you don't like what you're eating, you're not going to eat it for very long." He shared his guidance on what is both ideal to consume and best to steer clear of, drawing on research into Blue Zones. "The findings here represent a long-term, statistical, and science-based study," Dan said. "We needed information that was not just anecdotal or based on interviews, visits in the kitchen, or shared meals with individual centenarians. We analysed more than 150 dietary studies conducted in Blue Zones over the past century, and then we distilled those studies to arrive at a global average of what centenarians really ate. "Here we provide some guidelines you can follow to eat a Blue Zones diet like they do and live to 100." Amongst these recommendations was a suggestion to consume at least half a cup of cooked beans every day. He described beans as the "cornerstone" of every Blue Zones diet across the globe. In Nicoya, black beans are widely consumed, while across the Mediterranean, lentils, chickpeas, and white beans are firm favourites, and in Okinawa, Japan, soybeans are a staple ingredient. Dan said: "The long-lived populations in these blue zones eat at least four times as many beans as we do, on average. One five-country study, financed by the World Health Organisation, found that eating 20 grams of beans daily reduced a person's risk of dying in any given year by about eight per cent." He noted that the typical bean comprises 21 per cent protein and 77 per cent complex carbohydrates, which deliver a gradual and consistent energy release, unlike the sudden surge from refined carbohydrates. They're also low in fat and rich in fibre. Dan added: "They're cheap and versatile, come in a variety of textures, and are packed with more nutrients per gram than any other food on Earth." He recommended incorporating at least half a cup of beans into your daily diet. He continued: "And because beans are so hearty and satisfying, they'll likely push less healthy foods out of your diet. Moreover, the high fibre content in beans helps healthy probiotics flourish in the gut." To incorporate more beans into your diet, he recommended: Find ways to cook beans that taste good to you and your family Make sure your kitchen pantry has a variety of beans to prepare - these could be dried or tinned Use pureed beans as a thickener to make soups creamy and protein-rich Make salads heartier by sprinkling cooked beans onto them Keep your pantry stocked with condiments that dress up bean dishes and make them taste delicious When you go out to dinner, consider Mexican restaurants, which almost always serve pinto or black beans For more information, visit the Blue Zones website here .