This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in IMAGES for February 24, East Bernard Express, East Bernard, Texas.
My wife and I, like many other senior citizens, have tried a number of “diets” from time to time, hoping to improve our health. Yet, there was always a reason for discontinuing the diet plan, as none were ever satisfactory. We kept wanting a diet that was healthy, but also one that pleased our palate. Not possible, I finally concluded!
The other day, I came across a very old magazine article containing some startling facts I had not heard or read before. Apparently. The rest of the world is quite familiar with the research and writings of Dan Buettner, who researched and wrote about the longevity of people living in what he called “Blue Zones” of the world, — namely Japan, Okinawa, Italy, Greece, Sardinia, Costa Rica, Nicoya, Ikaria, and Loma Linda, California.
Buettner observed that folks who lived in these countries lived longer and were healthier than people anywhere else in the world. A tireless researcher, he spent about twenty years studying the living and eating habits of inhabitants of Blue Zones. Not only did they practice healthy eating, they also practiced healthy living.
To tell the Blue Zones story fully, you would have to write a book, and that’s what Buettner did; it’s titled The Blue Zone Solutions. In fact, he wrote more than one book, including The Blue Zones Kitchen: 100 Recipes to Live to 100, published in 2012 (you can see I am pretty late in discovering him).
I have not read any of his books . . . yet, but I did order his recipe book, and I read Eliza Barclay’s 2015 NPR article, “Eating to Break 100: Longevity Diet Tips from The Blue Zones.”
I liked the fact that folks living in Blue Zones ate fish at least three times a week, red meat only five times a month, many vegetables and fruits, drank coffee and tea, and, most important to me, they ate four kinds of bread! Can’t stand diets that exclude bread! The four breads they ate were homemade sour dough, corn bread, pita, and whole wheat, rye, and barley breads (but absolutely no refined flour breads). Not only do I like all four of the breads they eat, but also sour dough has always been my favorite!
Finally, I find a diet that allows me to eat homemade bread! Without feeling guilty! Homemade sour dough bread is right up there with cherry cheesecake (which I don’t think Blue Zones people eat)!
Quite excited about the inclusion of sour dough bread, I dropped my Blue Zones “diets” research to look for some good sour dough recipes. After reading about twenty or thirty recipes online, I decided that making sour dough bread was beyond my limited experience with bread-making, even with the help of my wife, a superb baker! The stumbling block for me was making, using, and preserving a “starter.”
But then, there are bakeries! Just as I was about to take the easy, but more expensive way, out, I communicated with my friend, one of the best bakers and canners in all of East Bernard, who replied to my question about “starters,” “Oh, I don’t use ‘starter,’ I use buttermilk instead,” and she emailed me an excellent, but simple, recipe! She is my hero!
“We can do this!” I told my wife. “Yes!” she replied. And, as I conclude this column, my wife and I have accumulated the ingredients for the recipe and are on the threshold of making our very first Blue Zones bread!
-o-
Ray Spitzenberger is a retired WCJC teacher, a retired LCMS pastor, and author of three books, It Must Be the Noodles, Open Prairies, and Tanka Schoen