NBC’s Maria Shriver visits the Loma Linda Blue Zone
June 5, 2017: Maria Shriver recently visited Loma Linda, California, one of the world’s five Blue Zones where people live the longest.
In her NBC special, she profiled Adventist centenarians living in the community. Adventists were described as living about 7-10 years longer than the average American.
The segment pointed to a plant-based diet, abstention from alcohol and smoking as well as exercise and being around positive people as factors that led to a long life.
The 24-hour Sabbath celebrated from Friday to Saturday sundown was also highlighted as a healthy Adventist practice.
The visit aired on June 1 as part of an NBC special in the Eating to 100 series. The special was intended to explore recipes and lifestyles from the book “The Blue Zones Solution: Eating and Living Like the World’s Healthiest People.”
Shriver paired up with the book’s author Dan Buettner to attend a plant-based cooking demo and also sat down to lunch with a group of centenarians.
The combined age of those present at the lunch table was just under 800 years old.
Shriver quipped that the table was “set for a lunch party hundreds of years in the making.”
She specifically pointed out that the health benefits of the Adventist lifestyle extended beyond mere length of life. She praised the cognitive health of her centenarian lunch guests.
Shriver stressed that her guests not only lived long but were “some of the sharpest centenarians you will ever meet.”
The report also emphasized that it is never too late to form better eating habits.
“You could be 90 years old and go plant-based and add to your life expectancy,” said Buettner.
Image file licenses under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.