Author casts 'Blue Zones' vision to business leaders

New York Times best-selling author Dan Buettner this morning introduced his global longevity research to roughly 250 business leaders at Bass Pro Shops’ White River Conference Center.

Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield, CoxHealth and Mercy partnered to bring “The Blue Zones” author to town for the breakfast, as well as afternoon community events at Drury University’s O’Reilly Family Event Center.

Buettner’s message this morning to a wide swath of business and municipal executives might have been surprising to the room full of Midwestern thinkers: “Do not beat the dead horse of individual responsibility,” he told the crowd, calling personal diet, exercise and supplement programs short-term investments for long-term failures.

Lasting health improvements, he said, stem from changes to living and working environments that often begin on the ordinance level.

“We’ve engineered physical activity out of our lives,” Buettner said.

Built on his research for a National Geographic story about the places on earth people live longest, Buettner has identified such common traits as a sense of purpose; natural activities such as growing gardens and frequent walks rather than concentrated exercise; little consumption of red meat; and faith and family traditions.

The so-called blue zones - where life expectancies far surpass averages and residents commonly cross the 100-year mark - are Sardinia, Italy, which boasts the world’s largest concentration of centenarians; Ikaria, Greece, which has the world’s lowest dementia rates; Nicoya peninsula in Costa Rica, which has the world’s lowest middle-age mortality rate; Loma Linda, Calif., where a high concentration of Seventh-day Adventists outlive their North American peers by 10 years; and Okinawa, Japan, where females live 86 years on average, one of the world’s highest life expectancies.

Pointing to the statistic that 40 percent of fifth-grade students in Springfield Public Schools are considered obese, Buettner warned that Americans spend $2.2 trillion treating chronic diseases, and for the first time, the next generation’s life expectancy is five years less than their parent’s rates.

“I don’t need to tell this audience there is a health care issue in our country,” said Buettner, who will present to 100 cities this year promoting his Blue Zones Project administered through Nashville, Tenn.-based Healthways. “There is no profit in broccoli. The profit is in the packaged food. That’s very hard to accept.”

Describing the Blue Zones Project as a silver buckshot rather than a silver bullet, Buettner offered the business crowd “revenue neutral” ideas such as restaurants serving smaller portions on smaller plates, communities adding shared gardens, schools changing policies about eating in hallways and cities spending taxpayer dollars on walking paths rather than expanding roadways.

“The biggest opportunity is the menu,” he said, noting Americans dine out 110 times a year on average and make 250 food decisions a day.

He said restaurateurs have the ability to subconsciously improve those decisions by changing the language describing healthy menu items, emphasizing doggie bag options and not charging for split plates. “Half the time, you don’t want that compost pile in front of you, anyway,” Buettner said.

Afterward, Ollis & Co. President and CEO Richard Ollis said he sent a text message to Springfield City Manager Greg Burris during the breakfast to encourage the city’s participation and to ask what his insurance company could do to help.

“I knew the environment was important, but this shows how important,” said Ollis, who has done his part in changing the environment by adding a wellness division in his company and emphasizing wellness programs.

Buettner said the next step for city officials would be to determine they are serious about enacting changes, sign a pledge that municipal and business leaders are committed to working together, and establish funding. He said in Iowa, for example, a statewide blue zone initiative has come with an estimated $30 million price tag, underwritten by Wellmark Blue Cross/Blue Shield. An individual city might prepare to spend a few million dollars upfront with expected savings to follow, he said. For instance, in Albert Lea, Minn. – the first U.S. city designated as a blue zone – city employees reported a reduction in health care costs by 40 percent in the first year.

In an interview with Springfield Business Journal before his presentation, Buettner said it is unusual that health systems are leading the interest around the Blue Zones Project. He said municipalities usually are first to play a role.

“The systems here are enlightened. It says to me they really care about people’s health,” he said.

Health care officials consider the day’s events – a 3 p.m. community health fair and book signing, followed by a 4 p.m. public address by Buettner – a springboard to making Springfield a healthier community.

“This is a way to kick off a conversation and that conversation includes the community,” said Mercy Hospital Springfield President Dr. Rob Steele.[[In-content Ad]]