Final month, as I explored Costa Rica’s Pacific coast, I took explicit care to go to the Blue Zone of the Nicoya Penninsula.
I would heard the residents there dwell longer, more healthy lives than the worldwide common, and I needed to seek out out what made that little stretch of the Central American coast so particular.
A part of the bottom line is the beautiful climate, the place temperatures not often fall beneath 70°F year-round, sturdy social connections to the area people, and loads of each day motion — although not a lot vigorous train. However there are additionally clear variations within the native food regimen right here in comparison with each elsewhere within the nation and world wide.
Listed below are 3 ways I’ve introduced components of the Costa Rican Blue Zone food regimen again residence.
Eat extra fruit
Fruit is plentiful in Central America, with recent produce together with watermelon, cantaloupe, pineapple, and mango served at almost each meal.
It is also a standard mid-morning or afternoon snack to shortly increase vitality ranges and refresh your self within the jungle warmth.
Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert
Recent smoothies are additionally frequent all through the nation and make it simple to really feel full with no heavy meal weighing you down.
I already attempt to hold a bowl of minimize fruit within the fridge for simple enjoyment, however my travels in Costa Rica jogged my memory to transcend my staples of berries and bananas. Whereas I can not get the identical high quality pineapple, even in sunny southern California, having some often can deliver slightly pura vida again residence.
Prioritize fish and rooster for protein
Throughout almost two weeks of traversing the nation, we needed to deliberately search out crimson meat if we needed it.
In Costa Rica, locals prioritize recent fish and rooster if they’ve a meal with protein — and, usually, protein is not the star of the dish.
Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert
Almost each sit-down restaurant or small open-air cafe (referred to as a soda) we visited provided recent ceviche served with smashed, flippantly fried plantains referred to as patacones. Different mains usually included complete roasted fish or shredded, marinated rooster with rice and beans.
It is sensible why lean meats can be a staple of longevity-focused diets. Quite a few research have linked crimson meat with earlier deaths and a number of other forms of most cancers — particularly colon most cancers.
Enable easy, balanced elements to shine
A typical Costa Rican breakfast features a conventional dish of rice and beans referred to as gallo pinto, recent fruit, and easy proteins like eggs or, often, pork or rooster sausage, or shredded rooster.
For lunch, ceviche with patacones or a grab-and-go rooster and vegetable empanada can be frequent.
Dinners, comparable to roasted fish and fundamental salads with rice, are easy and light-weight however fulfilling.
Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert
The factor all of them have in frequent? A give attention to easy, balanced meals fabricated from lean proteins and recent produce. It is outdated knowledge, however there is a cause this recommendation has stood the check of time.
In Costa Rica, fad diets — from carnivore to intermittent fasting — do not have the identical pull as within the US. The tried-and-true formulation of complete meals is a part of why individuals within the Nicoya area dwell so lengthy, and it grew to become tried-and-true for a cause.
