[bsder]

> BTW people who use the Mediterranean diet tend to live long, healthy lives.

They also tend to walk a ton and the portions are vastly smaller.

Is it the "Mediterranean Diet" or "Living in Italy" that causes the difference?

We joked about members of our vacation party who would have first, second and third gelato for the day. However, totaling that all up was still less than a single sitting of gelato in the US. A slice of cake was 3-4 bites and not an eighth of a 9" pan. etc.

[poulsbohemian]

^ This is key... I live in a "blue zones" area and it is apparent to me that you can't cargo cult this stuff, IE: it isn't a matter of just copying one part of it, but all the pieces that work together. And, even if you account for all the lifestyle stuff, genetics can still get you. So much emphasis is put on the food part of longevity, but I'm convinced that stress and lack of community (IE: loneliness) are just as much of a problem in overall health.

[smileysteve]

And if we're talking about centenarians in blue zones, we also have to account for recovering from world war 1, world war 2 which introduce famine and "accidental" deaths