My recent adventure to Costa Rica was billed as a Blue Zone immersion at Anamaya Resort with daily yoga classes and farm-fresh meals. It was that and more.
If you’re unaware of the concept of Blue Zones, I’ll let you in on the secret. Scientists have pinpointed four geographic locations in the world that have exceptionally healthy elder members. This includes the Nicoya peninsula of Costa Rica where our experience was located. The other blue zones are Sardinia, Italy; Icaria, Greece; and Okinawa, Japan. Other areas have been proposed, but not yet officially recognized. Plant-based diets, routine daily activity, and community engagement are the factors that seem to determine the longevity of the residents of these areas.
An aspect of our meals at Anamaya that I hadn’t anticipated was that they were all gluten and dairy free. When I heard that, I wasn’t upset, just curious. No gluten? Were these meals going to be any good? But I was blown away by the creativity, depth of flavors, and colorfulness of the meals served. We had fresh fruit and coffee at 7:00, breakfast at 9:00 with a fruit juice and a full plate of food, lunch at 1:00, snack with a smoothie at 5:00, and a full dinner at 7:00.
I looked forward to a cooking demonstration scheduled for late in the week. We were going to learn how to prepare meals like the ones we were served. Sadly, the recipes were mostly too complicated for me and employed obscure ingredients that will be hard for me to source. I will attempt their signature hot sauce though, and I will hand off the recipes and notes to my much more talented gluten-free cook of a daughter.
Blue Zone inhabitants typically practice stopping eating when they feel about 80% full. I was not aware of that fact until someone pointed it out. Others in our group ordered half portions. The food was just too good for me to cut back, so I failed on this front. And on another…
An aspect of a healthy diet I decided to do on my own was abstaining from alcohol. This is not an aspect of Blue Zone diets. In fact, most residents consume one to two glasses of wine with meals. Although alcohol was not served for free at the resort, it was available for purchase. I was successfully abstinent until our fifth evening. On a boat excursion to a spectacular sunset on a remote beach, we were offered sangria. I decided it was part of the evening’s “experience,” so I partook. The next afternoon, a group of us walked to a butterfly sanctuary which had an adjacent brewery. I had another “experience.” And the day after that, I went on a snorkeling outing and was offered a beer as part of that “experience.” Oh, well…
I wondered if I would feel any physical difference on this diet and if I would feel bad on my return to my usual fare. I felt nothing. Now, I know I ate healthier at Anamaya than I do at home, and maybe if I ate that way for a longer period of time, I would have a different outlook. Maybe I’m just not that in tune with my body. Maybe the lack of control over my portions and the addition of alcohol messed up the whole experiment.
Perhaps the solution is to hire a personal chef to prepare these same types of meals for me every day. Ha! That’s not exactly in my budget. I who plan to limit processed foods. And I’ll just go to Costa Rica again.