Nicoya’s Longevity Formula

If two heads are better than one, then how about 20,000 heads?

In his book, The Wisdom of Crowds, author James Surowiecki tells a story about a finance professor who runs an experiment in his class: He filled a jar with 850 beans and then asked his students to guess how many beans the jar held. The class estimate was 871. Only one of the fifty-six people in the class made a better guess. In other words, the collective wisdom of the crowd was greater than all but one lucky individual.

Surowiecki goes on to describe several other examples of how the intellectual good of the many exceeds that of the few: the stock market in determining the value of a company; the democratic process in determining our leaders; and, in the game show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire," the contestant who sought help by polling the audience got the correct answer 91% of the time as opposed to “calling a friend,” which yielded the right answer only 65% of the time.

Today we harness the wisdom of the crowd to determine a secret to longevity. For two weeks, our online collaborators have helped direct a team of scientists as they try to explain why people in Nicoya, Costa Rica are—by at least one measure—the longest-lived, healthiest people on the planet. In each of our 10 videos and 10 Daily Dispatches, we have presented a different possible piece of evidence. Then, we let you vote. The following combines the efforts of our scientific team coupled with the wisdom of thousands of people around the world to offer the eight most compelling explanations for Nicoya’s longevity:

1. The Water—Nicoya’s water has Costa Rica’s highest calcium content
2. Emphasizing Family -- Centenarians tend to live as a couple, with children or grandchildren from whom they get support.
3. Having Faith -- All but one centenarian we interviewed had a strong belief in God. They relinquished the pressures of the day to a higher power.
4. Eating Fruit -- People eat many wildly exotic fruits ultra rich in antioxidants but only once a year while in season. They ate papaya and citrus fruits all year long.
5. Nixtamal – Nicoya’s core diet here, corn soaked in lye with beans, dates back 3,500 years. It's a complete food high in niacin, calcium and amino acids.
6. Passion for Work – Centenarians seem to have enjoyed physical work all of their lives. It was their main form of exercise and they did it almost every day.
7. Having a Plan de Vida – Successful centenarians have a clear life plan. They feel needed and want to contribute to a greater good beyond just themselves.
8. Finding Happiness – Costa Rica scores near the top of international well-being surveys. Happy people have higher levels of endorphins and stronger immune systems.

So now what? What lessons can Nicoyans teach us to help give us more good years of life and put more life into our years?

Obviously, we’re not going to easily find chico zapote or nixtamal to add to our diet, but we can take the time to articulate a life plan. If you're over 21 years old, you can compare yourself to Nicoya’s longevity all stars by taking the Vitality Compass. It will ask you 33 questions to calculate how many good years you should live based on your current lifestyle. Then it will give you up to a dozen suggestions on how to get more good years out of life.

For kids, we’ve created the Blue Zones Challenge. Designed by one of the world’s leading childhood health experts, it identifies the four easiest; most powerful things kids can do to help grow up well. Then it offers a way set goals, track progress and compare results with other kids around the country.

Because there is a connection between financial security and longevity, we’ve teamed with Allianz to create the Financial Challenge. This tool shows kids how to become a millionaire by earning, saving and investing just $1 a day.