The five cities across the world where residents live the longest, healthiest lives share several common denominators — most importantly, the ease with which residents are able to make health-conscious decisions.
In San Mateo County, the Peninsula Health Care District is sponsoring an assessment by health and longevity company Blue Zones to study just how that principle can be brought here.
What sets Blue Zones apart is the ease by which residents are able to make health-conscious food, transit and employment decisions and avoid chronic conditions, Dan Buettner Jr., Blue Zones chief development officer, said.
“They don’t pursue health, longevity, fellowship, purpose, love. They’re not things people pursue — it’s things that ensure,” Buettner Jr. said.
As a company, Blue Zones gets businesses, governments and people to employ these tactics in their everyday lives and policymaking decisions.
That could look like getting governments to enact policies prohibiting fast food and vape shops near schools, restaurants that have Blue Zone-approved health-conscious sections on their menus, easier access to transit stops or even getting more of the population connected with one another, Buettner Jr. said.
“It takes a lot of work to make the healthy choice the easy choice,” he said.
Partnering with Blue Zones on an initial community assessment was a natural step for the health care district, CEO Ana Pulido said, given the district’s overarching goal is to help residents meet their optimal health. Originally founded in 1947, the district previously operated Peninsula Hospital in the space where Sutter-owned Mills-Peninsula Medical Center now stands.
“Our mission is to help all residents meet optimal health,” Pulido said. “A significant way to do that is through prevention. What professional services, innovative ideas, can we bring to our district that bring an impact across the board?”
The goal of the Blue Zones assessment is to hear from residents and community leaders across the PHCD’s coverage area about the county’s barriers and strengths to longevity and health.
That will begin in early April, with a keynote April 7, and end with a presentation on findings in the summer of 2026. At this point, Blue Zones and the PHCD will decide if there’s sufficient community buy-in and readiness to begin the formal process, Buettner Jr. said.
“It doesn’t work in America unless communities want it to work,” he said. “Communities need to have a certain degree of readiness to work together [to] start making permanent and semipermanent changes to people, places and policies.”
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(1) comment
Folks. Is it just me or does this article sound like a marketing opportunity for Blue Zones? Is this assessment being paid for by the health care district? This project sounds like another social engineering nanny state experiment with undefined expected outcomes. Where’s data showing whether Blue Zones has made a positive impact for any residents or communities? And how realistic is it for governments to prohibit fast food places near (what does “near” mean) schools? Perhaps prohibiting fast food allows Blue Zones to sell their Blue Zone-approved health-conscious sections on menus to restaurants (but kids only have a set amount of time for lunch which means non-fast food places won’t be popular)? How much taxpayer money, if any, is being spent on this assessment? And why couldn’t it be done in-house?
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