The Tiny Island in Greece With the Oldest Life Expectancy in the World

[Music] so when you were a kid what was it like over here used to be open over here and then it used to be a small island here icaria is a remote island in the aegean sea when lefties placas was born here there was no electricity or running water so these are this is the nest we put down you know we go out every other day or every three days placa spent decades in the united states where he raised a family and built a successful career in construction but now 76 and retired he's moved back home to embrace what has become known as the icarian way of life on most days placas joins his best friend sulis who at 86 years young still captains this small fishing boat [Music] wow it's a lot of manual labor getting the nets ready and doing the boat isn't it tiring no no how many years does he think he can keep doing this [Music] [Music] this laid-back lifestyle is not uncommon on ikaria the island is considered to be a blue zone a classification given to only five small regions around the world where life expectancy is the highest one in three echarians live past 90. compare that to a place like the us where it's just one in 20. it's a beautiful fish it's karos [Music] who is going to prepare the fish right now my niece maria the best is she he's the best cook he's the general he's the best one the long lives of people living in blue zones come from multiple factors good weather physical activity a strong sense of community but traveling around ikaria it's clear that one thing features prominently eating really good food how important do you think that kind of fresh food that clean food is to allowing people to live the kind of long life that they enjoy here in the career the ikarian diet starts with lots of vegetables and seafood all sourced locally copious amounts of olive oil is used to cook everything and every meal comes with at least a couple glasses of local wine [Music] how does it feel for you to be eating fish that you have just went out in the sea and caught a little bit earlier it's a nice feeling you eat your own fish the nice building which one's your favorite here this is my favorite this one octopus is nice really good octopus is great yeah yeah everything from the career the wine the fish the oil everything on ikaria is likely to be long it's not guaranteed to be easy what ikarians consume ikarians produce one of the reasons that people are so self-reliant here in korea is because of this because of the conditions of the roads so people tend to stay within their their villages within their communities and there they produce their own food their own wine sodoriz cargas gave up his well-paid job in athens 11 years ago to live a simpler more natural life on ikaria you were a computer programmer how did you leave all that and come here te karere i hadn't verbalized it or thought of it consciously something was wrong with my life there so i had to change it working making really good money in companies with 10 hour shifts and trying to escape only for a weekend to nature to enjoy things it made no sense anymore to me and i said i will come here to try to see how life can be differently so i came i tried it it was just an experiment in the beginning farming and seeing the herbs and what i could do with these things attracted me so much that then it was just i mean in one year or two living my old life was already a dream it was uh i couldn't go back anymore so doris and his wife tara produce essential oils from local herbs that they sell to people around the world looking to get in on ikaria's natural secrets the couple lives in this modest home raise their daughter and live off the garden one of the theories about why people live so long on this island is because they have these home gardens and of course they're eating their own produce on a daily basis but they're also working in the gardens every day which is kind of a form of exercise yeah now to me it just seems like such a natural basic thing to do with the space and with the the weather we have and the rain we have why wouldn't you have a garden you're someone who knows i guess both worlds yeah you were living in the uk what's different about growing your own produce how does it taste cannot compare it's such a fundamental thing of everyday life to eat isn't it i mean to take your produce from the garden and to cook it you just you just cannot compare [Music] delicious so what is on the table tuck in we've got potatoes with onions these are the potatoes in the oven yeah from your garden wow a lot of lemon juice i think three lemons went into this three lemons and keeping the skins on and the skin's done yeah yeah yeah so just some hard boiled eggs one of our neighbors our olives others from your trees the oregano also from our land here hit some beetroots pasta pesto with basil in the garden amazing thank you so much guys this is uh this is incredible everything smells good it tastes even better thank you cheers [Music] [Laughter] people from all over the world have taken an interest in this island hoping to learn the key to unlocking a longer life but even the mayor nicos calambogias isn't sure exactly what it is why are people living such long lives on this island what's the secret trophy entrepreneur most people aren't able to move to a blue zone and reap the mysterious benefits that lead to a longer life but captain suli's secret isn't bound to spending every day at sea off the coast of the greek island what bit of advice would he give people outside of ikaria outside of greece you want to live a long full life [Music] me you

Channel: VICE News

Views: 914,713

Rating: 4.9547987 out of 5

Keywords: VICE News, VICE News Tonight, VICE on HBO, news, vice video, VICE on SHOWTIME, vice news 2020, ikaria, aegean sea, greece, life in greece, blue zone, mediterranean diet, life expectancy, life in ikaria, pescatarian, plant based diet, greek wine, ikaria greece, blue zones, fresh fish, farm to table, ikarian way of life, ikarian

Id: m2t2AWaRo1g

Length: 8min 3sec (483 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 14 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Rhaps0dy]

Oh hey it's my island.

Πρώτα τα γλέντια και τώρα το Vice. Γινόμαστε διάσημοι σιγά σιγά!

[u/Velzevul666]

Όμορφα πράματα... Όνειρο ζωής μια μέρα να τα παρατήσω όλα και να παω με τη γυναίκα μου, όπως ο τυπάς απο την Αθήνα, να ζησω σε ενα νησί με τον μπαξε μου και την ηρεμία μου...

[u/ENDCER]

Someone give this old man a glass of wine !! .

[u/sadwingsofdestiny1]

Ωχ ελπιζω να ειναι εμβολιασμενα τα γεροντια γιατι αλλιως...