Dan Buettner is an international expert on longevity who has spent his life studying regions in the world where people live the longest (Okinawa Sardinia and Costa Rica).

Exercise and diet and vitamins don’t figure. They drink wine party. Live surrounded by family and friends.

The longest lived people eat a plant-based diet. They eat meat but only as a flavouring or for celebrations.

No take-away food or processed food.

They live in environments that nudge them into movement: working in the garden and around the yard. No power tools. Walking.

Walking is the only way to stave off cognitive decline. It works.

Centenarians are congenial. Chronic grumpiness takes about 8 years off your life.

The only proven way to increase longevity is calorie restriction but if you cut calories down by 40% you’d have a lot less energy. Certainly slow down. Could you stick to it?

He says that Danes are the happiest people on the planet and their secret is their work life balance which he attributes to very high marginal tax rate (60%). These tax rates flatten out income differentials and mean people stick to their 37 hour weeks then knock off to spend time with friends and family.

As a result of his research he goes for working less and drinking more.