Five Places That Exemplify The 'Blue Zone' Lifestyle

"Blue Zones" are locations in different countries all over the world where the environment is abundant with life-giving properties that the population has longer and healthier lives. People in these places live more than 100 years of age, making them the world's oldest-living and most peaceful places to live in.

Greece's Icaria island exemplifies the "blue zone" lifestyle. Icarians live everyday with a healthy diet through produce grown in their own backyard, daily exercise and a "life without stress." According to CNN's Bill Weir -- talking to Dan Buettner, a National Geographic journalist -- medical science generally believes only a fourth of one's life is determined by genetics, and the rest is the environment. Icaria is a land that "takes care of its land" and people do not concern themselves with time -- relieving locals of stress.

Many believe that people in Okinawa, Japan have a special diet that helps them live longer than 100 years old. The secret is partly in their menu -- primarily Japanese dishes -- but prepared with natural ingredients and plenty of fish. Research showed that Okinawa's diet of whole grains, vegetables, tofu, seaweed and fish almost three times a day guarantees them longer and prosperous lives.

California has its own less-stress-is-more-life community that is more faith-centric than the other examples. Loma Linda in California is a Seventh Day Adventist community where diets are vegetarian. Local community leaders tell the faithful to avoid stressing over their daily tasks during their Wednesday praise. Diets of fruits, whole grain bread and family time through church gatherings are one way the community improves its lifespan, according to LA Times.

Living by the beachside has proven to improve the lifespan of humans. As water-based creatures, humans living in Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica are void of stress and, according to studies, have a plant-based diet and a special type of water that contains plenty of calcium and magnesium -- essential nutrients for the human body.