According to our world and data, in 1800,
not a single region of the world had a life expectancy longer than 40 years.
By 2021, the global average life expectancy was more than 70 years.
It's still not enough.
We want to live longer, healthier lives.
What can we do about it?
You've probably heard of Blue Zones,
regions of the world where researchers claim to have found disproportionate numbers of people living into their hundreds.
The first such Eden was Sardinia, Italy, then Okinawa,
Japan, and Loma Linda, California, among others.
But in recent years,
despite the prevalence of cookbooks and diets and Netflix docuseries about these places,
explaining how to learn from the lifestyles of people living in these regions,
something hasn't quite added up.
My name's Jerusalem Dempsis.
I'm a staff writer at the Atlantic, and this is Good on Paper,
a policy show that questions what we really know about popular narratives.
Saul Newman is a longevity researcher at the University of Oxford and the University College London who has become convinced
that this research doesn't stand up to scrutiny.
First, when he looks at the regions of the world designated Blue Zones,