Blue Zones initiative kicks off Saturday in Fort Worth

Health activist Dan Buettner has some questions for you. The questions, he says, will help determine how long you can expect to live.

Do you eat three “honest” servings of vegetables a day (french fries and ketchup don’t count)? What about smoking? Have you smoked in the last five years?

Do you have three good friends (people you like who will be there for you in bad times)? Do you belong to a faith-based community (and show up)? Do you move around at least 30 minutes a day?

With the answers to those questions (and a few more), Buettner told a roomful of Cook Children’s Medical Center employees what their life expectancies are, then offered a few quick ways to improve them.

“When it comes to longevity, there is no short-term fix. Gym memberships, exercise programs and diets, they are all dependably successful in the short term and dependably unsuccessful in the long term,” said Buettner, author of the bestseller Blue Zones, which analyzed the places where people consistently live the longest, healthiest lives.

“What we try to do with Blue Zones is set up long-term changes that are going to nudge people into slightly better behavior, slightly better habits.”

Buettner also founded the Blue Zones company, which aims to make the healthy choices the easy choices in communities. The Blue Zones Project officially kicks off in Fort Worth on Saturday at the Will Rogers Memorial Center.

Brought to the city by Texas Health Resources and endorsed by the Fort Worth Chamber and the City Council, the Blue Zones Project will last for five years.

It aims to help individuals make better choices about their well-being, improve their work and daily environments, and advocate for civic policies that positively influence the built environment, such as sidewalks and bike trails.

Privately funded in Fort Worth, the Blue Zones concept is already at work in 20 other cities, including several in Iowa, the Beach Cities in California and Albert Lea, Minn.

Fort Worth is the largest participant so far, but that won’t be a problem, Buettner said. It just needs a larger staff.

“It has its own unique set of values,” he said. “I think people here tend to be conservative. They tend to be more religious, so it is easier to be conscious of that and cluster people around those values rather than bring in some other values.”

The goal is to have 15 to 20 percent of the population, about 140,000 people, on board with Blue Zones at the end of the five years.

In reaching out to residents, the company will continue events such as Friday’s “potluck Moai,” which brings together like-minded people committed to healthy living. (Moai is Japanese and translates roughly as “meeting for a common purpose.”)

Those at the first Moai — at Cook Children’s — were organized into groups of five to eight and are expected to meet for potlucks during the next 10 weeks. About 40 employees attended Friday’s event, which was during their lunch break.

Buettner said about 60 percent of people in Moais in other cities stay involved with the group.

This story was originally published February 20, 2015 at 4:50 PM with the headline "Blue Zones initiative kicks off Saturday in Fort Worth."