DAN BUETTNER

Walking is the only way proven to stave off cognitive decline - it works.

You have to know why you get up every morning.

Black beans and soy beans are the cornerstones of longevity diets around the world.

A long healthy life is no accident. It begins with good genes, but it also depends on good habits.

One of the big things I've learned is that there's an advantage to regular low-intensity activity.

Inconvenience yourself: ditch the remote, the garage door opener, the leaf-blower; buy a bike, broom, rake, and snow shovel.

The newness effect of a new thing wears off in nine months to a year, but financial security can last a lifetime.

Deepen your existing spiritual commitment.

Serve yourself, put the food away, then eat.

I know exactly what my values are and what I love to do. That's worth additional years right there. I say no to a lot of stuff that would be easy money but deviates from my meaning of life.

I have always followed exactly what interests me and never really worried about the money. And when you think about it, to be able to travel the world... on an expense account and do exactly what interests you, it just doesn't get much better than that.

Have fun, be active. Ride a bike instead of driving, for example.

Exercise, from a public health perspective, is an unmitigated failure. The world's longest-lived people live in environments that nudge them into more movement. They don't use power tools, they do their own yard work, they grow a garden.

You rarely get satisfaction sitting in an easy chair. If you work in a garden on the other hand, and it yields beautiful tomatoes, that's a good feeling.

The people you surround yourself with influence your behaviors, so choose friends who have healthy habits.

The brutal reality about aging is that it has only an accelerator pedal. We have yet to discover whether a brake exists for people.

People who are making it to 100 live in environments where they are regularly nudged into physical activity.

I think we live in a culture that relentlessly pursues comfort. Ease is related to disease. We shouldn't always be fleeing hardship. Hardship also brings people together. We should welcome it.

We often think about happiness as trying to increase our joy, but it's also about decreasing our worry. So what you get for paying those high taxes is, if you're a parent thinking about putting your child through school, you don't have to worry about it, because all education through college is free.

The longest-lived people eat a plant-based diet. They eat meat but only as a condiment or a celebration. Nothing they eat has a plastic wrapper.

Select your friendships carefully. Gather people around you who will reinforce your lifestyle.

Having a purpose and knowing exactly what your values are will add additional years to your life.

Of course, Minneapolis, we think, 'Oh well, it's cold there, lethally cold.' But the reality is you adapt to weather... Humans are consummately adaptable creatures.

The secret to longevity, as I see it, has less to do with diet, or even exercise, and more to do with the environment in which a person lives: social and physical. What do I mean by this? They live rewardingly inconvenient lives.

Kids in a home with grandparents are healthier.