HYDERABAD: In today’s health-conscious world, our mornings often start with a focus on our well-being and the food we consume. Recognising this shift toward healthier lifestyles, Novotel Airport has introduced the Blue Zone Menu, available every Saturday at its restaurant. Head Chef Amanna Raju shares insights into the Blue Zone concept and why it has become a focal point of their menu.
What is the concept of Blue Zone?
Most people are looking for healthy and longevity options. There is a lot of emphasis on and news about health and longevity. So, I also try to follow all these things. In fact,
I did some research and found an author named Dan Buettner, who is also a World Champion holder in cycling. He had a very good friend in Okinawa, an island in Japan, and when he visited the rural areas, he found out that people live about 200 years. This made him interested in their lifestyle and what they do. He started to research, did a paper, and started looking for places where people live for 100 years. In Italy, he found Sardinia, an island filled with mountains.
This meant that there was a lot of walking for everyone to do. He found that there was no processed food used. Dan used to have a map and he marked all the villages where people lived more than 100 years. The map was like a blotting paper and the ink used to spread — that is how he named these areas as Blue Zone. After that he found a place in Greece called Icaria, which is a Blue Zone area. In Icaria, the difference is that they used to make wine in a very old fashioned way.
The wine was then stored in earthenware pots and kept under the sun. They used to follow natural methods in this place. In Sardinia too, a little bit of wine was used. Otherwise, most of the places there do not use wine. Since Dan Buettner is from the US, he thought to find out if there is any place in the US which has this sort of longevity. He tried a lot and finally, in California, he found a place called Loma Linda. This area had an Adventist Church that promoted plant-based food.
He found out that they were following all of Okinawa’s principles. And this place had a crucial principle — that you never eat full. The rule is called 8 out of 10, which means you will have 10 small things to eat and after 8, you stop eating. That is the reason they don’t eat dessert as well. In most of these areas, there is no sugar and they use honey or juice as a natural sweetener.
These four places — Okinawa, Sardinia, Icaria and Loma Linda — have mostly rich people, whose diet is sophisticated. Dan wanted to find areas which do not have this sophistication and that is when he found Nicoya in Costa Rica which is a peninsula. The main diet of people there is called ‘three sisters’, which means three things are
given by God: pumpkin, corn, and squash, which is beans. They grow these things in a similar manner. These three things benefit each other. Apart from this, they have fish and a little bit of country chicken is also used.
Have you modified any of the food here?
It is mostly the same. I did a little bit of research in India also and I found out that in Arunachal Pradesh, there are people who live for 90 years and they are tribals. The main reason to have a Blue Zone diet is that the food which goes inside triggers the intestine to have healthy bacteria. The research done by scientists afterwards showed that unlike other places, all the Blue Zones have a lot of bacteria.
Can you explain about the bacteria in our body?
In our gut, there are 30 million good bacteria and without these bacteria, we cannot survive. Once we die, these bacteria are the first to be eliminated.
When does the Blue Zone menu end?
This food spread is there until the end of November. We will be doing a revision of our menu after this and in the new menu, we will have a special thing called Blue Zone. We are trying to educate people who eat here.