Ikaria is a mountainous Greek island in the eastern Aegean, home to about 8,300 people, and it is famous as one of the world's five "Blue Zones", places said to produce unusually many people who live into their nineties and beyond. The habits most often credited are easy to list: a diet built on beans, potatoes, wild greens and olive oil; constant gentle movement on steep terrain; afternoon naps; and a close-knit social life full of village festivals.
Those habits are linked to better health in many studies. The headline claim that Ikarians simply live a decade longer than everyone else, however, is harder to prove than it sounds, and in 2024 researchers seriously questioned the data behind Blue Zones. Here is what is known about the island, its way of life, and what you can reasonably take from it.
Where Ikaria is and how it became famous
Ikaria lies about 19 kilometres southwest of Samos, in Greece's North Aegean region. It covers some 255 square kilometres, and a ridge of mountains runs along its length, leaving a greener north coast and a drier, rockier south. Tradition links its name to Icarus, the boy of Greek myth who flew too close to the sun and fell into the sea nearby.
Image credit: National Geographic
The Blue Zone idea began in 2004, when the demographers Michel Poulain and Gianni Pes studied long-lived villages in Sardinia and marked them on a map with a blue pen. The American writer Dan Buettner, working with National Geographic, popularised the term from 2005 and later added Okinawa in Japan, the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica, the Seventh-day Adventist community of Loma Linda in California, and Ikaria. A 2011 Ikaria Study led by Greek researchers looked at diet, activity and health among the island's older residents, and the island has drawn journalists and health tourists ever since.
What people on Ikaria traditionally eat
The traditional Ikarian kitchen is a poor island's kitchen, and that is part of its strength. Meals lean on beans and chickpeas, potatoes, garden vegetables, olive oil, bread, some goat's milk cheese and occasional fish or meat. Sugar and processed food played little part in the diet of today's oldest generation.
The star is horta, the Greek word for greens. Islanders gather and grow dozens of kinds and serve them boiled, warm or cold, with olive oil and lemon, or bake them into pies. The varieties eaten across Greece include dandelion, wild sorrel, chicory, fennel, chard, kale, mallow, lamb's quarters, wild leeks, charlock and even young caper leaves. Horta itself has not been tested as a longevity food, but leafy greens are rich in fibre, folate and other nutrients, and a diet heavy in vegetables and legumes is linked to lower rates of heart disease in large studies of the Mediterranean diet.
Wine, naps and a slower clock
Ikaria has made strong red wine for centuries. According to local history, islanders once stored it in clay jars buried in the ground, hiding it from tax collectors and pirates. Older Ikarians typically drink a glass or two with food and company rather than on their own.
That detail is often quoted as a health tip, but it should not be. The World Health Organization's position is that no level of drinking is risk-free, and alcohol is an established cause of several cancers. If wine plays a role on Ikaria, it is more likely as part of shared, slow meals than as a protective substance. Nobody should start drinking for their health.
The afternoon nap is a stronger lead. A large Greek study published in 2007 followed more than 23,000 adults and found that those who took a regular midday siesta had about 37 percent lower coronary mortality than those who did not. It was an observational study, so it cannot prove that napping itself was the cause, but rest and lower daily stress are plausible parts of the picture. Visitors also notice the island's relaxed sense of time: shops open late, meals run long, and appointments are flexible.
Movement without a gym
Very few older Ikarians would describe themselves as exercising. They simply live on a steep island where almost everything requires effort: walking up to a neighbour's house, tending vegetable gardens and vines, herding goats, kneading bread by hand and carrying shopping up hill paths.
This kind of steady, low-intensity activity spread through the whole day is exactly what public-health researchers now recommend for older adults. It keeps muscles and joints working, helps control weight and blood sugar, and does not depend on willpower or a gym membership, because it is built into ordinary life.
Community, festivals and belonging
Ikaria is known across Greece for its panigyria, all-night village festivals held on saints' days, where several generations eat, drink and dance together. Income from these feasts traditionally helps pay for village needs, and older people are expected to take part rather than watch from the side.
Social connection may matter more than any single food. A 2010 review in PLOS Medicine that pooled 148 studies found that people with stronger social relationships had about a 50 percent greater likelihood of survival over the study periods than those with weaker ties. The UCLA psychologist Matthew Lieberman has made a similar point about the brain, saying that "being socially connected is our brain's lifelong passion."
(The video originally embedded here is no longer available on YouTube.)
How solid is the longevity claim?
Popular articles often say that Ikaria has the highest share of ninety-year-olds in the world, or that islanders live ten years longer than people in mainland Greece, Turkey or the United States. These figures are rarely sourced and are not supported by official European statistics, so they are best treated as storytelling.
In 2024 the demographer Saul Newman of University College London went further, arguing that unusual clusters of very old people often reflect poor birth records, clerical errors and pension fraud rather than lifestyle. He pointed out that in 2010 Japan found that 82 percent of people listed as centenarians had already died, and that in 2012 Greek authorities found about 9,000 dead pensioners, 72 percent of claimed centenarians, still receiving payments. The work won him an Ig Nobel Prize. Other researchers have noted that Okinawa's longevity advantage has faded and that Nicoya's no longer stands out.
None of this means the island's habits are useless. It means the size of the "Ikaria effect" is uncertain, and that the healthy behaviours themselves are better supported than the record-breaking ages.
What you can borrow from Ikaria
- Eat more beans and greens. Make legumes, vegetables and olive oil the base of meals, with meat as a side rather than the centre.
- Move a little, all day. Walk where you can, take the stairs, garden and cook from scratch. Small efforts add up.
- Protect your rest. Regular sleep and short daytime breaks help with stress.
- Invest in people. Shared meals, community events and regular contact with friends and family are among the strongest predictors of healthy ageing.
- Skip the miracle claims. No island, food or drink guarantees a long life. If you are planning big changes to diet or exercise, talk to a doctor first.
Ikaria's real lesson may be the simplest one: a life that is active, unhurried and full of other people is a good life to live, however many birthdays it brings.
Sources: Originally based on an article in The Mind Unleashed; photos courtesy of National Geographic. Wikipedia: Ikaria; Wikipedia: Blue zone; Wikipedia: Horta; Naska et al., Archives of Internal Medicine (2007): siesta and coronary mortality; Holt-Lunstad et al., PLOS Medicine (2010): social relationships and mortality; UCLA Newsroom: Matthew Lieberman; Al Jazeera (2024): Blue Zones and fake data; WHO: Alcohol fact sheet.
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