The Garden Club of Jacksonville is proud to support the Blue Zones Project, a comprehensive approach to making our community a place where people live better, longer with a higher quality of life. Come see us on June 3 at 9 a.m.-2 p.m. and learn how we’re supporting a healthier Jacksonville! We will a have couple of fun activities for children and some giveaways for all ages.

Because healthier environments naturally nudge people toward healthier choices, the Blue Zones Project focuses on influencing the Life Radius®—the area close to home in which people spend 90 percent of their lives. Blue Zones Project best practices use people, places, and policy as levers to transform those surroundings.

Several Blue Zones Project goals align with the #GardenClubJax mission:

• Move Naturally: The world’s longest-lived people don’t pump iron, run marathons or join gyms. Instead, they live in environments that constantly nudge them into moving without thinking about it. They grow gardens and don’t have mechanical conveniences for house and yard work.
• Plant Slant: Beans, including fava, black, soy and lentils, are the cornerstone of most centenarian diets. Meat—mostly pork—is eaten on average only five times per month. Serving sizes are 3-4 oz., about the size of a deck of cards.
• Right Tribe: The world’s longest lived people chose–or were born into–social circles that supported healthy behaviors, Okinawans created “moais”–groups of five friends that committed to each other for life. Research from the Framingham Studies shows that smoking, obesity, happiness, and even loneliness are contagious. So the social networks of long-lived people have favorably shaped their health behaviors.

We hope to see you at this great event!

Great volunteer opportunity: Sign-up here!