On the Greek island of Ikaria, people

forget to die.

For the most part, they also forget to get

sick — the island’s many nonagenarians
experience relatively little cancer,
cardiovascular disease or dementia.

This small island in the north Aegean Sea

has been the subject of much study by
researchers across the world. Every
outsider wonders: What is the secret to a
long and healthy life?

In her new cookbook Ikaria: Lessons on

Food, Life, and Longevity from the Greek
Island Where People Forget to Die,
ancestral Ikarian and part-time resident of
the island, Diane Kochilas, offers an
insider’s perspective on why this far-flung
Greek community lives so long and so
well.

An award-winning author of more than 18

books on Greek cuisine, Kochilas offered
Next Avenue her six top longevity secrets
from this remote corner of the world, as
well as a recipe from her book — Spicy
Black-Eyed Peas and Greens with Smoked
Herring — that is unique to the island.

From her home in Greece, Kochilas

emailed us these six secrets to a long life:

1. Eat locally, seasonally and sparingly.

The octagenarians, nonagenarians and
centenarians I spoke with on Ikaria all
described the eating habits of their early
years — years of dire poverty, dearth and
isolation — not so much in terms of what
they ate but of how little they ate,
because there simply wasn’t that much
food.

Meat was rare, for some as rare as two to

three times a year on the big holidays.
For others who may have had animals
(mainly chickens), they could afford to
slaughter a few times a month. Fish was
accessible if one fished; gardens were
carved into terraces along Ikaria’s steep
slopes and watered sparingly.

The 100-year-olds ate what they found in

nature, from snails to mushrooms to wild
greens, as well as what their gardens
provided. There was and is still virtually
no processed food on the island, except in
some restaurants.
2. Live deliberately and don’t rush. The
pace with which people move on Ikaria
(including my own family!) never ceases
to amaze me: slow, deliberate, unhurried,
but with enough time to observe and live
in every moment.

It’s the pace that means when you go to

buy a jar of honey from our friend and
beekeeper, Yiorgos, for example, you sit
down across from his desk first, gab a bit,
joke a bit, flirt a bit, then about 20
minutes into the exchange he gets up
and lumbers over to his honey cans. He’s
84. And when he says there is no need to
rush, you listen.

It’s the pace that enables people to feel

their bodies from the inside, as one does
in meditation exercises, and to know if
something might be ailing. I had an older
aunt who could feel her body in that way
and when I started to meditate, I
understood her in a different light. It
takes tremendous presence and a sense
of the now to be able to achieve that kind
of sensitivity.

The penchant for taking things slowly has

to do with Ikarians’ sense of time, or lack
thereof. Resistance, or rather dismissal of
the clock as ruler of life, is legendary. If
you are not from here it’s hard to explain
that mentality, the mentality of “it’s OK to
be late, or “it’s OK to leave some wiggle
room and maybe not show up at all.” I
understand it instinctively. Sometimes it’s
very frustrating, but I think the deeper
sense of not living by the clock is living by
the creed that “man plans, God laughs.”
3. Enjoy sleep. We sleep so much when
we are on Ikaria. It’s a godsend. I don’t
know if it’s the atmosphere or the clean
air, but I can sleep there totally soundly
for 10 hours, even with daylight pouring
into the room. Ikarians nap. All older
Greeks nap.

Sleeping in the afternoon enables you to

have two lives in one day, especially in
the summer, which is when I experience
Ikaria most: the one that starts in the
morning, around 9 a.m., and goes
through about 7 p.m., and then starts up
again at around 11 p.m. and goes
through, well, whenever. Usually around 3
a.m. for us old folks!

4. Let things go. The Greeks say, “Don’t

hold the bad in.” There is so much truth
and wisdom in that. Ikaria is a place
where people tend to be easygoing,
forgiving and unstressed. It’s also a place
where the local culture allows for a very
liberal interpretation of what it means to
be uninhibited. The panygyria, local
feasts of wine and dancing that are
usually in celebration of a saint’s name
day, are the place to witness how we let
loose and enjoy it. Dancing has a lot to do
with it. So does the strength of the local
wine.

5. Turn to herbs for most of the minor

things that ail you and let your body heal
itself. The folk pharmacopoeia is vast on
the island, and I’ve only touched the tip of
the iceberg in the book.
6. Walk. Plain and simple. Exercise for
priming body and mind alike. Every old
person I know on Ikaria still walks a lot.