What is a cyan zone?

What is a cyan zone explains how we can combine the two powerful concepts behind blue and green living, caring both for ourselves and the planet.

Most of us know that a greenie is a person who is passionate about preserving the planet for the next generation. The more we see the garbage building up in landfills, the plastic in our oceans and begin to experience the impact on our own well-being, the greater the appeal to join the movement, albeit perhaps in a small way; like recycling our trash.

Add to that the trash that now contaminates the food we eat, even the best of our drinking water and the air we breathe. It is becoming difficult for even the denialist to look the other way and pretend that all is well in the state of Denmark.

The Blue Zones are those five areas of the world where folk are ten times more likely to reach happy and robust old-age. Longevity is the word; one in a thousand achieves a hundred years.

What is a cyan zone? Establishing one at our home has become the passion of our dotage; all the blue and green issues.

There are three primary colours; red, blue and green.

If you mix blue and green light you get a colour called cyan; turquoise might be a better known term.

So cyan is a mixture of blue and green light. It comes in many different shades.

What is cyan?

Is our Leaf blue or green? It's a mixture, of course. It adheres to the requirements of those trying to create a cyan zone; it is powered only by energy from the solar panels on our roof.

It has no engine, just a very powerful motor, and makes no contribution to green-house gases. Turning over a blue leaf became our new year's resolution. Once you have driven an electric car you will never turn back.

What is a cyan zone?

What is a cyan zone is not a question that many people will be asking. Yet it is such an important concept. By combining all the virtues of blue and green living we can preserve not only ourselves, but also the planet.

That means longevity, free from many of the chronic degenerative diseases that plague mankind whilst also sustaining and protecting Mother Earth from the rapacious human beings that inhabit her; that means us.

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Blue zones

It is fascinating that in the five blue zones of the world there are independently many common features. They are gardeners and much of their food is from their own backyard. They all grow and eat broad beans, known to be one of the few natural sources of a phytonutrient that the body can transform into dopamine, a vital neurotransmitter. They are also the richest source of vegetable protein after soya. 

Family is strong, as are relationships with friends and neighbours, and in all the blue zones, religion is prominent. There are no old-age homes.

For a fascinating study of the blue zones of the world, watch this 19 min YouTube video of Dan Buettner. How to live to be 100 is a story for all of us^[1].

Not just 100 is their boast; strong and full of zest right into the nineties.

It really is not impossible, in some small way, to clock into blue zone longevity in your own backyard. Many things may have to change, of course, often drastically. These people make more time for issues they consider important; we will have to alter some of our priorities.

One of those changes was how to acquire 100% wholemeal bread; in all five blue-zone countries they bake and enjoy exclusively sourdough loaves. We soon realised that meant purchasing a mill and finding a source of the grain. Learning about storing wheat was the next challenge.

The pay-back is that the hours spent on these priorities are multiplied many times over in both quality and length of life. Does the thought of reaching ninety years of age, and perhaps even a hundred, with all your marbles and joints intact, full of energy, not appeal?

What is a cyan zone? I hope you are beginning to understand why I am so passionate about the subject. There is something powerfully spiritual about cyan zones; caring for the self and for Mother Earth. For too long the cry of many people has been and still is "we loathe this worthless food."^[2]

Green Zones

Harvesting rainwater

Caring for the planet is an incredibly complex subject. We start wherever we are. That might be with recycling the trash, like "doh re me" is a very good place to begin.

Our particular need when returning to our native South Africa was for a reliable supply of clean water. Storing our harvested rain as they do in the Netherlands was the obvious place for us, and it proved remarkably inexpensive. Far cheaper than tanks, visually not unattractive once the bushes had grown it is extremely cold for less possible contamination.

This is how we store rainwater and ten-years later it still provides for our total needs; only twice in that time have we had to use the utility. How awful it tastes and is.

Water scarcity in the world is becoming a major problem; in the near future it will not be oil and gas that are the great causes of conflict.

All the predictions are that the wars of the future will be over food and water. Yet we allow the rain falling our our roofs to run off to waste without a thought.

Every family living in a free-standing property should be considering a rainwater harvesting model.

What is a cyan zone? Providing a reliable source of clean water at your home protects you from the junk in today's utility supply; it is a fundamental greenhouse-gas issue.

Harvesting sunshine

Either the planet Earth is going to harvest energy from renewable resources like sunshine, or our grandchildren will be witnessing the most horrific climate-change that will end civilisation as we know it.

In countries with a reliable grid building a solar generator need not be an expensive business and the payback time is no more than perhaps five to seven years. In others like South Africa one must have expensive batteries to cope with load-shedding. Fortunately the technology is improving in leaps and bounds; and the price dropping.

We have settled for an admix of north, east and west-facing panels to cope with the extra need in the early morning and late afternoon.

What is a cyan zone? In part it's about reducing greenhouse-gases.

Is it perhaps time for you too to start saving for a solar farm? It's a far better investment than the stock-market with a guaranteed return.

Cyan zones

Obviously there is a synergy as we endeavour to capture many of the virtues of both the blue and green idealists, trying to create our own cyan zone.

It has not only been supremely satisfying but the improvement in our own wellbeing has been nothing short of dramatic. We take absolutely no medication and consultations with the doctor are an annual affair for a check-up; even visits to the dentist. That is pretty unusual in one's eighth decade.

I will admit though that routine care for our stretched and strained bodies has meant regular treatment for our joints and muscles. Gardening is hard work as is clambering on the roof to check and clean solar-panels. 

Gardening for your own organic-food also provides the moderate exercise we all desperately need, and the escape for our souls from the trials and tribulations of modern life; it's our version of forest bathing.

Growing our own food is also helping us wean off plastic.

Keeping worm farms and making your own compost reduces the need for factories that manufacture fertilisers and pesticides for modern agriculture. I wonder if anyone has done any research on how many farmers today succumb to leukemia or lymphomas, and what the prevalence is compared to the rest of humanity.

What is a cyan zone? It's all about wellness for ourselves and the planet.

Law suits against the companies that manufacture many herbicides are hitting the press with massive payouts.

Understanding humus would improve the soil and create facets of the cyan-zones in our gardens.

Harvesting rain from the skies would not only reduce our exposure to microplastics and chemicals like the artificial sweeteners in our drinking-water, but it would help preserve a thirsty planet.

What is a cyan zone? I hope you too are concerned about the planet.

Fava beans

Fava beans are independently grown and enjoyed in all five of the blue zones where wellness and longevity are the buzzwords. They are a rich source of the plant protein and L-dopa that our bodies need.

What is a cyan zone? I hope you too are becoming excited about living a very long and fruitful life free of chronic disease; and taking a lot less medication.

But simultaneously enjoying more fava beans for protein would reduce our need for red meat which requires ten times as much water to produce; cattle also contribute large amounts of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere whereas plants harvest carbon-dioxide.

The longevity diet encompasses all of these principles but uses occasional intermittent fasting too.

Old and starchy broad beans are dreadful but, fresh from the garden of someone passionate about creating a cyan zone, they are the most delicious protein-rich vegetable. Enjoy them for example in this avocado and fava salad.

One word of caution is important. Because fresh favas like those above are so difficult to obtain there is often the recommendation that after shelling they should be skinned. That greatly increases the glycemic index; it would raise the blood-sugar and makes them fattening. Cyan zone people grow their own and enjoy them when they are young and tender. Freezing broad beans so they are available all year round is important to us.

How to plant broad beans is a much favoured page at our site.

Getting sufficient omega-3 in the diet is a controversial subject for those trying to create a cyan zone; the best sources are in the deep blue seas, and that means denuding our oceans.

However there are also sources of anti-inflammatory omega 3 that we can harvest from our gardens.

Laughter is the best medicine

When you are seriously into these blue and green matters life can get a little heavy; just for laughs reminds us of the lighter side.

What is a cyan zone? It's a place of joy as you create a niche where both your family and the planet can thrive. It has become the single most-rewarding feature of our lives.

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Address:

56 Groenekloof Rd,

Hilton, KZN

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Create a Cyan Zone at your home; one which complements blue areas for longevity with green for protecting Mother Earth.