Hanoi (VNA) – Singapore has become the world’s latest “blue zone” which is 🍃defined as a place where people live longer andhealthier lives.

The term “blue zone” wascoined by Dan Buettner.   The five original blue zones are: Ikaria (Greece), Okinawa(Japan), Nicoya (Costa Rica), Sardinia (Italy) and Loma Linda (United States)but Singapore is on Buettner’s new list, dubbed “blue zone 2.0.” While the original blue zones came about by naturalcircumstances, blue zones 2.0 are man-made.    According to Buettner, Singaporehas the highest health-adjusted life expectancy in the world. So whateverSingapore did, it worked at producing the longest, healthiest life on theplanet. He said the old blue zonesare disappearing as mechanization isreplacing physical activity and technology is disconnecting people fromface-to-face interactions.” Buettnerspecifically mentioned factors that promote Singaporean people’s health together with the country's policies. For example, Singaporeans often walk because their mobility mainly relies on public transport and owning a car in thisisland nation is very costly. Singapore also encourages children tolive with or near parents and relatives through a policy offering incentives of housing costs, instead of sending the elderly to nursing homes. So thehealth of the elderly is also better as they receive thorough care.

Additionally, Singapore is at theforefront of popularising healthy foods. The country has created programmes thatencourage food establishments to offer healthier options.

The country has promoted programmes to curbsmoking suchas imposing high tobacco taxes. Moreover, Singaporea♔ns enjoyuniversal health care which means residents have access to quality medicไalcare, including health services such as prevention, treatment, rehabilitationand palliative care. The government has worked to create policies thatsubsidize health-care costs./.