Zac Efron’s Trip to Sardinia…is low protein the key to health?

Social media can be a wealth of information, and for that, it is a great thing. However, too many people on instagram and TikTok twist valuable information into fear-mongering myths, whether they do it on purpose or not. It is important to question everything you read, and take information from your fave social media influencer with a grain of salt. One thing to take into careful consideration and do a little digging for yourself is the buzz about Zac Efron going to Sardinia, Italy and claiming that ‘low protein diets are the key to longevity’. Is that what he really said? Or are people on social media taking this out of context?

If you don’t already know, Zac Efron came out with a new Netflix series called “Down to Earth”, where him and his co-host, Darin, travel the world looking for sustainable and healthy alternatives to our modern problems. 

In episode 4, Zac and Darin travel to Sardinia, Italy, the world’s most successful blue zone. A blue zone is an area of the world where the humans in that population live long, disease-free lives. Sardinia has the most centenarians (people who live into their 100s) per capita than any other population. In the episode, they try to figure out what it is about this population that makes them live so long. They discuss genetics, lifestyle, and diet.

You may have seen on social media that the episode says the key to longevity is a low protein diet. While they do mention low protein diets, this is largely taken out of context. The scientists that Zac and Darin interviewed noticed a pattern in the blue zone’s diets, pointing out these centenarians eat low protein relative to the standard American diet. They mention that people don’t really need as much protein as they think and that this population eats higher carb in the form of pasta and bread.

One thing to note here is that this population grows and harvests their own food. They don’t have big food manufacturers or intense processing of their food. This blue zone population quite literally eats from farm to table. They grow and harvest their grains, potatoes, vegetables, milk their own sheep, and they cook the food together as a community, and enjoy their meals together.

The episode talks about the sense of community, family, and belonging and how this is beneficial to health. Having these things can contribute to the feeling of life purpose. They also live relatively low-stress lifestyles, and as we know, stress is a big contributor to disease. 

The episode also talks about how active their lifestyles are. This does not mean the people in this community hit the gym and do HIIT workouts everyday. Instead, they walk to where they need to go and they don’t let hills and stairs stop them. They lift things up and move them around (i.e carrying baskets of food & herding sheep), and this active lifestyle contributes to their health and stress levels massively.

The episode mostly talks about overall lifestyle and how all these factors together contribute to long, disease-free lives. They do not say that eating low protein is the key to longevity. They simply point out the fact that this population has a very high percentage of people who live into their 100s, and they eat lower protein than the standard american diet (correlation does not equal causation). There are so many other factors (including genetics) that contribute to these people’s amazing lives, and taking ONE thing from the episode and exploiting it is simply cherry-picking information. 

So, what do you do now? Eat the Key3, move your body, get involved in your community, and give yourself a break from life’s stresses. Let’s stop overcomplicating it.