(CNN) — The food people consume has long been understood to shape them in some way.

“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are,” French gourmand Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin famously wrote in 1826.

How you choose to nourish yourself plays a large role in health and even longevity , modern-day studies have shown.

National Geographic fellow and best-selling author Dan Buettner knows this as well as anyone, and he has tips you can use — even for holiday feasts. For two decades, he has been studying “blue zones,” places around the globe where people live the longest and healthiest lives. Diet is one of the major reasons why these folks have an edge.

People in blue zones , including Okinawa, Japan, and the island of Sardinia in Italy, eat plant-based diets that priorit

See Full Page