Preview Mode Links will not work in preview mode

Love & Guts


Dec 6, 2018

#70 Dr Ivo Pirisi holds a PHD degree in biology and a specialisation in nutrition. In the early stages of his career he worked as a researcher at the University of Cagliari (Sardinia – Italy) where he studied the metabolism of fats. Dr Ivo spent his childhood and youth in a very small village of inner Sardinia, where the community relationships and bonds are still very strong and important. 

Since he was a child he learnt how to cook traditional dishes using local produce that was farmed by his own family or neighbours.

He worked on ancient recipes, learnt the use of traditional dismissed cooking tools, but above all, thanks to his studies he found proof of the benefits of traditional cuisine on people’s health.

His passions and studies merged in a consistent project when he started to share the culinary traditions and local culture with small groups of tourists who really wanted to discover the authentic Sardinia. 

Dr Ivo was happily surprised by the sincere interest of foreign tourists for his homeland so that he began to work with local communities, artisans, farmers, shepherds, and vintners, to create programs that would give tourists an unconventional “taste” of Sardinian lifestyle and discovery of the island. Sardinia food traditions became the key to unveil the island to visitors and as a result www.tastingsardinia.com was born.

Doctor Pirisi has developed programs on Sardinian Longevity and the Blue Zones. Sardinia is in fact one of the places in the world with the highest percentage of centenarians, known as a Blue Zone (there are only five Blue Zones in the world).

In this episode we cover

  • What motivates Ivo to take individuals on longevity tours around Sardinia
  • What a blue zone is and what criteria must a country meet to be classified
  • How much minimising stress, community, movement and food play in longevity
  • Why men live longer than women in Sardinia
  • What the similarities between Sardinia and the other Blue Zone countries are
  • Where we outside of the blue zones fall short when it comes to living long lives
  • Ivo busts some Blue Zone Myths
  • And so much more