You may have heard about “Blue Zones”. Blue zones are or were (depending on who you choose to believe) regions of the world where people were thought to have discovered the secret to longevity. Live in one of those few regions around the world who consume certain diets and exhibit certain lifestyle behaviours, and you might hit three figures in years.
This prescription for life made for features on current affairs TV shows, weekend reads in newspapers, and books dedicated to the phenomenon. Nine “evidence based” common factors were said to be behind longevity of people in these zones. This informed a whole diet movement and way of living.
The blue zones were also in areas where record keeping wasn’t exactly accurate, begging the question how reliable were those birth certificates and these peoples’ ages? Some research also found that because some blue zones were in relatively poor areas there was a touch of social security fraud occurring. The centenarian in question may have died and someone else just kept collecting their pension! So, these people were certainly alive in government records being researched, but they were very much deceased. Not quite as spritely and healthy as first assumed.
With some conjecture around the validity of blue zones, it’s fair to say the idea falls into the category of a fad. We’re told of a specific lifestyle or diet that will result in us living a longer and healthier life. It may or may not, but it garners a lot of attention, collects some adherents, though it eventually loses much of its currency because it’s eventually replaced by the next lifestyle choice or diet.
They Come and Go
Shakes, cleansing, intermittent fasting, the atkins diet, the grapefruit diet, calorie counting, high fat/low carb, low fat/high carb, paleo, vegan, carnivore, the south beach diet, dry scooping, vibrating belts, aerobics, mouth taping, peptides, sleep optimisation, red light therapy, cold plunges, saunas, cryotherapy, float tanks, peloton, bowflex, tae bo, thighmaster, echinacea, ginkgo biloba, milk thistle.
Recognise any?
Some of these are no longer with us, some are current, or simply evolved out of others, as an example high protein is currently having a moment. You may have noticed many packaged foods are now boasting of how much protein they contain. We’re not saying any are good or bad, it’s just a non-exhaustive list we recited off the top of our head.
While some are long gone, others will always hang around. Vested interests have a lot invested in them. One of the guys involved in blue zone research has put out ten books on the topic. It’s a money spinner. Especially once there’s recognition attached to the names and terms. It means there’s still a lot of free marketing potential. Which, let’s be honest, is because the majority of people don’t investigate things thoroughly. Frankly, they may not have the capacity to.
To highlight this your author follows some health and wellness researchers and doctors on X (formerly twitter). This means a lot of “science” and “health” posts are also pushed into his feed. Recently, in the space of a day, three different people posted three different claimed causes for dementia, all using references to peer reviewed studies. The first cause was apparently diet, the second cause was apparently genetics, the third cause was apparently poor oral health.
Yours truly has certainly heard of these three areas as having relevance to brain health, but in this case didn’t have time to read through any of the studies, so bookmarked them for future reference. However, even in the future, yours truly needs to remind themselves they aren’t an expert, but having some awareness of these issues might be valuable. As the finite cause of dementia though? Who knows?
The reason these posts were so eye-catching was they all used very definitive language to get attention. This is how a lot of studies on diet, exercise, health choices and supplements are recycled today. Someone (likely using AI) searches for studies on health conditions, picks one, has AI summarise the key points and write an engaging social media post for them. If they’re monetized the dollars roll in.
Longevity of Fads
How can we judge if something’s going to hang around. Or does it even matter? If it’s an exercise fad that’s external to your home it might not be around in five years, but it could be a good temporary social outing. If it’s something you can do individually, are you going to commit to this change for the foreseeable future? Whether that be diet, exercise, putting a red-light hat on your head every night or jumping in an ice-cold bath each morning.
Some of these activities and habits may have significant benefit to people, others not so much. It’s not for us to offer commentary because we don’t know. We’re financial advisers.
We can comment on trends though, whether it’s us, a family member or someone we know, we all have some knowledge or awareness of a piece of fitness equipment that was bought with the best of intentions and now languishes in a spare bedroom, the garage or garden shed. The same goes for diets, supplements and other wellness devices. Started with the best of intentions, but eventually fell out of favour.
Investment Fads
This has some commonalities with investing. There have been plenty of hyped investment fads over the years, usually sold with a great story and said to solve some unavoidable problem. 99% of them usually lose 99% of investors’ money! Even in the legitimate space, investing is accompanied by significant choice. First there’s asset classes, then there’s custodians and platforms, then there’s the managers, then there’s the products themselves which can come and go like fads.
It’s why we have an investment committee. Two people from our licensee, another rotating member, and an independent committee member. Another person keeps track of manager and fund due diligence in the background.
We long ago established an investment philosophy. This acts as a heavy filter of managers and products, but today more fund managers have come around to our way of thinking because more investors have discovered the benefit of accepting financial markets are efficient. The managers are now putting out products they pitch as being in that space.
Talk is cheap. The real questions are around research and support. Do they believe in what they’re selling? If they do, then the product will likely still be around in twenty years. If not, they’ll be shutting the fund in under five and they’ll be sending your money back and your investment decisions start all over again.
A manager’s history can tell investors a lot. If they’re opening and closing products all the time it suggests there’s no philosophy there and they don’t have any real views. They’ll sell you anything you want for a fee. Nothing wrong with that if you’re the happy and willing buyer, it’s a business model, but investors need to remember while those managers have worthy products, they also offer many that amount to the vibrating belts and grapefruit diets of investing.
Nothing more than passing fads.
This represents general information only. Before making any financial or investment decisions, we recommend you consult a financial planner to take into account your personal investment objectives, financial situation and individual needs.
