This small town's secret to longevity had nothing to do with diet
From The mindbodygreen Podcast by mindbodygreen
April 8, 2026 · 9 min
About this episode
The episode explores how the small town of Roseto defied health norms and the cultural factors that contributed to its residents' longevity.
In the 1960s, a small Pennsylvania town called Roseto had half the national rate of heart disease — and zero recorded heart attack deaths for men under 55. They smoked, ate pasta and sausages, and drank wine. Scientists were baffled. What they found changed everything we thought we knew about health. Link to the study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1636828/ Chapters 00:00 Meet Roseto: the town that shouldn't have been healthy 01:49 The shocking discovery: heart disease stats that defied logic 02:11 What scientists found when they investigated 02:33 The real answer: it was culture all along 03:35 When the community unraveled, so did the health advantage 04:05 What the Roseto Effect means for us today Watch this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/mindbodygreen Want more mindbodygreen? Read more here: https://www.mindbodygreen.com/ Shop our supplements: https://shop.mindbodygreen.com/ Join 1M+ subscribers on their journey towards strong and healthy: https://www.mindbodygreen.com/newsletters Instagram: @mindbodygreen TikTok: @mindbodygreen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
People in this episode
Host: mindbodygreen
Topics covered
- longevity
- heart disease
- community health
- cultural impact
- scientific discovery
Keywords
- Roseto
- heart disease
- longevity
- cultural health
- 1960s
- scientific study
- community
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: study
Places: Roseto, Pennsylvania
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