How To Live To 100 with Jon Snow | Preview (Channel 4)

Did you know that there are places on earth that are extraordinarily good for you to live? So good in fact, that living there actually extends your life expectancy.

Seventy-five-year-old journalist Jon Snow travels to communities in Greece, Japan and California where residents are living years longer, to find out the secrets to a long, happy and healthy life.

People here suffer lower rates of killer diseases, produce more centenarians, and enjoy many extra years of good health in old age. In the first episode, Jon begins his journey by exploring the remote Greek Island of Ikaria in the Aegean Sea.

Compared to the rest of Europe, Ikaria has a third less heart disease, much less cancer and almost no cases of dementia. Ikarians live 10 years longer than the European average, with one in three living into their 90s.

Jon arrives to find himself in one of the most stress-free places he's ever visited, where wine is liberally consumed, radical left-wing politics rule, watches are not worn, and the elderly party with teenagers into the early hours. Jon's second stop takes him to the USA and a very different community.

America is one of the least healthy countries in the developed world, with a life expectancy of just 76 and even that's falling fast. But just 60 miles east of Los Angeles is a small community of Seventh-day Adventists called Loma Linda, where a radical lifestyle is adding years to their health.

He joins the over-85s in a vigorous exercise programme in the gym at 6.30am, before learning from a pastor that Adventist doctrine preaches that your body really is a temple.

How To Live To 100 begins Sunday 15th January on Channel 4.