Loma Linda looks like any average Inland Empire suburb. Curved residential streets with wide lots are populated with modest homes, many sporting swing sets in the front yard and basketball hoops in driveways. Gas stations and fast food chains anchor busy street corners. There’s no real central downtown, and instead, the city functions around a variety of strip malls and shopping centers. But this sleepy town has a world-famous reputation as a place where residents live significantly longer — about a decade more — than the average American.

In 2008, Loma Linda rocketed to the national stage when it was dubbed a “Blue Zone,” the term coined by author Dan Buettner to describe a place where people not only live longer but also live healthier lives. Nearly 20 years later, the California town of around 25,000 people still stands out rather oddly in its peer group, which includes beautiful international destinations like Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica; and Ikaria, Greece. All of them are set against mountains or sea, with residents who live a more traditional lifestyle. 

FILE: Author Dan Buettner, center, coined the term “Blue Zone” to describe a place where people not only live longer but also live healthier lives.

Gaining such a reputation can fundamentally change a place — there was major media attention, a book and even a documentary that followed — but despite international acclaim, most residents and workers in town agree it’s just another city in California.

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When you drive into town, there are no signs welcoming you to the United States’ only Blue Zone. And you’ll be even harder pressed to find any overt explanation as to how they ended up with this distinction, but there is one very large clue: The main employer in town is Loma Linda University, a private, Seventh-day Adventist college primarily focused on health sciences. It grew from a small medical school established in 1905, when Seventh-day Adventists purchased a failed resort with plans for a new community. 

Today, the sprawling medical system extends through much of the center of town. Even those who may not subscribe to the Christian denomination’s religious beliefs — like observing the Saturday Sabbath or following biblical teachings — are surrounded by their health-conscious tenets, like a vegetarian hospital cafeteria and a dry campus. Since nearly half of the residents in town are Seventh-day Adventists, it deeply shapes business and city policy. 

A view of Hulda Crooks Park in Loma Linda,........

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