The Longevity Diet

Chapter 4

Dear Rookie

Eating well can make the difference between feeling 100 when you’re 50 or feeling 50 when you’re 100.

I’m about halfway between those two numbers. Most days I feel 40. But some days I feel 80. So I’m paying attention while I read this chapter.

How you feel is one thing. Avoiding chronic disease is another.

So Valter Longo encourages us to make sure we get the right balance of proteins, carbs, fats and micronutrients. This includes a surprising recommendation (to me) about supplements. (You’ll need to read the book to find out.)

• If this means changes in your diet then take them in doable, enjoyable, steps that don’t involve a drastic diet too far away from what your forebears traditionally ate.
• And consider when you eat each day. For most people Valter Longo recommends breakfast and dinner as the main meals, with a light snack between. Preferably eat in a 12-hour window, with the last meal well before bedtime.
• Consider reducing you calories if you need to. But only if it’s sustainable. And don’t overdo it.

Professor Longo supports his recommendations with evidence from each of the five pillars introduced in chapter 3.

Then he summarises the longevity diet with nine instructions. After reading some of them I thought:

‘Sure, I know that. But do I do it?’

And I found some of the other instructions surprising.

Especially about the recommended amount of protein. And when not too fast.

Follow the nine rules

to give your genes their best chance

to give you your best chance

to live a healthier, longer life.

OK, this is a teaser and you need to read the book to get the full impact. So here they are in brief:

1. Eat mostly vegan, plus a little fish.
2. Below the age of 65 keep your protein intake adequate but low.
3. Minimise saturated fats from animals and other sources. Maximise good fats and complex carbs.
4. Follow a diet high in vitamins and minerals.
5. Select ingredients your ancestors ate.
6. Decide whether you should have two or three meals a day.
7. Confine eating to a 12-hour period.
8. Until age 65–70 undergo a five day fasting mimicking diet every one to six months.
9. Follow points 1 to 8 in such a way you reach and maintain a healthy weight and abdominal circumference.

Before diving deeper into the longevity diet and the fasting mimicking diet, in the next chapter Valter Longo looks at the number 2 lifestyle factor that affects longevity.

You guessed it. Exercise.

More about that next week.

Peter Jerrim
LifeX Australia