The Longevity Diet

What if the answer to living a long and healthy life was as simple as eating the right food and, importantly, the right amount of food? Dr Valter Longo believes it is and that by following his Longevity Diet you can not only turn back your body’s biological clock but also protect yourself against age-related diseases and stay fully functional well into your 90s.

Dr Longo, a professor of biogerontology (the aging process and biological ageing’s causes, effects, and mechanisms), is considered an expert in the field of ageing and age related diseases. He has been called the ‘guru of longevity’ by Time magazine and has published papers which include the discovery of some of the genes that control longevity and the identification of a genetic mutation protecting humans from some of the most common diseases. In addition to his laboratory research he has travelled the world to study and learn from its oldest inhabitants.

The key components of the Longevity Diet

1. Eat a mostly vegan diet with some fish: Ideally you should strive for a 100% plant and fish based diet (avoiding fish with a high mercury content). After age 65 you can add fruit, eggs, cheese and yoghurt, especially if you start losing muscle mass and weight.

2. Consume low but sufficient proteins: Dr Longo’s studies have shown that a low protein diet is associated with low cancer and overall mortality rates in people over 65.

3. Minimise bad fats and sugars and maximise good fats and complex carbs: Eliminate ‘bad’ fats such as saturated, hydrogenated and trans fats and make sure your diet is rich in ‘good’ fats such as those that come from salmon, avocado and nuts. Also, consume lots of vegetable and legumes.

4. Avoid processed food: Eat a variety of wholefoods to nourish your body and provide protein, essential fatty acids, minerals, vitamins and sufficient complex carbohydrates to fight disease.

5. Eat only twice a day plus a snack: If you are overweight committing to two and a half meals a day makes it harder to over-eat, particularly when following a mostly plant based diet.

6. Restrict eating to a twelve-hour period: Studies show that restricting eating to eleven to twelve hours or less per day can aid life-span extension and reduce age related diseases.

7. Limit your calorie intake for five days of the week: Periodic prolonged fast mimicking diets (FMDs) will trick your body into thinking you’re fasting whilst avoiding the negative side effects of an actual fast. FMDs lead to sustained weight loss and help your body to regenerate cells for a stronger defence against age-related diseases including Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular disease and cancer.

8. Follow the above principals until you reach a healthy weight: A healthy weight and waist circumference will help to protect you against diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and heart disease.

So essentially the diet is the reverse of the popular 5:2 diet, with fasting for five days instead of two. However it seems that real key to this diet’s success is that it follows a low protein, high carbohydrate approach, with further research from the University of Sydney and an important study published in the journal Cell Metabolism backing up claims that a low protein, high carbohydrate (and they mean the good complex kind) diet does lead to longevity of life.

The Dietitians Association of Australia urges people not to take a one size fits all approach to dieting and reminds us that different cultures and different body types may react differently to the same diet. However, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone to tell you that a diet of mainly plant food and fish is not good for you. The real problem with this diet lies with its restrictiveness, and how much you are willing to give up (sugar, biscuits, chips, red meat) for a shot at living well into your 90s.

Here’s a recommended meal from The Longevity Diet by Dr Valter Longo PhD (Penguin):

White bean salad with onion, rosemary, and chicory

INGREDIENTS

• 180g Chicory or other leafy green vegetable
• 1 clove garlic
• 50g Cherry tomatoes
• 1 Onion
• 150g Cannellini beans, cooked and drained
• 2tbsp Olive oil
• Rosemary sprig
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Chilli flakes to taste
• 40g Whole wheat bread

METHOD

• Boil the chicory in salted water and drain well.

• Heat 1 tbsp of the olive oil in a frying pan and add the onion, garlic and chilli, sauté on a low-medium heat until the onion and garlic is soft but not coloured, add the cherry tomatoes and chicory (or other leaves) and cook for 5 minutes.

• In a separate bowl, season the cooked cannellini beans with olive oil, salt and pepper and rosemary leaves.

• Combine the chicory and cannellini mixtures and serve warm or cold, as desired.