The Longevity Diet

Eat a variety of foods from your ancestry. To take in all the required nutrients, you need to eat a wide variety of foods, and it’s best to choose from foods that were common on your parents’, grandparents’, and great-grandparents’ table.

Follow a pescetarian diet. Aim for a diet that is close to 100 percent plant- and fish-based, limiting fish consumption to two or three portions a week and avoiding fish with high mercury content (tuna, swordfish, mackerel, halibut). If you are past age sixty-five and start to lose muscle mass, strength, and weight, introduce more fish into the die

Eat mostly vegan, plus a little fish, limiting meals with fish to a maximum of two or three times per week. Choose fish, crustaceans, and mollusks with a high omega-3, omega-6, and vitamin B12 content (salmon, anchovies, sardines, cod, sea bream, trout, clams, shrimp; see appendix B). Pay attention to the quality of the fish, choosing those with lo

THE LONGEVITY DIET

I starved yeast—by removing all the nutrients available to them and giving them only water—they lived twice as long. Sugar is one of the nutrients responsible for yeast aging fast and dying early. It activates two genes, RAS and PKA, that are known to accelerate aging, and it inactivates factors and enzymes that protect against oxidation and other

cheeses (preferably feta or pecorino) and yogurt made from goat’s milk, all of which are commonly consumed in high-longevity areas.

Practice periodic prolonged fasting: People under age sixty-five who are neither frail nor malnourished and are free of major diseases should undergo two periods of five days a year in which they consume a relatively high-calorie fasting-mimicking diet, or FMD. Most

Fasting, which is the focus of much of this book, activates coordinated responses that are in tune with evolution because starvation was encountered by all organisms, starting with bacteria, billions of years before Homo sapiens even existed. For this reason, it is clearly one of the most powerful interventions we can rediscover to promote coordina

As extra insurance, take a multivitamin and mineral pill, plus an omega-3 fish oil soft gel every two or three days. Purchase these products only from reputable companies, where quality control ensures appropriate supplement content and stability.

Glycemic load is a more useful measurement because it reveals information about both the characteristics of a specific carbohydrate and its quantity.