
The Longevity Diet

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.
Valter Longo • The Longevity Diet
People who live longer would need more energy to perform more maintenance (DNA repair, cellular regeneration, etc.). People who live longer would need to get better at utilizing energy to increase protection against aging and maintaining normal function for longer.
Valter Longo • The Longevity Diet
(Do not skip breakfast, as this has been associated with increased risk for age-related diseases in multiple studies.)
Valter Longo • The Longevity Diet
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
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High protein intake, as I explained, causes the activation of the growth hormone receptor, which in turn increases the levels of insulin and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), whose altered concentrations are associated with diabetes and cancer,
Valter Longo • The Longevity Diet
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
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Eat twice a day plus a snack. Unless your waist circumference and body weight are in the normal or low range, it is best to eat breakfast and one major meal plus a nourishing low-calorie, low-sugar snack daily. If your weight or muscle mass is too low or if it’s dropping against your will, then eat three meals a day plus a snack.
Valter Longo • The Longevity Diet
Observe time-restricted eating. Another common practice adopted by many centenarian groups is time-restricted eating, or confining all meals and snacks to within eleven to twelve hours or less a day. The efficiency of this method has been demonstrated in both animal and human studies.6 Typically you would eat breakfast after 8 a.m. and finish dinne
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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