Valter Longo has been researching longevity in Italy. almost It's been 20 years, but he says that growing up in areas like Morocchio, Calabria, he was basically interested in ways to live longer all his life.
In 1989, Longo began formal research into what it takes to live to be 100 years old. onwards. He is currently the Director of the Longevity and Cancer Laboratory at the IFOM Institute of Molecular Oncology in Milan, Italy.
Longo is also director of the Longevity Institute at the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
Italy is the perfect location for Longo's work because there are some regions, including Sardinia, where people live longer than others. It was one of the first regions to be designated a “Blue Zone” by longevity researcher Dan Buettner.
One of Longo's biggest lessons from researching how to live longer is that “diet is the most important thing.”
Here's what Longo says is the best way to eat for longevity:
“I advocate what's called a longevity diet, which is a variety of foods,” Longo told CNBC Make It. “Okinawa food and Mediterranean food”
Ideally, the longevity diet suggested by Longo would follow these characteristics:
- mostly vegan
- Fruit intake is relatively low, but vegetable intake is high
- legumes
- nuts
- whole grain
- Catch fish 3-4 times a week
He also recommends that people between the ages of 20 and 70 eat “no red or white meat, two or three eggs a week, and only a little cheese at most.” [and] There are very few products of animal origin. ”
There are foods that Longo suggests limiting, which he calls the “problematic five Ps.”
They include:
- potato
- pasta
- pizza
- protein
- pane (bread)
“I think they're a really great ingredient. It just happens to be a problem because people just eat a lot of it and it turns into sugar pretty quickly. Almost as quickly as table sugar. ” he says.
Longo also believes that fasting in a safe manner can lead to longevity. “I recommended a 12-hour fast each day, with eating between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.” [or] 7:00 am [and] 7 p.m.” — and advocates for regular fasting-mimicking meals for five days at a time.
Diets that mimic fasting include eating a diet that is “high in unsaturated fats and low in overall calories, protein, and carbohydrates,” according to the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California.
A recent study published in Nature Communications, in which Longo was lead author, found that adhering to a fasting-mimicking diet in mice was associated with lower biological age and the development of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. It was found to be associated with reduced risk. conditions.
“These fasting periods were probably the key to maintaining function and staying young,” says Longo.
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