You may have heard of the longevity dietand its promise of long life, but what exactly is it and is it different from other diets that promote good health?
The Longevity Diet is a set of dietary recommendations compiled by a biochemist named Valter Longo, director of the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California. He is known for his research on the role of fasting, the effects of nutrients on your genes, and how they can affect aging and disease risk.
While the longevity diet has been targeted at older adults, it’s also recommended for younger people. Long has said he plans to live to be 120 years old following this diet.
So how is the diet?
Foods on this diet are vegetables, including green leafy vegetables, fruits, nuts, beans, olive oil, and low-mercury shellfish.
Therefore, most of the foods in the longevity diet are plant-based. Plant-based diets are generally higher in vitamins and mineralsdietary fiber, antioxidants, and low in saturated fat and salt, leading to health benefits.
Foods that are discouraged are excess meat and dairy, and those high in processed sugar and saturated fat.
For people who don’t want to give up dairy, the Longevity Diet recommends swapping cow’s milk for goat’s or sheep’s milk, which have a slightly different effect. nutrient profile. But there is little evidence that sheep and goat milk provide more health benefits.
Including fermented dairy (such as cheese and yogurt) in your diet, as recommended in the Longevity Diet, is beneficial as it provides greater extensive microbiome (good bacteria) than any milk.
Have you seen this diet before?
Many of you may recognize this as a family dietary pattern. is similar to Mediterranean diet, especially since they both feature olive oil as the oil of choice. The Mediterranean diet is promoted and supported by considerable body of evidence promote health, reduce the risk of disease and promote longevity.
The Longevity Diet is also similar to many evidence-based national dietary guidelines, including Australia.
Two-thirds of the foods recommended in the Australian Dietary Guidelines come from plant-based foods (cereals, grains, legumes, beans, fruits, vegetables). The guidelines also provide plant-based alternatives for protein (such as dried beans, lentils, and tofu) and dairy products (such as soy-based milksyoghurts and cheeses, as long as they are supplemented with calcium).
intermittent fasting
Another aspect of the longevity diet is specific periods of fasting, known as intermittent fasting. The diet advocates eating within a 12-hour period and not eating for three to four hours before bedtime.
Typically, with intermittent fasting, people fast for 16 to 20 hours with a four to eight hour window to eat. Another intermittent fasting option is the 5:2 diet, in which eating is restricted to about 2,000-3,000 kilojoules for two days of the week and the other five days, eat normally.
the evidence indicates that intermittent fasting can lead to improvements in insulin resistance, which leads to better blood glucose control. This can lower your risk of type 2 diabetes and other chronic diseases, such as heart disease and obesity.
keep a healthy weight
The Longevity Diet recommends that overweight people eat just two meals a day: breakfast and either a midday meal or dinner, plus just two low-sugar snacks. This is to try to reduce kilojoule intake to lose weight.
Another important aspect of this recommendation is to reduce snacking, especially foods high in saturated fat, salt or sugar. These are the foods that we normally refer to as discretionary foods/sometimes, or ultra-processed foods. These offer little nutritional value, and in some cases are linked to worse health outcomes.
Eat a rainbow of colors
The Longevity Diet recommends eating nutrient-dense foods, which are also recommended by most national dietary guidelines. This means eating a diet rich in plant foods and a variety of foods within each food group.
Each colored fruit and vegetable contains different nutrients, so eating a variety of colored fruits and vegetables is recommended. The recommendation to select a range of whole grains over refined cereals, breads, pastas and rice also reflects the best nutritional evidence.
Restrict protein intake
This diet recommends restricting protein intake to 0.68-0.80 g per kilogram of body weight per day. This is 47-56g of protein per day for a 70kg person. For reference, each of these foods contains approximately 10 g of protein: two small eggs, 30 g of cheese, 40 g of lean chicken, 250 ml of cow’s milk, 3/4 cup of lentils, 120 g of tofu, 60 g of nuts or 300 ml of soy milk. This is in line with government recommendations.
most australians easily consume this level of protein in your diet. However, it is the elderly population, targeted by the longevity diet, that is least likely to meet their protein needs.
In the longevity diet it is recommended that most of the protein comes from vegetable sources or fish. This may require special planning to ensure a full range of all necessary nutrients if the diet is red meat is missing.
Is there a problem with this diet?
This diet recommends taking multivitamin and mineral supplements every three to four days. longo says this prevents malnutrition and will not cause any nutritional problems.
However, many health agencies, including the World Cancer Research Fundthe British Heart Foundation and the American Heart Association I do not recommend taking supplements to prevent cancer or heart disease.
Supplements should only be taken on the advice of your doctor, after a blood test shows a deficiency in a specific nutrient. This is because some vitamins and minerals can be harmful in high quantities.
If you’re eating a variety of foods from all the food groups, you’re meeting all of your nutrient requirements and shouldn’t need supplements.
The verdict?
This longevity diet is a compilation of many aspects of evidence-based healthy eating patterns. We already promote them as they improve our health and reduce the risk of developing chronic diseases. All of these aspects of healthy eating could lead to increased longevity.
What is not mentioned in the longevity diet is the importance of exercise for good health and long life.
Evangeline Mantzioris is Director of the Nutrition and Food Sciences Program and Registered Dietitian at the University of South Australia. This piece first appeared in The conversation.
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