Longo's Longevity Diet

#41

:blush: btw, the film and book are based in an earlier generation, the current very old folks, pre 1980s industrial foods boom and SAD marketing (which happened later than in the US/UK I believe?).

IE, dessert usually only once a week on Sundays for regular folks, low meal frequency, pasta/bread as small saucer sides (miniscule servings compared to the “normal” American version at Mararoni Grill and Spaghetti Factory etc).

I found the interview with an Italian chef talking about his childhood customs within his intergenerational family compared to today’s customs really relevant - and tasty. The afternoon nap and eating only twice a day is another thing.

#42

I was struck by the activity levels and type of activity. Curiously very similar to my father, who has always been active, but working-active, with bursts of astonishingly heavy lifting/hauling/gardening. Interestingly, his health at 86 yrs is markedly better than any of his contemporaries. Very similar to exercise patterns I’ve seen described in Cereal Killers, The Pioppi Diet book, and Mark’s Daily Apple, to name a few.

The low carbing is only part of the discussion.

#43

This definitely lines up with what I saw in my mother’s small town (not too far from Pioppi). It’s not how they eat now, unfortunately. But I’m in my 40s and even when I was young, my cousins were excited about my visits because those were some of the rare occasions that aunts and grandmothers let them have sweets.

#44

AWwww…! Yeah, the days when sweets were special, and honest physical labor/walking a lot/riding bicycles to go shopping was common.

#45

Yes! “Exercise” was a completely foreign concept, but car trips were rare - for going somewhere special - and otherwise, it was lots and lots of walking.

[Note: I don’t mean to romanticize eating in Southern Italy several generations ago. Plenty of folks in the area were working more because brutal physical labor was the norm, and they were eating less because they just couldn’t afford to feed their families…
But I think it’s fair to say that even among the folks who could afford good food, there was a strikingly different approach.]

#46

Well, after all this talk about traditional Italian food, and pining for the aromas - I went and found the English translation of that great italian cookbook mentioned above in the thread, and ordered a good used copy for just three bucks plus shipping. I learned tonight that The Talisman Italian Cookbook was the last major REGIONAL Italian cookery book done - written in the 1930s.

Have always been interested in Italian vs. Italian-American cooking, and the few times I’ve eaten at authentic Italian places in Boston’s north end have been out of this world good.

This winter, I’d like to start making my own slow simmer garlic oil, to pour over almost everything…and to dip my low carb almond flour focaccia in. I’d also like to learn more about fennel + red pepper magic for starters.

However, not planning on making or buying pasta to go with the fab sauces - will be using zoodles, and spaghetti squash!!!

#47

Yeah Keys referred to people in the 50s so I figured this book too.

Look, farmers may have eaten more frugally than other demographics back then, but their diet was eventually more similar to the mediterranean diet or Longo’s longevity diet, although for sure not as frugal. In fact his reference is more towards Calabria, which is further south and much poorer.

If you really wanna find something close to a low carb area, then Tuscany is your place, they eat traditionally plenty of meat there and not as much pasta. They do.like their unsalted bread and the schiacciata. Like I said, that’s unavoidable when it.comes to Italian food. I guess one of the reasons is that we tend to eliminate all water content from food so things are packed with taste, and therefore.will need some carb to eat it with.

On another note, back to Longo, I wonder if anyone has tried doing his FMD.
Prolong, I saw, costs a whopping 225$ so I’d rather do it on my own, but I have questions.

(Barbara) #48

Me too! The closest I got was finding mention of eating one big green salad a day with tons of olive oil.

(KCKO, KCFO) #49

I would prefer to be healthy no matter what my life span is personally. I would HATE being bedridden, blind and having to shot up insulin all day at any age.

I’ve done some research on my genes and I personal should be eating lots of eggs, meats, fish, and veggies & eggs to get my body to function properly. I will be cutting back some on the saturated fats, not eliminating them but cutting them back, but consuming even more fish oil sources. Oh and did I mention, I need lots of eggs??

I think Longo has some good ideas in terms of fasting if you have to have cancer drugs, that sort of thing. But as an ex-vegetarian I know my body doesn’t function at its best when I eat that way. Grains are like poison to my system and that is what I ate primarily when I was vegetarian.

(D Z) #50

I had to stop reading about half way through because I got so tired of getting up to retrieve the book from the other side of the room . Lots of great books out there. This book may win an John P. A. Ioannidis award of some sort .

(Doug) #51

:smile:

#52

Longo says saturated fat is unhealthy. What are his reasons? He says intermittent fasting can cause gall stones. Has anyone else seen evidence of this? He says water fasting requires close supervision and generally recommends against it, but why? Countless others have learned to do it on their own, and recommend it as one of the most healthy activities known to man. He says fasting and alternative methods cannot cure cancer, and that chemotherapy is required. He recommends against daily multivitamins, but says one every 3 days is fine. Dr Berg’s YouTube video “What is a fasting mimicking diet (FMD)?” is very critical of Longo, yet Dr Mercola and Dr Rhonda Patrick fawn over him. His diet lasts only 5 days per month, he says that it is ketogenic, but Berg’s video questions that. comments please.

#53

@jeffm325 My personal take on Longo is that his recommendations are useless (though I’m interested in hearing his reasoning, which seems to be mostly around Blue Zone populations and their eating) but his research is fascinating. I learned a lot from his last interview with Dr Patrick. For instance that our organs actually shrink during fasting - which sounds scary until you find out that after fasting, they go back to their previous size, and seemingly with newer healthier cells; that there seems to be some interesting effects on stem cells from fasting; that fasting during chemo significantly reduces side effects and improves the efficacy of the treatment. There are a lot of gems in there about autophagy and things that I think are terrific for anyone interested in keto or should should hear.

His bias against water fasting might come from his difficulty getting anyone in oncology to agree to work with him until he came up with the FMD.

Basically if you can separate his research findings from his recommendations, you can probably get some good stuff from him.

(bulkbiker) #54

Product to sell? Prolon…
All his studies are based on mice who don’t get to eat much sat fat…
I’m afraid I put him in the same category as Dr Berg… listen with a very large pinch of salt on the side.

#55

Which youtube health experts do you recommend?

(bulkbiker) #56

Dr Fung and his IDM program was my main source of inspiration when I started out.

Then I would watch some of the videos from the PHC Conferences in the UK

they are currently in the process of publishing the 2018 videos… I think the 2017 are already complete.

I was lucky enough to be at both.

#57

Thank you. Why did you say that about Dr Berg? Admittedly, he sells products, but he also recommends alternatives.

(bulkbiker) #58

I have posted a number of times on the subject of Dr Berg… I’m afraid I just don’t like him. I have watched a few videos and he seems to be inconsistent in what he says but never seemed to explain why his views have changed. I think he’s just plain wrong about needing 8 cups of veg and find his demeanour very off putting. Sometimes you just get a “feeling” about people and I got that feeling about him. Many seem to think he’s great though… not me!

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #59

I have the same feeling as well. Gives me the creeps. Seems to be selling a lot as well. haven’t listened to him enough to judge his technical aka science knowledge.

#60

ok, thanks. About one week ago he published an excellent video entitled ‘Amazing benefits of prolonged fasting’. It’s 11 minutes long, but one can see his list of 8 benefits in the first couple seconds.