Simple Changes that Can Extend Your Life

Simple Changes that Can Extend Your Life

As we age we all start to think about how long we might live.  We may have watched our parents live a long, healthy life, or, like myself, we may have watched them degenerate over a decade and sadly die in a skilled nursing facility.

Both my Mom and my Dad died of neurological diseases.  My Dad of Parkinson’s and my Mom of Alzheimer’s.  I did get genetically tested for those genes, and thank goodness I only have one of the Alzheimer’s genes, APOE 4, and no Parkinson’s genes.  However, just because I don’t have a high risk for either disease, I’m still very interested in avoiding any of the other age-related diseases like heart disease, arthritis, high blood pressure, Type II diabetes and the list keeps going.

At 73 years old, I’m always interested in reading and learning about how to have “healthy” longevity, not just living a long time.  I have read many books on this topic and find a similar thread running through most of them.

Eat less, live longer!  Of course WHAT you eat makes a huge difference.

Dr. Valter Longo, PhD is the director the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California and of the program of Longevity and Cancer at the Molecular Oncology FIRC Institute in Milan, Italy.  Interestingly, Dr. Longo is from a town in Italy that is the home to some of the longest living people on our planet.

Dr. Longo has spent thirty years searching for the secrets of longevity.  As you can imagine, the piles of data are big and long!  I’ve read his book The Longevity Diet, and if you like graphs and charts of research this is the book for you.  However, it does break the research down into five pillars.  Let me share those with you.

Pillar I

Follow a Pescatarian diet.  This is a diet rich in plants and fish is the primary protein source.  It’s recommended you eat 2-3 servings a week of fish and avoid the high mercury fish such as tuna, swordfish, mackerel and halibut.  However, if you are past the age of sixty-five he encourages you to eat more protein from sources like eggs, goats cheese and yogurt made from goat’s milk. 

Pillar II

Consume lower but sufficient protein.  This is a calculation you can use based on body weight.  Consume 0.31 to 0.36 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day.  If you weigh 130 lbs (which I do), that comes out to 40-47 grams of protein per day.  Again, I’m over sixty-five years of age, and because we lose muscle as we age, I’ve increased my protein intake to 60 grams per day. He also suggests that we consume one meal per day of 30 grams of protein for better muscle synthesis.

Finally, the diet should be relatively high in vegetable proteins such as legumes and nuts.  A side note, among the Blue Zone’s (where there is a higher than normal group of contrarians), they also eat a diet rich in legumes, nuts and seeds as well as protein from goats milk and cheese.  Remember though, these folks are eat raw goats milk!

Pillar III

Minimize bad fats and sugar.  This is our downfall in the Western diet.  We have a diet high in both of these!  We want to maximize good fats and get our sugars from plant based carbohydrates.  

There is so much confusion around the “low-fat vs high fat” folks and the “low-carb vs high carb” groups.  The debate should be about quality of fats and carbs. Your diet should be rich in unsaturated fats such as olive oil, salmon, almonds, and walnuts but low in hydrogenated oils, trans fats, and poorly sourced saturated fats (factory farmed.)  Likewise, the diet should be rich in complex carbohydrates from vegetables, legumes, and whole fruits which are loaded with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber!

Pillar IV

Be nourished.  Your body is like an army in need of ammunition, rations, and equipment to win a war.  Your body is under constant attack from toxins in the air, water, food, clothes, etc.  We have molecules that damage DNA constantly bombarding us.

When your intake of certain nutrients becomes to low, the body’s repair, replacement, and defense systems slow down or are totally non-functioning.  Dr. Longo suggests everyone take a good multi-vitamin mineral complex along with an Omega-3 fish oil daily.  I couldn’t agree more!  I truly believe we are very under-nourished as a whole and many of our chronic diseases could be prevented with paying close attention to the daily nutritional needs of the body.

Pillar V

Eat a variety of foods. Dr. Longo suggests you focus on “traditional” foods especially if you know your ancestors.  Personally I’m a third generation Norwegian.  My great-grandparents on my father’s side came here from Norway.  It’s interesting because I love fish and do not do well eating heavy red meats.  If you know your heritage, try and explore what your great-grandparents ate if they came here from another country.

Even if you don’t know this information, try eating a variety of foods.  We have a tendency to “get in a rut” with our food choices.  It’s easy to not have to think about “what am I going to eat” but challenge yourself to try some new foods!

Additional Longevity Tips

A lot of Dr. Longo’s research included fasting.  His book includes research done on Intermittent Fasting, prolonged fasting, and something he calls the Fasting Mimicking Diet. 

Many of the centenarian groups only eat two meals per day.  Of course, the foods that they are eating are usually grown near where they live and are rich in phytonutrients and vitamins and minerals.  Unfortunately our food supply here in the U.S. is sprayed with pesticides and grown on depleted soils.  If you can grow some of your own food, that is the best!

Most religious groups – Muslims, Christians, Jews, and Buddhists – have practiced some form of fasting.  If you have never done a 24 hour water fast I challenge you to try it!  For beginners try this….eat dinner and the next day have only pure water from the time you get up until dinner time.  Break your fast with a light dinner such as soup or steamed vegetables.  

The Fasting Mimicking Diet is a diet that you do 3-5 times a year.  This consists of a 500 calorie a day diet (nutrient rich foods) for 5 days.  His research showed great benefits to this caloric restriction diet even done as little as 3 times a year.

I think the point in all this fasting information is your body get’s a break from food coming in.  The Nobel Prize on “Autophagy” shows the body can do a tremendous amount of repair when we don’t eat! 

As we head into the new year ahead, and we all get one year older, what would you like to focus on to extend your healthy life-span?  Maybe pick one thing you want to incorporate into your lifestyle this coming year.  Baby steps work!

In health,

Chris Mckee

Certified Nutritionist at Achieve Integrative Health