OfMicol Sarfatti
The biologist has been studying the relationship between food and longevity for years and has developed the “fasting mimicking diet”
Live longer, but above all live better. The science of longevity is not just about adding years to life, but quality. Aging well, from a medical and not just an aesthetic point of view, is possible. Precious allies are above all diet, understood as a dietary regime, and physical activity. Valter Longo, biochemist, born in Genoa 56 years ago and today professor of Biogerontology, director of the Institute on Longevity at USC (University of Southern California) and of the longevity and cancer research program at the IFOM Institute of Molecular Oncology in Milan , is a pioneer of the subject. His diets, the focus of numerous publications, have been very successful.
Professor, why did you start dealing with these issues when no one was talking about them yet?
«I still haven’t been able to understand where and when exactly the scientific passion for aging and longevity was born. I started dealing with it in my second year of university, then I decided to go to work with Professor Roy Walford of the University of California, one of the greatest gerontologists, among the first to study the positive effects of caloric restriction in the prevention of related pathologies to aging. A genius who had the misfortune of being born at a time when there was not yet technological development like today’s, which is fundamental in research. To understand how food could control most physiological mechanisms I started studying yeasts, then bacteria, mice and, finally, humans. The more I studied genetics, the more I understood the importance of nutrition and its role in controlling age progression. I was able to extend the life of a yeast by 10 times by combining genetic mutations linked to fasting. I understood that it was something very powerful and fundamental for all organisms.”
You moved to the United States as a teenager, what was the impact, as an Italian, of a country where the relationship with food and nutrition is often unregulated?
«I was impressed, the way of eating was completely different. I discovered the existence of foods and drinks that I had never seen: fried, sweet, fatty, eaten together without any rules. My relatives in Chicago were all overweight or obese. The aunt I lived with died of diabetes and so did her brother and cousin. They were all very young. In the Calabrian part of my family there had never been cases of diabetes. Perhaps this was precisely the driving force behind the study of nutrition and genetics.”
Are we in Italy getting closer to the American model today?
«Unfortunately, yes, also because it is a system that, financially, is convenient for everyone. Food and drink are not sold regardless with an evil plan, but it is clear that everyone wants to maximize profits. For example, I for one eat pasta almost every day, it is an excellent food and in itself is not bad for you. The problem is that we eat, in an immoderate way, more and more pasta, pizza, rice and potatoes. However, the medical system, especially in the USA, does not intervene in time. It limits itself to administering drugs such as Ozempic or insulin, but does not reimburse a visit to a nutritionist, from which correct nutritional education should start. To bring a diabetic back to a good state of health takes at least two years of work with a specialized team and consequent costs. There are pathologies such as Alzheimer’s that are on the increase and could be prevented by intervening early on metabolic health.”
How is your “longevity diet” structured and from what age is it indicated? «From 20 to 70 years old, first, in the developmental age, and then you can follow the so-called Mediterranean diet. The diet I have developed is above all pescatarian. You eat fish 3-4 times a week, paying attention to those that contain a lot of mercury. It is important to eat more vegetables than fruit, because the latter is very sugary. There are people who eat five bananas a day or four apples and justify themselves by saying “it’s fruit anyway”, it’s not good. You need to consume legumes, relatively high quantities of oil and dried fruit. And then it is good practice to practice time restricted eating».
That is, intermittent fasting?
«Not exactly, intermittent fasting is based on the 8:16 scheme, that is, you eat for 8 hours and fast for sixteen. I recommend abstaining from food for only 12 hours in the evening and never skipping breakfast. I believe that eating is never positive or negative in itself and the same goes for fasting. However, authoritative studies have shown that 16 hours of fasting is too many.”
However, alongside the longevity diet there is the “fasting mimicking” diet. What is it about?
«It’s a vegan diet between 800 and 1000 calories, high in fat and low in sugar and protein. It should be done for five days: it simulates fasting and allows the system to cleanse itself safely. It has now been followed by over a million people and no one has had any problems. You are guided with the nutritional kits developed with my foundation.”
How many times a year should it be followed?
«It depends on the individual patient. For a healthy thirty-year-old who follows a balanced diet and does physical activity a couple of times is enough, a diabetic can do it even once a month until stabilization.”
An example of a recipe in the “fasting mimicking” diet.
«I wouldn’t talk about actual recipes, but about nutritional calculations. I could give the example of a chickpea soup, but that’s not what we have in mind. The “fasting mimicking” diet is a medicine made of ingredients calculated to have effects on the body and is clinically tested, it must be followed to the letter. The diet is more effective, especially in the long term, than Ozempic for the obese and diabetics. It really allows you to get healthy again.”
One of the goals of his diets is to reduce inflammation. How does it work?
«Through nutrition, the system repairs itself and can return to an ideal functionality that is compromised with aging». Does the diet really allow you to decrease your biological age and, therefore, rejuvenate? «In the last two and a half years we have carried out scientific studies on the topic and they have demonstrated the reduction in the biological age of patients. To measure it we use Dr. Morgan Levine’s BioAge method, it is based on risk factors and disease markers recognized by all doctors, detectable with simple blood tests such as c-reactive protein, albumin, cholesterol and blood pressure measurement. I find it much more accurate than the DNA-based epigenetic measurement method.”
Do you know what your biological age is?
“No”.
Why?
«I follow my diet scrupulously, I do physical activity and I keep myself monitored. This is enough. An important part of my work is the dialogue with those over centenarians, especially in Italy. Talking to them is essential to understand how you can get to that age. Nobody is a doctor or lawyer, they were farmers or breeders, people who worked hard all their lives. Moving keeps the whole body active, not just the muscles.”
For you, what is longevity, besides the scientific definition?
«A long life, but above all healthy and quality, without diseases. With the joy of being independent and the cognitive and physical skills sufficient to make these extra years positive and not negative.”
April 26, 2024 (changed April 27, 2024 | 4:50 pm)
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
 is a safe strategy»){kind=link}