The Longevity Diet

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  • Eat mostly plant-based foods, with occasional low-mercury fish or other seafood (2-3 times a week) and lots of nuts and olive oil
  • Generally eat modest amounts of protein, whether it’s plant-based or animal-based
  • Very limited or no dairy; goat’s milk and cheese are okay
  • Minimize saturated fats and sugar
  • Eat foods from your ancestral homelands as long as they are otherwise healthy
  • Eat 2-3 meals a day, ideally two solid meals and one snack, in a 10-12 hour window, and don’t eat 3-4 hours before bedtime
  • Take multivitamins every three days
  • A few times a year, if you are under age 65-70 and otherwise healthy, do a five-day water fast or a “fasting-mimicking diet,” which includes food but mimics the benefits of actual fasting.

Longo’s longevity diet is a plant-centric diet, which means that the large majority of what you eat is plants, fruits, nuts and legumes. It’s not going to kill you to eat occasional meat or dairy, but if you are under age 65, Longo recommends that you keep these very low or absent in your diet. However, if you are over age 65, Longo recommends eating higher portions of animal protein along with good sources of plant protein because our bodies are programmed to lose muscle mass as we age.