Month: June 2020

Updated June 15th, 2023

Frankly, I’m surprised The Longevity Diet is not more popular and well-known than it currently is. Valter Longo is one of the world leaders in aging and disease prevention, and this book shows his extreme intelligence and intellect. I feel that every patient should read this and discuss with their doctors, and every doctor should read this as well. It may just change your life.

Patients? But Isn’t it a Book on Anti-aging?

It is. So let me back up and be a little clearer.

The Longevity Diet – In One Sentence

Eat close to a 100% plant and fish-based diet with low protein, low sugar, and low calories by eating twice a day plus a snack, in a time restricted window. Eh, it’s a little more complicated than that. Ok I lied, that was two sentences. Sue me.

But Wait…There’s More!

While this book is definitely about a diet than can make you live longer and healthier and maximize your life span, there is a lot more content than that. Longo and his associates have numerous clinical trials out there for all kinds of diseases including cancer and diabetes. This is excellent news!!!

–> Check out the book here <–

Curing Cancer by Fasting?

One of the most fascinating theories Longo has come up with is how to make chemotherapy more effective. Obviously, doctors and scientists know how to kill cells, but they don’t necessarily know how to kill cancer cells and spare healthy cells.

Through is research, Longo has discovered a way to do this. When we fast, our body sends a signal to go into protection mode. Healthy cells listen to the body’s signal and “hunker down”. Cancer cells only want to grow so they ignore the body’s signal to hunker down. Thus, the normal cells protect themselves from the chemotherapy, and the cancer cells get destroyed.

I am not a doctor or a scientist, so there is my disclaimer, however if you have cancer, you can pick up this book, or talk to your oncologist, or do your own research. Currently there are clinical trials going on regarding fasting and cancer prevention, it’s best not to do this alone- talk to your medical team and it is not advised to reject and standard of care or medicine. This research does look promising, however and I will leave some resources at the bottom of this post for you to explore further.

Fasting for Other Diseases like Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease, Alzheimer’s, and Autoimmune Diseases?

Yep, there are protocols and promising results and studies for all these, and more. The power of diet (or lack thereof) is amazing!

–>Click to Buy the Book<–

Longevity Diet: In Summary

Sure, this is a book on how to eat to stay young and maintain health, but it’s so, so, so much more than that. It’s really a book that explores how caloric restriction and eating the right foods at the right time can really prevent, treat, or reverse dramatically, so many of our diseases.

What about the Fasting Mimicking Diet (FMD)?

One of Longo’s mentors basically locked himself in a biosphere starved himself for two years in the name of science. This is great, but Longo surmised there had to be a way where you can get the same benefits of fasting without the actual pain of starvation, and that is the basis behind his fasting mimicking diet, also called FMD. He has also partnered with other organizations, which I will link to in a resource section below so that you can check out more information.

More Relevant Resources

• Valter Longo – The Man himself
• Create Cures – All profits from the sale of his book to go the Valter Longo Foundation and Create Cures– a foundation to promote and sponsor research on how to use science and diet to treat and cure serious diseases in children and adults.
• The Longevity Diet Book (affiliate link)
• ProLon – The Fasting Mimicking Diet in product form. (Dr. Longo does not profit from the sales of ProLon).
• More on Clinical Trials.

How Many Stars?

5 🙂

There is so much to this book that I don’t think my review does it justice. It’s five stars just for the sheer knowledge and how much of an impact this could have on so many people’s lives and society in general. A healthier society is a happier society. People living longer and healthier is a beautiful thing.

Book Details One More Time

Title: The Longevity Diet: Slow Aging, Fight Disease, Optimize Weight
Author: Valter Longo
Publish Date:  December 31, 2019
ISBN: 0525534091  ISBN-13: 978-0525534099

Book | Audio | eBook

Amazon Affiliate Disclosure:
Ryan’s Reading Reviews is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Any Comments?

Have you read The Longevity Diet? What did you think of it? Did I miss anything? Have any questions? Leave a comment below. Thanks!

Updated November 27, 2021

If you can’t tell, I really love reading about dieting, exercise, and general health. I recently picked up this classic Dr. Furhman book of mine and re-read it. Here is my quick review.

Eating to Live

The basic formula of this book is that we should all eat a plant-based diet. In other words, 90% to 100% of our calories should come from fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. This diet- nay, I should say lifestyle will pretty much help anyone lose weight, reverse chronic diseases, and potentially get people off of their medicines, which could have harsh side effects.

I really like how Dr. Fuhrman publishes case studies about his current and former patients who have all kinds of diseases, and how his program really transformed their lives. People have gotten off their meds and lost hundreds of pounds by following his advice- they are like totally new persons!

S.A.D. = The Standard American Diet

This book was first published in 2003. The first part of the book goes on about the sad, angry, and infuriating statistics of our modern Western diet. The facts are just mind boggling. Here are just two:

• “Americans consume a mere 5% of their calories from fruits, vegetables, and legumes” (Furhman, 58).
• “Almost half of all vegetables consumed are potatoes, and half of the potatoes consumed are in the form of fries of chips”(Fuhrman, 58).

Wow.

My Biggest Takeaway

We as society should definitely eat more fruits and vegetables. It’s just common sense. The harder thing is to change your behavior, which is why I will be reviewing and reading more books on habits, psychology, and behavior change. But I have no doubt in my mind that diet is way more powerful than most doctors realize, and people can definitely change their whole lives by adopting a healthy diet. And that the American diet is killing us slowly and costing us billions of dollars.

–> Check Out Eat to Live Here<–

How Many Stars?

4.5 🙂

I liked this book a lot. Because of this book, I’ve made small changes including eating more fruits and vegetables in my diet, lowering my meat consumption (not completely!) and I drink a green juice daily. This book could help millions out there with chronic diseases and people who want to just feel better generally. Dr. Furhman practices in northern New Jersey, so if you’re in that area, you could go see him.

Book Details one more time

Title: Eat to Live: The Amazing Nutrient-Rich Program for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss, Revised Edition
Author: Joel Fuhrman
Publish Date:  January 5, 2011
ISBN: 031612091X  ISBN-13: 978-0316120913

Book | Audio | eBook

Amazon Affiliate Disclosure:
Ryan’s Reading Reviews is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.