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
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!