The Longevity Solution

by Jason Fung

  Prolonged fasting—which is fasting for more than twenty-four hours but not more than once per two weeks unless you’re part of a special patient population and being closely monitored by a physician—might have profound antiaging effects. However, you should not perform prolonged fasting too frequently to preserve lean body mass and mineral status.

  The following are some of the fasting intervals:

  • Twelve to fourteen hours of fasting: You restrict food intake for twelve to fourteen hours and feed for ten to twelve hours per day (usually consuming just two meals during the feeding period). When you eat, your body stores food energy. When you fast, your body burns food energy. Therefore, maintaining an even balance is essential for everyday life. This was the standard eating pattern for Americans up to the 1970s. You follow this schedule by reducing or eliminating late-night feedings.

  • 16:8 intermittent fast: You restrict food intake for sixteen hours and feed for eight hours per day (usually consuming just two meals during the feeding period). Many people find skipping breakfast and eating a larger lunch and dinner to be the easiest way to follow an intermittent fast schedule. This schedule is also called time-restricted eating.

  • Alternate day fasting: On one day, you eat one meal, optimally between noon and 2:00 p.m. This is a 24-hour fasting period, which is a schedule that’s sometimes called one meal a day. The following day, you follow a normal schedule of feeding. You generally do this two to three times per week.

  • Prolonged fast: You fast more than twenty-four hours at a time. It’s best to undertake prolonged fasting with medical supervision.

  For more details on the practical aspects of fasting, see The Complete Guide to Fasting: Heal Your Body Through Intermittent, Alternate-Day, and Extended Fasting, coauthored by Dr. Fung.

  Step 2: mTOR/Protein

  There are several determinants of optimal protein intake. You must decide what amount of protein is appropriate for you and what you need for growth. (See Chapter 9 for specific details.) When you know what amount of protein to consume, you then need to determine what sources you’ll use. Protein is not a stand-alone nutrient; it is found in food, and, except for protein supplements, other nutrients (carbohydrate and/or fat) always accompany it. Anyone who decides to alter his or her protein intake, whether higher or lower, needs to know which foods are high or low in protein.

  Animal foods—meat, fish, dairy, and eggs—have the highest protein content. Manipulating protein intake higher or lower usually means changing the amount of animal foods you eat. Eggs and fish contain the highest amount of protein as a percentage of calories; butter and cream are the only two animal foods that contain little to no protein.

  Red meat, pork, chicken, and fish contain about 6 to 9 grams of protein per ounce, so a small 3-ounce serving contains about 18 to 27 grams of protein. If you’re an average adult man, this is already about one-third of the protein you need in an entire day. A large egg contains about 8 grams of protein, so three eggs at a meal get you to around one-third your required intake.

  The Atkins diet is the prototypical low-carbohydrate weight-loss diet. Although it doesn’t require high protein, that is normally the outcome for people who follow this diet. The Atkins diet recommends eating large amounts of meat, cheese, eggs, and other animal foods. For those who want to restrict protein but still eat a low-carbohydrate diet or to lose weight, there are other ways of eating that are just as effective. The so-called Eco-Atkins diet has been shown in clinical trials to be effective for weight loss and in lowering LDL cholesterol. The Eco-Atkins diet is entirely vegan (no animal foods), and protein comes from gluten, soy, vegetables, and nuts. The Low Carb High Fat (LCHF) diet specifically reduces carbohydrates but keeps protein moderate. Ketogenic diets are also examples of LCHF diets because high protein can prevent ketosis.

  Vegan diets are those that eliminate all animal foods. For someone desiring to lower protein consumption, that’s a good thing, but there could be a danger of not getting enough protein, something also to be avoided during periods of growth. Those who follow the vegan lifestyle but want more protein need to consider their food choices carefully. Beans average about 15 grams of protein per cup, but vegetables have only about 1 or 2 grams per ounce.

  Protein supplements might be useful for those who want to have more protein, such as athletes or the elderly and ill. Besides providing concentrated protein, whey has several health benefits. Other choices for protein supplementation include casein, soy, pea, and rice.

  The following are recommended protein intakes for adults performing resistance versus nonresistance training:

  • Resistance training: Aim for 1.6 to 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day.

  • Nonresistance training: Aim for 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day.

  Use the following guidelines to decide how to get protein and determine whether to use animal or plant sources:

  • Aim to obtain 50 percent of your protein intake from animal sources and 50 percent from plant sources (although you can alter this to a range of up to 25 percent plant sources to 75 percent animal sources or vice versa).

  • Try to use organic sources of protein. For animal protein sources, look for foods sourced as close to nature as possible, such as pasture-raised for butter, eggs, dairy, and meat. Feedlot cattle (fed grain) have a very different fat profile than grass-fed beef.

  • Aim to get half of your animal protein from marine sources (oysters, fish, shellfish, and so on).

  • Use a variety of plant protein sources, such as spinach, onions, garlic, cooked and cooled potatoes (to quadruple the resistant starch), and beans.

  Specific supplements are useful in some cases. Traditional societies in which people ate “nose-to-tail” often obtained adequate amounts of the amino acid glycine from the collagen in tendons, joints, and skin. If your diet does not include these sources, then you might consider adding hydrolyzed collagen at a dose of 20 to 60 grams per day and/or a glycine supplement in the form of powders or capsules at a dose of glycine of 10 to 15 grams per day.

  Step 3: Coffee, Tea, and Wine

  Most of us in North America don’t need to be told twice to enjoy a good cup of Joe. The successes of coffee chains like Starbucks are evidence of coffee’s hold on us. Luckily, we can enjoy our coffee guilt-free because we know that there are many healthful compounds in coffee. Drinking between one and five cups per day seems best, and you can vary the amount according to your preferences.

  We need to offer a few cautions, however. Avoid drinking coffee with sugar or other sweeteners. Adding 1 or 2 teaspoons of sugar to your coffee will quickly add up if you drink five cups per day. A small amount of cream or milk is adequate. Choose an organic coffee. Caffeinated coffee may have certain advantages over decaffeinated coffee for a reduction in waist circumference and visceral fat loss, but it has the unfortunate downside of inducing several side effects, such as increased urination and jitteriness. It might be best to drink coffee with meals to reduce the absorption of iron. Also, the polyphenols in coffee can help reduce the oxidative stress that may come with a meal.

  Tea is also a great beverage choice. Green tea, with its high dose of catechins, might be the longevity secret of much of the Asian subcontinent. Black and oolong teas contain many other flavonoids that may be similarly beneficial. Drink teas plentifully throughout the day. Try Pique Tea crystals (www.piquetea.com); that brand uses a cold brew crystallization process that yields up to three times the amount of catechins in green tea.

  Research of numerous cultures has uncovered that red wine is consistently associated with longevity. The main benefits of drinking daily moderate amounts of red wine likely do not come from the alcohol content but the polyphenols in red wine, such as quercetin and resveratrol. Consuming high resveratrol wines may provide enhanced cardiovascular benefits. Importantly, you should consume red wine only in moderate amounts (two drinks for men, one drink for women) and take it with your largest meal o
f the day. For certain people, alcohol can be addictive; it can be a slippery slope for individuals to consume only one or two drinks (anywhere from 3 to 10 ounces) of red wine per day.

  The following are some recommendations of what you should look for when choosing a wine:

  • Preferably a high-resveratrol wine such as Brazilian, Pinot Noir, or Lambrusco

  • Preferably low in sugar such as Dry Farm Wines

  • Preferably an organic version to avoid pesticide contamination in your wine

  Furthermore, use these guidelines for consuming wine:

  • Consume wine with the largest meal of the day

  • Consume wine daily (6 ounces for men and 3 ounces for women) rather than binge drinking

  Step 4: Salt—Sodium and Magnesium

  Your body naturally requires about 4 grams of sodium (2 teaspoons) of salt per day. Deliberately restricting this essential mineral leads to numerous health consequences, including insulin resistance, kidney and adrenal dysfunction, muscle spasms, dehydration, and magnesium and calcium deficiency. Eat your salt with real food and make sure you choose a high-quality salt such as Redmond Real Salt (www.realsalt.com), which comes from an ancient underground ocean. Salts from underground ancient dried up oceans lack the microplastics and heavy metals that can contaminate nearly all sea salts from modern-day oceans. Additionally, Redmond Real Salt has good amounts of iodine and calcium in it, which can help to replace those two minerals that you lose in sweat during exercise or trips to the sauna.

  When it comes to magnesium, you should be picky about the supplement you choose. Many commercial magnesium supplements are magnesium oxide, which is the cheapest form to produce. However, magnesium oxide is poorly absorbed in the gastrointestinal system compared to magnesium diglycinate (also called glycinate) and magnesium citrate. Magnesium chloride also appears to have good absorption; however, the intake of chloride without sodium can pose some additional problems, especially if it’s not balanced with bicarbonate (because chloride is acidic). Most of the population is not getting enough magnesium to hit optimal intakes. In fact, almost everyone should be supplementing with around 300 milligrams of magnesium each day in some form or another (such as high-magnesium mineral waters or supplements).

  The following are recommendations for salt and magnesium intake:

  • Choose a high-quality salt such as Redmond Real Salt.

  • Take salt before and during exercise, especially when exercising in the heat. See Dr. DiNicolantonio’s book The Salt Fix for a detailed description of how much salt to take before and during exercise.

  • Supplement with around 300 milligrams of magnesium from either high-magnesium mineral waters or high-quality magnesium diglycinate or magnesium citrate supplements.

  Step 5: Eat More Natural, Healthy Fats

  Your healthy fats should come in the form of wild seafood such as sardines, salmon, shrimp, oysters, lobster, mussels, clams, and crab. These sources of protein should make up about half of your animal protein intake to ensure an optimal intake of long-chain omega-3s as well as giving you the additional benefit of providing the antioxidant astaxanthin. If you cannot afford wild seafood, or you simply don’t like the taste of it, consider supplemental krill oil, algal oil, or fish oil (or some combination of them). Krill oil has the benefit of having astaxanthin in it, which can help protect the highly susceptible polyunsaturated fats in your brain from oxidizing. You might want to limit your intake of wild seafood to twice per week because of persistent organic pollutants and heavy metals. The other five days of the week you can supplement with krill oil and fish oil to boost your omega-3 status without the risk of contamination.

  Avoid industrial trans fats and industrial seed oils. In the real world, this means avoiding most packaged foods that have a long list of ingredients, especially donuts and other deep-fried doughs. Almost all packaged foods contain large amounts of hidden omega-6 seed oils, so be sure to read food labels and avoid anything that contains soybean, sunflower, corn, cottonseed, or safflower oil.

  The other half of your animal protein intake should come from pastured eggs, grass-fed dairy and cheese, and pastured or grass-fed meats. Regular meat and dairy are reasonable if the grass-fed alternatives are unavailable. However, be careful of factory-farmed eggs; they are nothing like pastured eggs, and you should keep them to a minimum in your diet. To reduce the oxidation of the omega-6 and cholesterol in eggs, you should cook them over easy or over medium; do not scramble them. Using pastured butter for cooking, as long as you cook at a low heat to prevent or reduce the oxidation of cholesterol, is a healthy way to cook. Pasteurized and ultra-pasteurized cow’s milk likely contains oxidized cholesterol; hence, you should limit your intake of cow’s milk to moderate amounts. A healthier alternative may be organic coconut milk.

  Here are some guidelines to use for making sure you get the right kinds of healthy fats in your life:

  • Consume around 2 to 4 grams of EPA and DHA per day from wild seafood, but limit wild fish to twice a week unless it comes from a clean source such as Alaska or Canada.

  • Consider taking a high-quality krill oil supplement (up to 4 grams per day) plus a high-quality algal oil or fish oil supplement (up to 4 grams of EPA/DHA per day).

  • Consume plant omega-3s from chia, hemp, or flax seeds. Target an intake of 30 to 60 grams (1 to 2 ounces) per day.

  • Feel free to eat and cook with animal fats (pastured butter, ghee, tallow, lard, etc.).

  • Omega-6 fats should come from whole foods (nuts, seeds, pastured eggs, and chicken). Keep the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio at 4 or less.

  • Consume 1 to 2 tablespoons of organic extra-virgin olive oil, or a handful of organic olives, per day.

  • See Dr. DiNicolantonio’s book Superfuel: Ketogenic Keys to Unlock the Secrets of Good Fats, Bad Fats, and Great Health for a deeper dive into good fats versus bad fats. You also can visit his website at http://drjamesdinic.com.

  For more details about healthy fats, see Dr. DiNicolantonio’s book Superfuel: Ketogenic Keys to Unlock the Secrets of Good Fats, Bad Fats, and Great Health.

  THE LONGEVITY SOLUTION DIETARY PYRAMID

  Aging is a potent promoter of disease; rates of ill health rise precipitously with every decade past the age of maturity. Dietary protein, which provides the necessary material for growth, is intimately connected to aging, a consequence of the trade-off between growth and longevity.

  Animal foods, which contain large amounts of protein, typically cost more than plant foods. Here, we’re talking about cost in money as well as in the energy and effort our ancestors spent tracking and hunting down an animal versus simply pulling a potato from the ground or picking a few berries from a bush. Historically, people consumed meat much less than grains and other plant foods. However, modern methods of food production have made it possible for almost everybody to consume more than enough meat and other animal foods. Excessive protein intake, especially from animal products, may drive aging. Excessive protein intake is now more of a concern than it was in the past when underconsumption of protein was the main problem.

  For years, experts have advised us to lower our consumption of saturated fat, which is mainly found in animal foods, and that advice seems increasingly misguided. However, until recently, little consideration had been given to the amount of protein we consume. New research has shown how the biochemical mechanisms of growth, exemplified by mTOR and IGF-1, also promote aging. Calorie restriction, the most potent lifespan-extension intervention known, also restricts protein, a factor that accounts for a great deal of fasting’s antiaging effect. Although few people are willing or able to restrict their calories over long periods of time, close attention to the amount of protein consumed could provide much of the benefit of restricting calories.

  At the same time, targeted use of extra and different types of protein can help the ill and elderly maintain muscle and prevent frailty, keeping them out of a state of dependence that often requires full-time care in a nursin
g home. More protein also is required by those who exercise regularly. Perhaps most importantly, increasing the intake of glycine might reduce a person’s need to restrict dietary protein to a large degree.

  Living longer requires that the body invest resources in maintenance and repair. As we grow older, we can coax our bodies into more investment in the processes that help us live longer; keeping protein intake within bounds does this. Low IGF-1 production and mTOR might decrease the risk of cancer and other diseases, but protein restriction also can go too far. Cysteine and glycine help increase the antioxidant glutathione in the body. Not eating too much protein but also getting enough for vital functions of the body is a slippery slope.

  Until now, we’ve given little consideration to the primary physiological drivers of aging, which are connected to protein intake. Optimizing both protein quantity and the source of protein increases the odds of healthy aging. Add in other well-known healthy practices—such as exercise; intermittent fasting; avoiding processed junk foods; eating natural, unprocessed foods; and consuming green tea, coffee, red wine, high-quality salts, omega-3s, glycine, collagen, and magnesium—and you have a powerful recipe for longevity.

  Chapter 1

  1. Olshansky, S. J., et al. “A Potential Decline in Life Expectancy in the United States in the 21st Century.” New England Journal of Medicine 352, no. 11 (2005): 1138–45.