I finished the Longevity Diet by Prof Valter Longo across the weekend. Having also been practising FMD mostly influenced by Dr Mindy Pelz for 2 months (5 days, first week of the month). Reading the direct source was enlightening.
As I have been eating Keto for almost 2 years now, this longevity diet is not far off my regular diet, except that is encourages even more vegetables and less meat. Given I have been moving towards vegetarianism more and more. This book, along with more knowledge of the damage to the earth and the animals that animal agriculture is causing, has been a catalyst for going more vegan than ever. I will post more about going vegetarian another time.
This post is mostly about the FMD. Dr Longo suggests a very high level of vegetables. A good mix of complex carbs (20-30% of calories), good fats (30-40%) and low to moderate protein. You get this mostly from vegetables like beans, lentils and the green leafies that are packed full of essential nutrients. (hello Kale)
As a Keto eater, we rarely ate animal protein. We got enough from the 4-5 cups of vegetables we eat daily. Plus a collagen supplement 2-3 times a week (from Fish).
Good Fats
Keto is all about fats, so plenty of avocados, nuts (also high in protein) and good oil in cooking like coconut oil. We tended to use a lot of butter. This is one thing that I will be changing, instead of garnishing my food with slabs of butter. My plan is to use Olive Oil going forward. Even better good fat (monounsaturated) benefits than the Butyrate in the butter maybe – I will leave you to decide after ready BulletProof take on butter https://blog.bulletproof.com/health-benefits-grass-fed-butter/. Personally I am just reducing grass fed cow butter to only in my 2 coffees per day and occasionally on the weekend on my Keto Toast/ Keto Bread. Also I am replacing half of the coffee butter with Cocao Butter to reduce animal ag.
The main difference between the longevity diet and my regular diet (intermittent fasting, high fat, low carb) is the amount of complex carbs. As Naomi Whittel suggests in Glow 15, and Dave Asprey in many a podcast. Carb and protein cycling help your body. So this results in a more regimented idea of how to do this. i.e. Adding a regular sweet potato, buckwheat and other really great complex carbs into the diet. Since targets have been reached for body composition. Things like long beans, peas and other greens that are high in carbs can be added back in.
Additions/ influence on my eating plan
Eat high complex carb on Tuesdays and Friday and high protein on Saturday or Sunday.