To understand which foods can guarantee a healthier and longer life we refer to the “Pillars of Healthy Longevity,” derived from the studies conducted by Professor Valter Longo. A multidisciplinary approach which includes:
- basic research, i.e. the study of simple organisms (in experimental models in research laboratories) concerning the molecular aspects of cellular function that is linked to nutrition;
- epidemiology, i.e. the analysis of the causes of diseases and related risk factors on entire populations (understanding and demonstrating the effects of a specific food or food style on certain diseases and longevity);
- clinical studies, or rather the effective demonstration of the hypotheses formulated by basic and epidemiological research;
- the study of centenarians; the investigation of their eating habits, especially those of the famous “Blue Zones”, characterized by greater longevity: Loma Linda in California, the Nicoya peninsula in Costa Rica, Sardinia, Ikaria in Greece and Okinawa in Japan. The observation of these centenarians offers data to support the safety, efficacy, and acceptance of specific foods and diet.
- the study of centenarians, i.e. studies conducted to analyze their lifestyle and eating habits, in order to understand what behaviors impact longevity.
- the study of complex systems, or the transposition of human behavior at an engineering level, while taking into consideration lifestyle and nutrition in relation to aging.
The system of “Pillars of Healthy Longevity” allows you to filter thousands of studies on longevity and diseases, and help you lay a deeper and more solid foundation to know what and how much to eat; while minimizing any change in people’s eating habits. If our choices are based on those Pillars, they are hardly ever refuted by new discoveries.
SOURCES
- Longo, Valter. The Longevity Diet. New York: Penguin, 2018.
