Valter Longo on the Rich Roll Podcast: Live to 100

[mccoy]

Mechanism, yes, there are indeed some little deviations from the guidelines contained into the book. My thoughts here:

 

1. Cheese & yogurt: they seem not negligible to you but, before starting a vegan regime, I remember I used to eat at lunch one pint of yogurt or kefir or more, or the equivalent of 750 gr of strained kefir, from cow's milk. Plus I had about 50-100 grams of cheese (cow, sheep or goat or either) at dinner, almost invariably. I thrived on dairy products and my daily amount far surpassed the weekly amount present in the longevity diet example. So, objectively, the quantity in Longo's appendix seems really negligible
2. The amount of parmesan cheese, even if cow's milk, is really negligible. Plus, real parmesan undergoes a rigidly controlled fermentation which eliminates all lactose from the milk and creates a product which has some different characteristics than the original milk
3. Another lack of adherence that I observed is the presence of quinoa and turmeric in a couple of meals. Longo in his book suggests to stick to an ancestral diet. In his interview with rich Roll he specifies that he has not insisted much upon this aspect in the book, but that it is important to avoid non-ancestral food (to avoid potential intolerances).

I also just checked the octopus and clams/mussels ingredients. In my kindle edition, Italian version, the quantity is really 80 grams for both. It may be a mistake due to the scanning of the hard copy?? Strange as it may seem? But I don't have an hard copy to consult.

 

Also, your latest considerations sound plausible: the recipe section may often not be so strict as the main text because of the wide target audience.

[mccoy]

One more consideration on the interview: I don't remember the exact point, but, after one question from Rich roll, Longo says that even afer 65(ish) we may choose not to increase protein, if  we are able to stymulate MPS (muscle protein synthesis) thru daily resistance exercise.

 

The rationale if I'm right is that after a certain age IGF-1 declines too much to grant MPS  so it's necessary to increase systemic IGF-1 providing more fish and eggs (by the specific AAs content of animal protein I believe).

 

This issue gets yet another angle in the stem talk interview, where the differences between systemic and local IGF-1 are hinted at.

[Mechanism]

Edited

[Sibiriak]

Speaking of mussels,  I just ran across this, but haven't delved into it:

 

 

You’re eating microplastics in ways you don’t even realise

https://theconversation.com/youre-eating-microplastics-in-ways-you-dont-even-realise-97649

 

We’re increasingly aware of how plastic is polluting our environment. Much recent attention has focused on how microplastics – tiny pieces ranging from 5 millimetres down to 100 nanometres in diameter – are filling the seas and working their way into the creatures that live in them. That means these ocean microplastics are entering the food chain and, ultimately, our bodies.

 

* * *

 

[...]A portion of consumer-grade mussels in Europe could contain about 90 microplastics. Consumption is likely to vary greatly between nations and generations, but avid mussel eaters might eat up to 11,000 microplastics a year.

 

[mccoy]

There goes the suggestion to eat clams and mussels to vegans because of their obstensible  lack of a real nervous system.

[Sibiriak]

Gordo:  This group will love: 1:00:50: "Calorie restriction (what Walford was doing, eating 25-30% less all the time) DOESN'T WORK." [Even in mice, it only works for 1/3 of subtypes...It gives you as many problems as solutions]

 

 

 

 

The effect of different levels of dietary restriction on glucose homeostasis and metabolic memory

GeroScience. 2018 Apr; 40(2): 139–149.

PMCID: PMC5964050

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5964050/

 

 

Discussion

Dietary restriction without malnutrition is the most robust and reproducible dietary intervention that has been shown to extend life span and delay the onset and progression of most age-related diseases. DR has been shown to increase the life span of a wide variety of animals and is generally considered that the effect of DR on life span is universal. Liao et al. (2010) reported the effect of DR (40% DR) on over 40 different recombinant inbred (RI) lines of male and female mice, and surprisingly, only one third of the mice showed the expected increase in life span on the DR diet; the others either showed no effect or a decrease in life span.

 

It is possible that 40% restriction, which was used by Liao et al. (2010), has a negative effect on the life span of some of the RI lines, but lower levels of DR (10 and 20%) might increase life span for these genotypes. In line with this possibility, two groups have shown that lower levels of DR are as effective at increasing the life span of mice as 40% DR. Richardson et al. (2016) reported that the life span of male F344 rats was not significantly different when fed 10 and 40% DR, and Mitchell et al. (2016) reported that the life span of male and female C57BL/6 mice and DBA/2 mice fed 20% DR was similar or greater than mice fed 40% DR. Therefore, these recent data suggest that lower levels of DR might be as effective at increasing life span as 40% DR. However, there is currently very little information on the effect of low levels of DR (i.e., less than 40% DR) on various processes in rodents.

 

 

Genetic Variation in the Murine Lifespan Response to Dietary Restriction: from Life Extension to Life Shortening

Chen-Yu Liao,^1,2Brad A. Rikke,³Thomas E. Johnson,^3,4Vivian Diaz,² and James F. Nelson^1,2

 

Aging Cell. 2010 Feb; 9(1): 92–95.

PMCID: PMC3476836

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3476836/

 

Summary

Chronic dietary restriction (DR) is considered among the most robust life-extending interventions, but several reports indicate that DR does not always extend and may even shorten lifespan in some genotypes. An unbiased genetic screen of the lifespan response to DR has been lacking. Here we measured the effect of one commonly used level of dietary restriction (DR: 40% reduction in food intake) on mean lifespan of virgin males and females in 41 recombinant inbred (RI) strains of mice. Mean strain-specific lifespan varied 2- to 3-fold under ad libitum (AL) feeding and 6- to 10-fold under DR, in males and females, respectively.

 

Notably, DR shortened lifespan in more strains than those in which it lengthened life. Food intake and female fertility varied markedly among strains under AL feeding, but neither predicted DR survival: therefore, strains in which DR shortened lifespan did not have low food intake or poor reproductive potential. Finally, strain-specific lifespans under DR and AL feeding were not correlated, indicating that the genetic determinants of lifespan under these two conditions differ. These results demonstrate that the lifespan response to a single level of DR exhibits wide variation amenable to genetic analysis. They also show that DR can shorten lifespan in inbred mice. Although strains with shortened lifespan under 40% DR may not respond negatively under less stringent DR, the results raise the possibility that life extension by DR may not be universal.

 

 

 

[Matt]

Does anyone know how many clinical trials are being run using the fasting idea with chemotherapy?

 

A little update on my previous comment...  I said I passed on the information about using fasting against colon cancer and combining it with chemotherapy. I found out today that the doctor suggested against it and told him to not use chemotherapy. So, basically do nothing.

 

He's probably got a few weeks to live now at most. The doctor apparently never even bothered to read the studies, he just glanced at it for a second and dismissed the idea. 

 

Every time this happens and doctors are so closed-minded, it leaves me with less and less confidence in doctors overall.

[Matt]

"Notably, DR shortened lifespan in more [messed up] strains than those in which it lengthened life."

 

CR works. 

[mccoy]

Every time this happens and doctors are so closed-minded, it leaves me with less and less confidence in doctors overall.

 

Some of'em are very good, but many are just obtuse.

 

P.s. No offence to mechanism, who is most probably among the very good ones.