Maintain a healthy weight The longevity diet recommends that people who are overweight eat only two meals a day — breakfast and either a midday or evening meal — plus just two low-sugar snacks.
A Mediterranean diet remains one of the gold standards for living longer and more healthfully. This pattern is characterized by a high intake of fruits and vegetables; whole grains; pulses; healthful fats from nuts, olive oil, and avocado; and herbs and spices. It includes seafood a few times a week.
And proponents of the OMAD—one meal a day—diet suggest that paring down your eating time to just an hour a day may help accelerate weight loss, lower inflammation, and reduce the risk for various diseases. All of which may help you live longer.
Generally, if you're a healthy adult who is not pregnant, breastfeeding, or underweight, fasting for 12 hours every day is a good baseline to establish. Many longevity benefits are accrued over time, so the fasting practice that you can keep consistent is the one that will yield the most long-term benefit.
"Across all peer-reviewed research and health practices, three meals a day is a general recommendation to encourage consistent, adequate energy intake," Miluk said.
Eating 2 meals in a day can improve metabolic flexibility. This means you can shift between using different fuel sources available with ease. You become less dependent on carbohydrates in food for energy. Instead, you can shift into using stored energy like body fat.
While many folks still plan their days around “three square meals,” it turns out the number of meals you eat may not be so important. How you eat those meals is what matters most when it comes to decreasing the risk of heart disease and other health problems that come along with being overweight.
16/8 method (Leangains protocol) If you follow this plan, you skip breakfast, limit your eating to a period of 8 hours, then fast for 16 hours.
According to a recent study, fasting increases the body's metabolic activity, which further leads to a healthy body and skin. Moreover, it also imparts anti-aging benefits.
The longevity diet
Stop eating meat to restrict intake of the amino acid methionine, but include some fish. 3 Aim to get between 45 and 60 per cent of calories from non-refined complex carbohydrates, 10 to 15 per cent from plant-based proteins and 25 to 35 per cent from plant-based fats.
Eating Only One Meal a Day May Slow Aging
You might live longer and feel younger. One study found that fasting for 24 hours boosted anti-aging hormones like human growth hormone (HGH) by between 1300 and 2000 percent [19].
described the metabolic effects of fasting on ageing in detail. The general premise is that fasting regimens may trigger a metabolic shift from glucose-based to ketone-based energy, with increased stress resistance, cell survival resulting in decreased incidence of disease and increased longevity.
Research indicates that eating dinner or snacking late in the evening may decrease a person's lifespan. Studies have indicated that intermittent feeding may provide protection in humans against diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and possibly a host of age- and obesity-related disorders.
A diet rich in legumes and whole grains can add up to 1 decade to a person's life if they start eating for longevity early enough. The study comes with a free, interactive online calculator people can use to explore the life expectancy benefits achievable by eating specific foods.
Lean protein (lean meats, seafood, eggs, beans) Fruits and vegetables (think orange, red, green and purple) Whole grains (brown rice, whole wheat pasta)
Exercise is one of the best ways to delay aging. And with good reason: too much time sitting (sedentary behavior) is associated with an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and an early death. Aerobic activity is any activity that causes you to breathe harder than normal and your heart to beat faster.
What is this? Fasting for a week may result in adverse health and metabolic changes such as dehydration, a loss of lean muscle mass, hyperuricemia, hyponatremia, protein-sparing, sodium, and potassium-sparing, decreased serum calcium and magnesium levels, and acidic urine.
There is no set time that water fasting should last for, but medical advice generally suggests anywhere from 24 hours to 3 days as the maximum time to go without food. Throughout history, people have undertaken fasts for spiritual or religious reasons.
According to some researchers, fasting for 10–16 hours can cause the body to turn its fat stores into energy, which releases ketones into the bloodstream. This should encourage weight loss. This type of intermittent fasting plan may be a good option for beginners.
Intermittent fasting is one of the easiest ways of building muscle, decreasing body fat and increasing your energy. And by triggering the cellular cleansing process of autophagy, intermittent fasting also improves your life span – and makes your skin look smoother and younger.
While the logic is solid, results have been mixed. Participants in a study who ate six small meals showed no metabolic advantage over those who ate three large meals. What did separate them from the three-meal group was that they reported higher levels of hunger and an increased desire to eat.
World renowned nutrition expert, Dr. Eric Serrano agrees that most people would be better off sticking with 3 meals per day. “The liver has a 4-hour clock and when we eat more frequently than this, we break the body's natural digestive rhythm.” Serrano recommends eating at 8 am, 12 pm and 5 pm.