Our Longevity Diet

It was a study released five years ago that inspired us to try intermittent fasting. I looked into the scientific literature behind life extension in 2002-2004, and came away with the conclusion that the only certain road to a longer, healthier life was to cut caloric intake drastically. To me, that seemed far to ascetic an approach to life. Even if it didn’t make you live longer, it would sure seem longer. I want to enjoy life, not suffer through it.

Then while browsing the web looking for something else entirely, I came across a reference that led me to a study called (oh so succinctly) Intermittent fasting dissociates beneficial effects of dietary restriction on glucose metabolism and neuronal resistance to injury from calorie intake. The abstract was a bit more clear:

Dietary restriction has been shown to have several health benefits including increased insulin sensitivity, stress resistance, reduced morbidity, and increased life span. The mechanism remains unknown, but the need for a long-term reduction in caloric intake to achieve these benefits has been assumed. We report that when C57BL/6 mice are maintained on an intermittent fasting (alternate-day fasting) dietary-restriction regimen their overall food intake is not decreased and their body weight is maintained. Nevertheless, intermittent fasting resulted in beneficial effects that met or exceeded those of caloric restriction including reduced serum glucose and insulin levels and increased resistance of neurons in the brain to excitotoxic stress. Intermittent fasting therefore has beneficial effects on glucose regulation and neuronal resistance to injury in these mice that are independent of caloric intake.

Note that last line. Glucose regulation is a very important health factor, that leads to diabetes when it goes awry. Neuronal ‘resistance to injury’ is basically saying that the brain deteriorates more slowly — so Alzheimer’s and Alzheimer-like diseases are held at bay for a longer period. This was enough to spark my interest. I began to read about the effects of intermittent fasting, and found other benefits cited, some of which I’ll mention in future posts.

When it comes to implementing the fast, I found several schools of thought. Some people fast the same time every day, so they have 20 hours fasting and four hours eating, for example. Others skipped breakfast and lunch one day, and skipped dinner the next — leading to an imbalanced pattern of more calories one day and fewer the next. Others practice ‘alternate day fasting’ and eat normally one day, then either nothing the next, or a very small meal of 300 to 500 calories. Again, a very imbalanced pattern that seemed like it would be difficult to follow.

Luckily, since we live in Mexico, we were already used to eating our main meal in the early afternoon — much earlier than the typical Euro-American diet. So our solution, which I’ve described in other posts, came as a natural approach that more nearly simulates what the experimental mice experienced. Remember: “their overall food intake is not decreased and their body weight is maintained” — so they were not calorie restricted, but stilled showed the health benefits (including, in other studies, longevity). We want that! We are not obese, so while a little weight-loss would be nice, the extreme restrictions of alternate day fasting are just too difficult to maintain for the rest of our lives. Our style of intermittent fasting works. We have lost some weight, and only time will tell if that continues (we only report our weight in this blog monthly, to avoid the confusion of minor fluctuations). But we feel better, and have no qualms about keeping this lifestyle for many, many years to come.