Finding the best longevity diet
Last Updated Aug 2007
Everyone asks what the best diet to follow to live the longest is. Ideally it
would be the diet that the longest-lived people (with legitimate birth records)
eat, a classical Japanese diet that is very rich in seafood and sea vegetables.
Such a diet would dampen down inflammation, which is the underlying cause of aging
and chronic disease. Unfortunately, the classical Japanese diet is quickly
disappearing due to a growing concern with the price of fish as well as potential
toxins contained in fish.
Another diet that has gained much interest is the classical Mediterranean diet.
But what exactly is that? The Mediterranean diet in Lebanon is very different from
the Mediterranean diet in Spain. And the Mediterranean diet in Crete is very rich
in fat. But one common feature is the low levels of omega-6 fatty acids since
olive oil is the primary oil used in the Mediterranean region. Traditionally, all
of these classical diets were based on the availability of local ingredients, but
that is quickly changing due to the availability of food from anywhere in the world
regardless of the season.
So eventually you have to let science help you decide which diet is the best. One
thing that is clear from research conducted by Harvard Medical School is that
people who follow the USDA Food Pyramid (and by implication the American Heart
Association diet, American Diabetes Association diet, etc.) are more likely to
develop heart disease and other chronic diseases than those who eat higher amounts
of fish and poultry plus vegetables and fruits than recommended by the USDA Food
Pyramid.
For Americans, the ideal longevity diet would be one that borrows from both the
classical Mediterranean and Japanese diets and is one that a person can follow for
a lifetime. This is the Zone Diet. The Zone Diet is rich in vegetables and fruits
like the Mediterranean diet, but low in omega-6 fatty acids (the precursors to
inflammatory eicosanoids). It is rich in long-chain omega-3 fats (but now supplied
by highly purified fish oils) like the Japanese diet. The primary difference is
that the Zone Diet is lower in grains and starches than either the classical
Mediterranean or Japanese diet but makes up for this reduction by increasing the
amounts of vegetables and fruits. The end result of that seemingly small change in
composition is a significant reduction in the levels of insulin secreted and with
that a reduction of inflammation. In the final analysis, the ideal longevity diet
is an anti-inflammatory diet, and the Zone Diet is such a diet.