The Longevity Diet: Discover Calorie Restriction-the Only Proven Way to Slow the Aging Process and Maintain Peak Vitality

332 Pages·2005·3.54 MB·English

by  Brian M. Delaney

Table of Contents

Praise
Title Page
Dedication
Foreword
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

PART 1 - Scientific Background
Chapter 1 - What Is the Longevity Diet?
Introduction
The Longevity Diet in a Nutshell
The Range of CR Longevity Regimens
How to Use This Book
Learning More about CR and Life Extension
Chapter 2 - How the Longevity Diet Can Change Your Life
Of Mice and Men
How the Longevity Diet May Extend Your Years
From the Lab to Your Life: CR Research Through the Ages
How CR Affects Your Health
The 2004 Washington University CR Study
So, What’s the Catch?
Obstacles and Challenges to the Longevity Diet
Some Possible Side Effects
Chapter 3 - ABCS of Nutrition
The Key to Weight Loss
What Is Real Food?
What You Need to Know about Nutrition
The Basics: Your Body’s Essential Needs
Protein
Lipids
Micronutrients: Vitamins and Minerals
The Essentials
Dietary Plusses
Some Basic Guidelines
Chapter 4 - Your Calories, Your Life
The Traditional View of Calories
The Genetic Factor
Survival of the Fittest?
Your Body in Its Finest Form: Lean and Efficient
The Aging Process
“System” Theories of Aging
Cellular Theories of Aging
Insulin and Aging
Miscellaneous Theories
Update: New Data, Same Conclusion
Chapter 5 - Your Life, Your Decision
How Much to Reduce Your Intake of Calories
The Calorie Counter Strategy
The Health Marker Strategy
The Elderly and CR

PART 2 - The Longevity Lifestyle
Chapter 6 - The Longevity Diet as a Way of Life
Ready—Set—Wait
Remember, The Longevity Diet Works with Lifestyle
Energy Density
The Calorie Countdown
What Should You Track? And How Often?
Striking the Right Balance
Chapter 7 - Your Daily Food Diary
Tracking Your Nutrients
But What About Calories?
What a CR Daily Food Diary Might Look Like
As You Begin the Longevity Diet
Chapter 8 - Parenting the Longevity Diet Lifestyle
How to Begin
Chapter 9 - Monitoring the Longevity Diet Lifestyle
Are You a Warrior or an Explorer?
Are You a Calorie Counter or a Weight Watcher?
Other Techniques for the Longevity Diet
Chapter 10 - The Longevity Diet and Exercise
Aging and Cells
Aerobics: Good for the Heart and Brain
Weight-Bearing Exercises and Resistance Training: Good for the Bones
Exercise and Calories
Yoga: The New Wave
Stress—The Silent but Insidious Mole
How Do I Begin My Longevity Exercise Regimen?
Chapter 11 - Optimal Living from a Few Veteran Practitioners of the
Chapter 12 - Recipes
Ten-Minute Meals on the Run
Fun and Fabulous for the Newbie Cook
Everything Lean, Green, and in Between, Veggie Dishes Dressed Up
Salads
MegaMeals for the Top Chef

GLOSSARY
RESOURCES
NOTES
Acknowledgements
INDEX
Copyright Page
WHAT THE WALL STREET JOURNAL AND THE NEW YORK
TIMES ARE REPORTING ABOUT CALORIE RESTRICTION:
“New research shows that calorie-restriction diets, which cut calories by as much
as 40 percent of your normal intake, may help you live a longer life.”
—The Wall Street Journal

“A low-calorie diet, even in people who are not obese, can lead to changes in
metabolism and body chemistry that have been linked to better health and longer
life, researchers are reporting. . . . There is a Calorie Restriction Society with
members all over the world, and its president, Brian M. Delaney, estimates that
the people experimenting on themselves number in the thousands.”
—The New York Times

PRAISE FOR THE LONGEVITY DIET:

“This book is a valuable tool for those interested in living a longer, healthier life. My research with
laboratory animals has shown that a nutrient-rich, calorically reduced diet slows the aging process,
decreases age-associated mortality, and increases longevity. Delaney and Walford translate the results
of my and others’ research into practical terms that are easy to understand and easy to put into
practice. This is not a rigid ‘diet book.’ It is a flexible program that guides the reader towards a
healthier way of eating and living. Follow the advice in this book and you will very likely see many
extra years of health and vigor.”
—Stephen R. Spindler, PhD, Professor of Biochemistry, University of California, Riverside
“The Longevity Diet offers a new way of living. It helps readers mull over a commitment to
themselves to live long and healthy and how to achieve it. You can take baby steps at first if you
aren’t ready to change every eating habit, and charts help you choose nutrient-dense foods that are
still filling and satisfying. The book addresses the deleterious effects of stress that often induce
humans to overeat. Forget the idea of eating to lose weight, or even to feel better. Trade calories for
years of healthy living. That’s the Longevity Diet.”
—Bill Sardi, Knowledge of Health, Inc., author of The AntiAging Pill and How to Live 100 Years without
Growing Old

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF

Professor Roy L. Walford,

whose work followed the Enlightenment motto: dare to know! and whose life
followed his own motto: dare to live!
FOREWORD
By Dr. Roy Walford

I have spent most of my professional life researching the relationship between
level of caloric intake and longevity.
Year after year I would witness the dramatic results of calorie restriction in my
laboratory at the University of California-Los Angeles. The animals eating a
normal diet would start turning gray, their hair would start falling out, their
bones would get brittle, they would start moving more and more slowly, and
then they would stop moving forever. While these changes were taking place in
the one group, there was a group of mice next to them going through something
entirely different. This other group was on the CR (calorie restriction) diet.
These animals retained an astonishing youth and vitality. At an age when most of
the mice eating the normal diet were dead—a human equivalent of eighty-five or
ninety years—nearly all of the mice on the CR diet were alive and, indeed,
thriving! The females were even able to conceive! The aging process was slowed
so dramatically that many of the mice on the CR diet lived to be a human
equivalent of over 140 years, some even beyond 150 years!
I was well aware of Clive McCay’s seminal research on dietary restriction, in
the 1930s at Cornell University. His rodents were put on their regime early in
life, one in which they were severely and abruptly restricted. Much has
transpired since Dr. Richard Weindruch and I postulated and proved in my
laboratory that adult-onset CR in mice, if done gradually, would trigger the
health benefits described above.
At that time, I started writing books explaining the scientific principles behind