WHY FASTING IS NOT THE ROAD TO HEALTH
Intermittent fasting as a form of calorie restriction is popular among those looking to lose weight, but it is usually not sustainable. Biogerontologist Valter Longo, professor of biochemistry at the University of Southern California, uses his studies on the effect of starvation on ageing to show how to get the benefits of fasting by adopting a fasting-mimicking diet (FMD) to limit calorie intake for five days up to four times a year. Weight loss for Longo is just one of the objectives behind writing this book. The other more important objective is lowering the risk of illnesses such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease to ultimately improve health and extend lifespan. The book follows Longo’s quest to discover the mantra for living long and healthy backed by close to 30 years of research.
“Longevity — the fountain of life, the secrets to eternal youth — they have fascinated us from our earliest civilizations. And they have deeply fascinated me since I was a teenager. Back then I wanted to be a rock star, and I was sure I would always be a professional musician, but my passion to discover the secrets of longevity and how they could revolutionise medicine wouldn’t be drowned out... I still play guitar, but I spend the majority of my time working as the director of the University of Southern California (USC) Longevity Institute in Los Angeles and the Program on Longevity and Cancer at IFOM (Molecular Oncology FIRC Institute) in Milan…,” he writes.
Modern diets make humans age faster and expose them to lifestyle-related diseases. Degeneration may begin in the thirties. “But as I’ve discovered, that switch can be turned back on rather easily. The difficult part has been figuring out a way to do it that is feasible and safe for everyone,” Longo writes. “One of the primary ways to achieve this is to exploit our body’s innate ability to regenerate itself at the cellular and organ levels.”