The Longevity Diet

Valter Longo, a PhD in biochemistry and director of the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California, invented the fasting mimicking diet.[1][2] Longo has said, "Using epidemiology and clinical trials, we put all the research together..." The diet calls for an emphasis on consuming fatty fish, and seafood, together with fasting, timing and food quantity.[3]

In the book, Longo says one should alter one's diet to avoid illness in old age.[1] He advises dieters start the diet with a five-day fasting mimicking diet (FMD), which calls for a vegan diet with calorie restriction from 800 and 1,100 calories per day. After the initial five-day period, Longo advises dieters should eat within a 12-hour window each day.[3] The fast-mimicking diet was pioneered by Valter Longo.[4] The book calls for the five-day, calorie restriction FMD to occur twice per year.[5] Before turning 65 the diet calls for minimal protein, and mostly plant-based diet augmented with calorie-restriction.[6]

The book is an international bestseller, has been translated into more than 15 languages, and is sold in more than 20 countries.[7] Writing for Red Pen Reviews, Hilary Bethancourt stated the diet might be difficult and expensive to follow. In addition there is limited research on the long-term effects of the diet. Bethancourt goes on to say that the book gives advice about how to have a longer lifespan and healthspan through the practice of following a five-day fasting-mimicking diet and by choosing what to eat, how much to eat, and how often to eat.[8]

Reviewing the book for Glam Adelaide James Murphy stated: "Longo's radical claims have not been accepted entirely yet by the medical establishment" and the book has "too much discussion of his thwarted ambitions to be a rock star".[9]