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When it comes to fasting, how do you parse fact from fiction? How do nutrition and lifestyle choices make or break disease? And how do we eat to live longer, healthier lives?
To help us answer these questions, Dr. Valter Longo is back.
One of the world’s top researchers in the field of longevity science, Dr. Longo is a professor of Gerontology and Biological Sciences at the University of Southern California. He is also the director of the Longevity Institute at USC—one of the leading centers for research on aging and age-related disease—and director of the Longevity and Cancer Program at the Institute of Molecular Oncology in Milan, Italy.
Named one of the 50 most influential people in healthcare by TIME magazine in 2018 for his research using fasting to improve health and prevent disease, Dr. Longo is also the author of the international bestseller The Longevity Diet (all profits of which he donates to research and his foundation) and he is the founder of ProLon, a 5-day ‘fasting-mimicking’ diet program.
Dr. Longo first graced the show four years ago (RRP #367), wherein we covered the basics of fasting for longevity. Today we extend that discussion to get more granular on the science of longevity and nutrition, including an analysis of the latest research on fasting and its connection to healthspan extension and the prevention of disease.
“Diet can have a remarkable effect on you. It can reprogram your body and put it on a path to live longer.”
– VALTER LONGO, PHD
So today we pick up where we left off four years ago, covering:
- the latest research on fasting, longevity nutrition, and his fasting-mimicking diet;
- Dr. Longo’s take on the recent study out of China that showed no efficacy in intermittent fasting for weight loss;
- the 5 nutrition pillars of longevity, various fasting strategies, the acute versus chronic effects of food on metabolism;
- optimal protein intake based on age, high fat versus low-fat diets, and how to think about and contextualize continuous glucose monitoring;
- the science around rapamycin, metformin and sirtuins;
- and many other fascinating topics.
The visually inclined can watch it all go down on YouTube. As always, the podcast streams wild and free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Valter is one of the world’s brightest minds on the cutting edge of longevity science and this one is full of prescriptive advice. I hope you learn as much as I did.
Enjoy!
Peace + Plants,

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- Connect with Dr. Longo: Website | Instagram | Twitter
- Prolon: About
- New York Times: Scientists Find No Benefit to Time-Restricted Eating
- Science Alert: Here’s What That Controversial New Study on Time-Restricted Eating Really Shows
- TCTMD: Mediterranean Diet Bests Low Fat for Secondary Prevention: CORDIOPREV
- Express: High cholesterol: A Mediterranean diet shown to lower levels and keep the heart healthy
- USC: New Article Outlines the Characteristics of a “Longevity Diet”
- Stat: He wants to sell you a $300 ‘fasting diet’ to prolong your life. It might not be as crazy as it sounds
- EurekAlert: New article outlines the characteristics of a “longevity diet”
- The Washington Post: Want to add healthy years to your life? Here’s what new longevity research says.
- GEN: Intermittent Fasting Extends Healthspan through Circadian Autophagy
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