This is in response to a post but I thought it might be of more general interest.
I am sympathetic to the speculation that there could be a diet which optimizes longevity, but it might not be the one that optimizes the AUC (or the integral, if you will) of function and health over one's lifespan.
Even though I am 48 years old and likely closer to death than birth, it is more important to me to preserve function and avoid degenerative diseases than to live longer. I would never want to look and function like a Caloric Restriction fanatic or marathon runner just to extend my life a few years. Every indication we have so far is that the major way to increase your life expectancy is on an actuarial basis - to avoid dying prematurely of the highly prevalent degenerative diseases we have now, as opposed to inducing some sirtuin - mediated change in programmed cell death via Acai berry or red wine.
I have a bias against the idea of supplements and "magic food". I have seen little good (human) evidence for beneficial plants. Plants are tolerated and it is adaptive for us to be able to use them for nourishment when food on the hoof or with fins or wings is in short supply.
Netted out, the average non- carbohydrate plant compound (lectins and other secondary compounds) is more dangerous than beneficial. We evolved to exploit plants in spite of these compounds, not because of them.
Remember that plants can't run away. They don't want you to eat them, generally.
(yeah I know, there's birds and fruit and their symbiosis, etc.) . If eaten (seeds) they don't want to be digested.
Plants are not thinking of your welfare, really they are not.
I like what Peter at Hyperlipid says: The antioxidants are in the fruit to protect the fruit from its major oxidizing (glycating) agent - FRUCTOSE. Think holistically about what you are eating.
We can't go naked all the time, so we use D3 - compensatory supplementation
We can't all eat grass fed or pastured animal products all the time, so we may take a teaspoon of CLO to re-adjust out 6:3 ratio -compensatory supplementation.
The rest of the supplement world - the world of special compounds with special properties - like STP for your gas tank -that are supposed to turn on a suite of genes that has never been activated before in human history, seems as likely as the idea that there is life after death, that there is a chosen race of people whom are favored by god, that people are regularly abducted by aliens, etc..
An evolutionary, biological view of diet makes sense. If one is thinking biologically, the search for a magic chemical that will make you immortal seems only a little more productive than looking for extraterrestrial life - it may be a kind of science, but not likely to be of high yield compared to just getting people to stop eating the garbage that is outside of our evolutionary experience.
Eliminate:
1) Excess linoleic acid - avoid plant oils
2) Wheat and other gluten grains - white flour is the major player in the SAD
3) Limit your Fructose to amounts within our our evolutionary experience
4) Carbohydrate- rich foods tend to displace more valuable foods from animal sources. Favor food that is defenseless when dead - favor animal products.
There's the 12 steps condensed to their essence.
Jeez, isn't it enough to just have fewer heart attacks and alzheimer's?
This is in response to a post but I thought it might be of more general interest.
I am sympathetic to the speculation that there could be a diet which optimizes longevity, but it might not be the one that optimizes the AUC (or the integral, if you will) of function and health over one's lifespan.
Even though I am 48 years old and likely closer to death than birth, it is more important to me to preserve function and avoid degenerative diseases than to live longer. I would never want to look and function like a Caloric Restriction fanatic or marathon runner just to extend my life a few years. Every indication we have so far is that the major way to increase your life expectancy is on an actuarial basis - to avoid dying prematurely of the highly prevalent degenerative diseases we have now, as opposed to inducing some sirtuin - mediated change in programmed cell death via Acai berry or red wine.
I have a bias against the idea of supplements and "magic food". I have seen little good (human) evidence for beneficial plants. Plants are tolerated and it is adaptive for us to be able to use them for nourishment when food on the hoof or with fins or wings is in short supply.
Netted out, the average non- carbohydrate plant compound (lectins and other secondary compounds) is more dangerous than beneficial. We evolved to exploit plants in spite of these compounds, not because of them.
Remember that plants can't run away. They don't want you to eat them, generally.
(yeah I know, there's birds and fruit and their symbiosis, etc.) . If eaten (seeds) they don't want to be digested.
Plants are not thinking of your welfare, really they are not.
I like what Peter at Hyperlipid says: The antioxidants are in the fruit to protect the fruit from its major oxidizing (glycating) agent - FRUCTOSE. Think holistically about what you are eating.
We can't go naked all the time, so we use D3 - compensatory supplementation
We can't all eat grass fed or pastured animal products all the time, so we may take a teaspoon of CLO to re-adjust out 6:3 ratio -compensatory supplementation.
The rest of the supplement world - the world of special compounds with special properties - like STP for your gas tank -that are supposed to turn on a suite of genes that has never been activated before in human history, seems as likely as the idea that there is life after death, that there is a chosen race of people whom are favored by god, that people are regularly abducted by aliens, etc..
An evolutionary, biological view of diet makes sense. If one is thinking biologically, the search for a magic chemical that will make you immortal seems only a little more productive than looking for extraterrestrial life - it may be a kind of science, but not likely to be of high yield compared to just getting people to stop eating the garbage that is outside of our evolutionary experience.
Eliminate:
1) Excess linoleic acid - avoid plant oils
2) Wheat and other gluten grains - white flour is the major player in the SAD
3) Limit your Fructose to amounts within our our evolutionary experience
4) Carbohydrate- rich foods tend to displace more valuable foods from animal sources. Favor food that is defenseless when dead - favor animal products.
There's the 12 steps condensed to their essence.
Jeez, isn't it enough to just have fewer heart attacks and alzheimer's?