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Dr. Valter Longo On The Science Behind Dieting, Aging, Cancer Prevention, & What Really Extends Your Life
01:03:55
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- [00:00]
Valter Longo
The following podcast is a Dear Media.
- [00:02]
Michael Bostick
Production this episode is brought to you by the Skinny Confidential. We are doing a spring break sale. We rarely do sales. We're doing 30% off select products. Okay. It's automatic. You don't need a code. What I would tell you to get is the caffeinated sunscreen. I wear it every single day underneath my makeup. It's so beautiful. It gives you like a light tint and the caffeine tightens your skin and your pores. This is something I've been wearing like for the last 10 years and I finally created my own product about a year ago. Ours is a mineral based sunscreen. It's beautiful. You should also get the butter brush. I have been using this so much pregnant. I don't use it on my stomach. I just use it on my legs and my arms right now. But if you're not pregnant, you can use it on your stomach. And it's essentially the best dry brush on the market. We created it to really activate your lymphatic system. So how I use it is I have one out of the shower and one in the shower. So I'll dry brush before I get into the shower for like a minute and then I'll actually use my other dry brush like in the shower. I love it. I just feel like it gives you like a refreshing kick right away. And then if you're gonna get one more product, you gotta check out our non toxic candle if you want a clean home. Learn more about what's in candles. It's wild. There's like formaldehyde in some of them. Ours is completely clean. Three ingredients, really light eucalyptus smell. Something that I burn all the time in my office. I burn it in my bedroom. I even burn it downstairs. I don't have to worry about K breathing in stuff. I'm pregnant. So I take the non toxic candle very seriously. It's simple, it's Pink and it's 30% off. Go shop before we sell out. You can go to shopskinnyconfidential.com 30% off from March 3rd to the 4th. That's shopskinnyconfidential.com She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire.
- [01:52]
Valter Longo
Fantastic.
- [01:53]
Lauren Everts
And he's a serial entrepreneur, a very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostick are bringing you along for the ride.
- [02:01]
Michael Bostick
Get ready for some major realness.
- [02:03]
Lauren Everts
Welcome to the Skinny Confidential. Him and her Dr. Valter promised that I would live till 120 years old after I spoke to him. So Lauren's gonna be stuck with me for a little longer to start. For people that are unfamiliar with you and your work, how would you describe what you do?
- [02:23]
Valter Longo
You know, what I've done for 30 years actually starting at UCLA here next door is longevity studies on longevity and aging and particularly the genetic and nutrition that can make you live longer. So how are genes affecting longevity and function? And how is nutrition controlling the genes that control the aging process?
- [02:47]
Lauren Everts
Okay, so it all from your perspective, most of this starts with the food that we eat and that's what contributes to a large degree how long that we live. Is that the hypothesis?
- [02:57]
Valter Longo
Well, most of what you can do. Right. So the rest you're born with. And for a while you're not going to be able to change your genes. But the nutrition and to a lesser extent the exercise that is able to control the genes that control aging. And now it turns out also the genes that control rejuvenation. Right. We're also starting and we can discuss it. We're also starting to show the that you can make organs younger and people potentially younger by activating this reprogramming and stem cell based rejuvenation effects.
- [03:31]
Lauren Everts
Okay, to start. And I know we're going to get very granular here, but high level. If you could wave a wand and prescribe a kind of diet to the majority of the population. What kind of diet is that?
- [03:44]
Valter Longo
Yeah, so there are three things that are important. One is what I call the longevity diet. Everyday longevity diets, which is a pescetarian diet for adults at least, pescatarian diet for fish plus vegan. Right. This seems to be the best, let's say up to age 65 or 70. After that probably you need to go more to a Mediterranean diet type of lifestyle. The second one is what's called time restricted eating. And this is how many hours you eat per day. Right. And that should be 12. Right. Some people. So 12 eating, 12 fasting. Some people do it for longer. But we can discuss why that's not a good idea. So 12 hours, 8:00am, 8:00pm that's it. Right. Don't eat before, don't eat after. And the third one is what we been focusing on is called fasting, mimicking diet. So is it possible that you can do this five days every maybe four months of a vegan fasting, mimicking diet? So a diet that simulates the effects of fasting it. So so you're eating, but it's as if you were not eating at all. And so now we have a lot of clinical trials that are indicating that this Reduces biological age and makes, you know, people more functional. We're also using it for cancer. We're using it for diabetes treatment and autoimmune disease treatment. So it's really also in the clinic for disease treatment. But there is a version that we've been testing on people that don't have diseases to just stay away from disease and be more functional.
- [05:09]
Michael Bostick
If someone comes to you and they're like, my mom was just diagnosed with cancer, what do you typically recommend? Are you asking what kind of cancer? Or does that not matter? And what fast do you typically tell them to go on?
- [05:23]
Valter Longo
Yes, for cancer patients, we follow thousands with the foundation clinics which we have both in Italy and here in Los Angeles. So it's a very personalized treatment. Right. So we first need to talk to the oncologist or learn everything they have done and then we support the job of the oncologist. So usually we do three or four things the same that we just described. Time receding. For cancer patient, we usually move it to 14 hours because of data suggesting, for example, breast cancer women, they were fasting for 14 hours every day they were living longer. So that's one of the things we adopt and then the everyday diet. But we for cancer patient is very different than everybody else because we want to make sure they don't lose muscle mass, they don't become what's called cachactic sarcopenic. Right. So we don't want them to be frail. We want to. And we want the immune system. The number one defense against cancer is the immune system. The immune system becomes weaker, then the patient is less able to do that. So we adapt the everyday longevity diet, the fasting mimicking diet, and also ketogenic diet. That's something else that we use particularly with certain cancers like glioma, very aggressive brain cancers. For that we also use the ketogenic diet. And we rotate all these different diets to just make it very difficult for the cancer to adapt. Of course, in combination with the standard of care. And this has been working very well for many, many cancer. Of course you. We have to wait and see what all the clinical trials show. But the initial clinical trials are very positive. And so for example, for triple negative breast cancer, metastatic. So women that had this very aggressive breast cancer which has gone everywhere in the body. The Vernieri group in Milan has just published that the 4 year survival rate almost doubled if they were doing the fasting mimicking diet versus plus chemotherapy versus chemotherapy alone.
- [07:22]
Michael Bostick
Can you tell us a story about someone that had cancer, maybe Talked with you where you put them on a certain fasting diet and what happened. And can you also walk us through what you prescribe to this person to get them to the other side?
- [07:37]
Valter Longo
Yeah, so it's a tricky world, right? Because obviously we don't want to give the impression that we, you know, in a podcast we can, we can treat patients. But I think, for example, a nice example is five cases that came out of this larger study at the National Cancer Institute in Milan. And for example, there was one case where this was actually a friend of the chief oncologist who had stage four lung cancer. And it was just doing immunotherapy and it wasn't working. Then they added the fasting mimicking diet, so which comes in a box, essentially. So the immunotherapy plus the fasting mimicking diet, and this patient went into remission. Right. And then they published a paper on five cases which were all stage four cancers, and all of them went into remission when you would not expect somebody in that advanced stage to go into remission. And so we've had a lot of cases like this that we followed personally. For example, a judge here in Los Angeles, they had a very aggressive cancer and started. This is one of the first cases, maybe like 2009, I think. And then of course, we followed thousands and thousands. But she was one of the interesting ones. She had a very aggressive cancer and she, in those days, long term fasting, plus the chemotherapy, and she ended up being cancer free. So it's one of our own stories, but I think I'd rather rely on the, and the clinical trial.
- [09:08]
Michael Bostick
Have you ever seen, and I don't know if you can answer this, the fasting work without the chemotherapy, or is it usually together?
- [09:15]
Valter Longo
We seen it only for blood cancers and in a, in a domain where we think it's very useful to talk to the oncologist and which is, let's say leukemias, lymphomas, in the wash and wait period. So where there is really not a treatment like for example, cll, a type of leukemia, a very common one. We had a number of patients that have stayed for years without chemo because they keep the markers, the leukemia markers below the cutoff range. Right. For chemotherapy. So, yeah, so I think in that case it's good to talk to the oncologist. And these are published. So these are in my book. But also some of these cases are published. And so I talk to the oncologist and see if in that watch and wait period you can adopt just a fasting we do both longevity diet and fasting, migging diet. And yeah, so far we've been very successful, at least with a number of patients.
- [10:19]
Lauren Everts
From all the cancer patients that you've seen, are there certain lifestyle factors that you can pinpoint that either contribute more or actually guard more against cancers? Like is there, you know, a certain way that someone's living that you can say, okay, if you keep living that way, you have a greater chance of increasing cancer, or if you keep doing that, you have a greater chance of offsetting. Is there patterns or things that you see?
- [10:43]
Valter Longo
Yeah, certainly there are hundreds of papers on obesity and overweight and the chance of developing cancer and the chance of the cancer progressing. Right. So it's pretty clear it's not for all cancers, but for lots of cancers. And then, you know, 10 years ago we published this paper which got a lot of attention on people in the United States that eat high protein diet versus those that eat a low protein diet. And, and it turned out that those that had a high animal protein diet at a fourfold increased risk of cancer mortality, which is huge, small group, but you know, but big enough to have a significant, statistically significant effect.
- [11:24]
Lauren Everts
So did they determine what kind of animal protein, like what kind of quality?
- [11:27]
Valter Longo
No, this was independent of the type, but in the group. And this comes from the CDC database called nhanes. And so the Americans that reported eating a high animal protein diet had a much higher overall mortality, but especially higher mortality from cancer. Now if they were 75, these are up to age 65, if the question was asked to the 80 year old, then that didn't work anymore. So the 80 year old reporting a very low protein diet did not seem to do very well. In fact, they seem to do more poorly than those that had a moderate to high protein diet. So I think it's. Yeah. So young people are eating too much protein, do you think?
- [12:06]
Michael Bostick
There's very little doubt about that it's the animal protein or what the animal protein is injected like meaning like is it the antibiotics and the. She's asking how much non grass fed and like is it like McDonald's meat that that's the problem or is it actually the animal protein?
- [12:24]
Valter Longo
Probably more the amino acid content of the animal protein, which is very different usually on average from that or the plant protein. Right. So I think we soon enough we should move away from the idea of proteins and move into amino acid profile because some sources, even within plants, you can have a five fold difference of content of certain amino acids from two different plant protein sources. Right. And then clearly from plant protein to animal protein, you know, you can have up to tenfold difference in amino acid content. Right. So eat 10 grams of protein. One comes from legumes and one comes from red meat. You can have a seven, eight fold difference in one particular amino acid. And so now we're going to publish actually a number of papers this year on that. And yeah, so amino acids are, seem to be regulating growth factors which are clearly regulating aging. For example, IGF1. Right. So something called insulin, like growth factor one has been associated with lots of cancer for a long time. And you regulate it with, you make it higher with some of the amino acids that are high in the red meat, but also in chicken and also in fish. Right. But so there's nothing wrong with animal proteins. It's just the excess of animal protein that Americans and Europeans now have adopted. That's a problem. In a book that we wrote about children in Italy, we saw that children were eating two to three times in certain age range, more protein than every medical association in the world recommended. Right. And so it's really a strange phenomenon because, you know, it's, it's bad. It's not a 20% increase. It's like a twofold increase. And but yeah, nobody's doing anything about it can.
- [14:16]
Lauren Everts
On that note, European versus American. As someone who looks at the data and obviously a big topic in this country is our food supply and figuring out, you know, the differences. And we spent, I told you, we spent some time over there. And when we go to Italy, we eat kind of whatever we want without thinking about it and feel fine. We come here and we have to be really thoughtful. Do you see the data sets presenting different numbers in terms of cancer presentations between European and American numbers?
- [14:42]
Valter Longo
Europeans are very close to Americans now for almost everything. Italians are a little bit better, but not that much, and they're moving very fast. So if you look at breast cancer incidence in Italy for women, it was very similar to Japan. It was very low. And then in the last 20 years, it's now caught up. The Japanese didn't. Right. But the Italians caught up with the Americans. Why do you think that is? Well, I think it's because the westernization of the Italian diet, now it's very similar. Right. McDonald's is everywhere. And so. And so, you know, it's just Western lifestyle is almost the same in Italy and the US A little bit better, but not that much.
- [15:18]
Lauren Everts
So when you look at somewhere like Japan that has lower incidence or lower cases, and then you look at somewhere like the U.S. and then now, now following Europe. What, what do you take away from that information? What are the big, what are the big takeaways that we could.
- [15:33]
Valter Longo
Well, I think Japan is somewhat, been able to keep the weight down and the, the diet reasonably healthy still. Like, like Italians used to have, and Italians have, have gone to high protein, high animal products. Yeah. So I think the Japanese now eat a lot of fish, but not necessarily a lot of red meat, you know, so, so I think that, yeah, the Japanese have, generally they're moving in this direction. Like Okinawa for example, now is no longer used to be an island in Japan with record longevity and now not so much. Right, so yeah, they're, they're also moving to the western lifestyle, but they're doing much better so far and they're still on top of the world for longevity. Right. So Japan, whereas Italy dropped a lot of positions, I think to number nine. Now Japan is still in the top one or two. Right.
- [16:26]
Lauren Everts
What do you take from like places like Sardinia and Corsica that have that, like, why do you think that happens in places like that?
- [16:34]
Valter Longo
Well, I mean, Sardinia, I think this, these areas of longevity I think had to do with genetics, plus lifestyle. Right. So they have it all. If you go little towns like Ceulo or Villagrande Estresaili, which were made famous for blue zones. Right. So there is clearly this lifestyle with a lot of walking, very good diet, and plus they seem to have been born with the right genes. Right. So you put it all together and that's where you get towns where people on average reach 100, way more than any other town in the world. So, so yeah, so I think that we've seen that in Calabria. We see it in Sicily, but we see it in a lot of places. This is probably everywhere in the world. So, So I think it's just everything combined.
- [17:18]
Michael Bostick
If, if you were to describe a fasting mimicking diet to someone who has no idea what that means in the most digestible, like kindergarten way, how would you describe it?
- [17:29]
Valter Longo
I would describe it as probably best to just get the one that is available and you have to essentially, because otherwise you will have to, you know, have a professional following you the whole way. But it's a local. It's a 800 to 1100 kilocalorie per day diet. Right. It lasts five days, is vegan, is low protein, low sugar and high fat.
- [17:58]
Michael Bostick
I have done prolon. Is that.
- [18:00]
Valter Longo
Yeah, I cannot talk about products, but I mean, you know, because I'm the founder of the company, so, yeah, I just Stay away from that. But can you.
- [18:08]
Michael Bostick
So you can buy the fasting mimicking diet through you. That you. Not through me, not through you. Okay, so.
- [18:14]
Valter Longo
But there's a company that sells it, and. Yeah. So I just have to stay away from any advertisement type of thing.
- [18:22]
Michael Bostick
If you were to do a fasting mimicking diet yourself, which I'm sure you've done, are you curating it for yourself or are you using a company?
- [18:31]
Valter Longo
No, no, the fasting vegan diet, the recommendation, you know, for patients and non patients is to do what's been tested clinically, which comes in a box. And, you know, and of course you cannot. Well, now you, like, for diabetes, there's a program, and you can actually also get in a program for diabetes, a special fasting diet. Soon enough there's going to be one for autoimmunities and there is one for people that don't have any disease and they just want to. For example, this year we published a paper where we did three cycles of the fmd and we showed that biological age was reduced by two and a half years. So people became, on average, based on these markers that were described by Morgan Levine at Yale, people became, on average two and a half years younger. So people can do it also just to be more functional and. But yeah, so these are different version of the fmd, and they're all available commercially.
- [19:26]
Michael Bostick
I'm really interested to talk to you about this next subject because I feel like you'll have a different take. We've talked about this on the show a couple of times. GLP1s. What is your thought on it?
- [19:37]
Valter Longo
Yes, So I just wrote an article for the Italian Correct La Sera on this. You know, actually two articles in. My point was that GLP1 should be there if everything else failed with a professional that knows what they're doing. Not fails, because you were on your own and somebody was overweight or diabetic and nobody really helped you and say, well, okay, good luck, go and change your diet and run. That's the system we have now. It says GLP1 or nothing. Right. So I think that we should have that team that follows you like we do in the foundation clinic. It's a nonprofit, and so we can bring most people back, you know. So in the trials now, we show that with the fasting diet, we can reduce drug use in about 70% of the patients. Right. So that would be the idea. Even if you are on a drug, including GLP1, you should try to go back to full health so you don't need any Drugs. Now, if that fails, and only after that fails, with the team, the professional team that follows you. And I'm not talking about a team, very expensive, I'm talking very inexpensive, right? So something that could cost you literally $200 a year, right, to be followed by the right people. So with a very small investment now you have a chance to go back to your weight, the weight that you always wanted and the health that you used to have when you were 20 years old. But if that fails, some people do need GLP1 agonist. And it may be psychological, it may be genetic, it might be epigenetic. So people get modifications. So, for example, we work with these mice called DBDB mice, right? And they have a mutation in the leptin receptor. Technically it doesn't matter. The point is that they're doomed to become obese, Right? There's almost nothing they can do. So, yeah, if you're born like that, it's very hard. It's very hard. But that's a very small percentage of the population. Everybody else, don't believe any of these stories that you hear. Your weight is fixed. We've taken so many people back to their normal weight. Takes about two years, though it doesn't take two weeks.
- [21:51]
Lauren Everts
When someone works with you and you're not using a GLP1 and they want to get back to their weight that they were two years ago, what are the protocols that you put in place? Like what are the first things you have them start doing?
- [22:01]
Valter Longo
Yeah, so we work with them psychologically first on what can you sustain. Right. So if somebody says, I have to have five steaks a week and my life is going to be miserable if you remove this, then we say, okay, keep the five sticks. Right? So we'll start with that. Right. And then we try to figure out how close to the everyday longevity diet can you get. And by the way, the longevity diet is not calorie restricted diet. It's actually normal calorie, if not higher calories. So you get to eat more, but it may be normal calories. But now you're starting to get benefits, weight loss wise and fat loss wise. But some people say, for example, we always talk about a case of a doctor, Italian doctor, we put them on this longevity diet for nine months. Nothing happens. He has diabetes, hypertension, he's overweight, nothing happens. And then we start with the three cycles of the fasting diet. In one year, three in one year and two the next year. So in one and a half years he does five cycles. And now you see his Insulin resistance dropping is weight dropping and is now off Ozempic. It was an ozempic. It was, you know, metformin. It did it all. Nothing worked. And now he went back to normal weight and no drugs. Right. So it's completely healthy. He's been on like this for four or five years now. And I like that because he's a doctor.
- [23:15]
Lauren Everts
But you said it took nine months, nothing.
- [23:17]
Valter Longo
And then nine months of the diet, almost nothing. He lost like two pounds and insulin resistance was high, his blood pressure stayed high, nothing changed. So this is the frustration of a lot of people because we change his diet, right? And he was fine. He did not, didn't mind to change the diet. So we made it this, you know, very strict pescatarian diet. Nothing changed. Then we had the five cycles of FMD fasting, making diet in one and a half years. And now is that worked? Right.
- [23:48]
Michael Bostick
And it's only five days.
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Valter Longo
Five days, yeah. Five days by five. So 25 days in one and a half years.
- [23:56]
Michael Bostick
Wow.
- [23:57]
Valter Longo
That he had to dedicate. But see, because the mechanism of insulin resistance and fat accumulation needs to be unlocked. This is why a lot of people say if you wait, if you used to wait so much, you're going to stay there. That's true. Unless you unlock that, right? Once you unlock it, then you're ready to go into a fat burning mode. And this of course comes from our history, right. We used to eat a lot and to survive the winters or the period where there was no food, Right? So obesity is part of our history and it's part of our protection to stay alive. Right? So if you don't become obese 10,000 years ago, you were probably not going to make it, Right? So yeah. So that's the understanding that we need to treat people.
- [24:40]
Michael Bostick
I gained 60 pounds with both my babies. And would this be something that you, if I had met you, would you have said to help me get the weight off postpartum? Would you, Is there a certain amount of time you should wait? Can you do it, you know, three months in, can you be breastfeeding? What are all the protocol for that?
- [24:56]
Valter Longo
Well, first of all, and we discussed this in my book on children, you need to start earlier, right? You need to start with the mother and make sure that you help the mother not gain. Because it's very easy for women to say I need to eat so much because of the baby, but that's not true. And so the professional should help you gain only so much weight, which is maybe like 15 pounds or something like that.
- [25:27]
Michael Bostick
I gained 15 pounds the first day I found out I was pregnant.
- [25:30]
Lauren Everts
That's going to go viral on TikTok and it's not going to be me getting in trouble over once.
- [25:34]
Valter Longo
Yeah, yeah. So, so, so, but, but, yeah. So there is, there, there are, there is a set weight gain, right. And the professional like people in my foundation, the dietitians can help the woman just get there. And then of course you wanna, as soon as the baby is born, then you wanna start acting. You know, probably leave some time after that before the fasting Mickey diet, but maybe like a month or two, you know, and then you can start and.
- [25:58]
Michael Bostick
You can't do the fasting, mimicking diet pregnant, I'm assuming.
- [26:01]
Valter Longo
No.
- [26:02]
Lauren Everts
But to unpack that a little bit, what you're saying is there's maybe a myth or a lack of understanding that exists where it's during that time you need to maybe eat more than you actually do and it's careful. I'm being very careful.
- [26:16]
Valter Longo
No, but it's a n. It's a natural. It's a natural.
- [26:19]
Michael Bostick
When I was pregnant, this guy tried to get in the way of me ordering Krispy Kremes at 11pm at night. And it was, I was like literally move. He's like, you really think you need donuts at 11pm I was, there was nothing stopping me. It was like a pac man in my stomach.
- [26:34]
Valter Longo
No, I understand. And that's why we were saying, like I was saying about the steaks before. Right. Some people say there's nothing stopping me from eating five steaks a week. And that's okay. Right? If that's something that you cannot do without, fine, you need to work with it. And that's what the dietitians at the foundation are specializing. So they will say, okay, have that. But then let's, let's work on maybe the bread or the pasta or the rice or you know, let's try to counterbalance that with something else or 4,000 calorie smoothies.
- [27:03]
Lauren Everts
But I guess my, my question was when you are pregnant, how much do you actually, how much do you actually need to increase your food intake, if at all? Or is it just you can still follow a normal diet and the baby and the mom still going to be as healthy. It's not even more of like a food, it's more of like what is actually a healthy outcome for somebody that's trying to create.
- [27:24]
Valter Longo
Yeah. Now I'm not an expert in a way, but it's in my book. But there's a standard. This is every doctor Every pediatrician in the United States is going to have that table and it'll say, you only need to gain this much. That's it. Right. But I understand it's not easy, right? And then most women gain a lot more than that. But I think it's important for people that listen, that may be that in that situation to know. Get a pediatrician or a dietitian that knows the exact. And they can follow you and they can tell you exactly if you're, you know, even a pound above where you should be. Right. And every week of the pregnancy. So, you know, I don't remember the numbers now, but, you know, those are tables that are well established and people should follow that. But, yeah, if you don't make it and you gain a lot more, okay, but now you can go to work after, right? And yes, I think the great majority of people, probably not all, they gained a lot of weight, whether they were pregnant or for any other reason. We can slowly bring them back without drugs, Right. In some cases, if they're already taking drugs, then our idea, as tested in the clinical trials, is let's try to get them off the drugs. Right? And the trials so far, they remove in 50 to 70% of the patients, we were able to reduce drug use. Right. Or go to zero drug use, like I just described. For the physician in Italy, this is.
- [28:51]
Michael Bostick
Really weird, and I don't know if you know anything about this, but what I remember from being pregnant is you get pregnant and like a switch turns on where you're starving. Like, first thing you wake up. I'm not ever starving when I wake up when I was pregnant. You're starving when you wake up, and then whenever you need to eat, you get starving. And the problem is, is most people would say, well, maybe you need more protein, or maybe, you know, you're not eating right, but you have aversion. So all of a sudden you have aversion to all these foods that you used to love. So I'll give you, like, an example. I love eggs, but when I got pregnant, it grossed me out, so I. I couldn't eat eggs. So you have all these aversions and you can only eat certain things. So then you end up eating a bagel. But what does that do? It crashes the insulin. So then you're hungry again. So you're kind of in this weird spot where nothing sounds good and everything's gross, but you're starving, so you end up eating shit food. That was my experience.
- [29:51]
Valter Longo
Yeah. No, and obviously, so there are pediatricians and Dietitians, especially dietitians that are specialized in this, right? And that's. You want to work around it. Say, okay, you don't want to eat this. You have aversion to this, this and this. Try this. But you still need to get the nourishment. You still get the proteins. Need the proteins, but you don't want to have excess proteins, right? And so, yeah, it's a job, right? It's a job. And so in your case, like, in any case, what should happen, which is crazy, that it doesn't happen, is that the government and the insurances have that dietitian follow you for so many hours a year, right? There should be a lot of hours, especially in those nine months. This is not reimbursed. Most insurances and even government programs don't reimburse this. And this is why most women, they don't have that. They don't have the person that you can call and say, okay, I have aversion to this, this, and this. What shall I do? Like the question you just asked, there is nothing like that. And it's crazy, right? So I think that that's also, you know, your podcast is something that you need to say. This should be part of the. Part of the health care system.
- [31:00]
Lauren Everts
Next time you want the Krispy Kremes, I'll show up with a box of kiwis.
- [31:04]
Michael Bostick
I do like kiwis. I mean, you like kiwis? Yeah. Okay, whatever.
- [31:08]
Lauren Everts
You kill me.
- [31:09]
Michael Bostick
You keep mentioning, like, teams to work with. And you mentioned there's a team that's $200 to work with. Is this your team or is it a different team? Our audience is going to ask what team?
- [31:19]
Valter Longo
Well, the Create Curious Foundation. It's a nonprofit foundation that we have clinics in Italy and clinics in the United States. Some people can contact the CreateQS foundation and say, I want to enter a program. And then, you know, it's based on income. Somebody cannot afford it. They can work with them and. But the point is, have a, you know, make. Allow people to enter a program where you can be followed long term versus just going to the hospital and, you know, and getting 15 minutes of a physician and then going home and continuing to do the mistakes that you always made.
- [31:59]
Lauren Everts
So we could just link out this Create Cures foundation and they can find the information.
- [32:02]
Valter Longo
Yeah, Create Cures Foundation. Then they can book an appointment. You can also do it, you know, online and then, yeah, take it from there. But it can be fairly inexpensive if somebody cannot afford it.
- [32:17]
Michael Bostick
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- [33:40]
Lauren Everts
To talk about fatty 15 fatty 15 has quickly become an absolute staple in my supplement routine and Lauren's as well. And that's because this is an incredible supplement. It's pretty simple. Essential nutrients keep our cells healthy which keeps us healthy. If you want to get sciency about it, Studies show that C15, which is in fatty 15, works by strengthening our cells, improving our mitochondrial function and protecting us against damaging free radicals. The result? Better long term metabolic liver and heart health. We had the founder of Fatty 15 on this podcast talking about their groundbreaking supplement and the ingredient that they found which is changing people's lives, including yours truly. Every single morning I wake up and take a fatt 15 pill with my water and it's been a game changer. I have more energy, my inflammation is down, I feel better, I'm able to manage flu season much more efficiently and I just feel great. It turns out that many of us are deficient in C15, which results in weaker cells that make less energy and quit working earlier than they should. All of that makes us age faster, sleep poorly, feel sluggish throughout the day. Who wants to age faster? Nobody. Fatty 15 has three times more cellular benefits than omega 3 or fish oil. So you've been taking omega 3 or a fish oil you can try fatty 15 for three more cellular benefits and fatty 15 is made from a patented pure and oxidation resistant C15 powder derived from plants. It's vegan friendly, free of flavors, allergens or preservatives. And C15 is the only ingredient in Fatty 15. It is 100 pure. Fatty 15 is on a mission to replenish your C15 levels and restore your long term health. You can get an additional 15 off their 90 day subscription starter kit by going to fatty15.com skinny and using code skinny at checkout. Again go to fatty15.com skinny super boost.
- [35:22]
Michael Bostick
Your lashes with the new Lash Blast super cloud mascara from CoverGirl. One thing about me, I love a good mascara. I like something that's like weightless. I don't like it to be super heavy on the eyelashes. I like something that's clump free. Nothing worse if you're having clumps in your mascara. Introducing the new Lash Blast super cloud mascara from CoverGirl. So basically you're going to get clump free, smudge free, flake free wear that's gentle on lashes, easy to remove. They have this like dual side cloud flex brush wrap that extends your lashes. So I like my lashes to be like very cat eye. I like them to pull the face outward and that's exactly what this mascara does. So if you're someone who likes that very like natural but like elongated lash that's kind of flirty, you will love this mascara. So I got a chance to try it and I can tell you it's good. I used it on my regular lashes with like a lash curler, but I also used it with fake individuals and it's beautiful only from easy, breezy, beautiful CoverGirl. What is your feeling on alcohol? What have you seen with alcohol?
- [36:39]
Valter Longo
Yeah, with alcohol you see that it seems to be fairly neutral overall, you know, for lifespan and you know, there's.
- [36:48]
Michael Bostick
Some, oh, I love Italians. Move me to Italy, I'm in the wrong country. This is every American doctor would say, you can't do this, you can't do this. I'm going to Italy.
- [36:58]
Valter Longo
Yeah. This is based on epidemiological data, very extensive. Right. So if you look at how long you live, people that drink a little bit like say three, four drinks a week or less, they live as long as anybody else. Right now there is some data that suggested that people may have less cardiovascular disease. That's pretty weak. So the alcohol doesn't really protect you that much from cardiovascular disease. But yeah, the alcohol truly it is a risk factor for Certain cancers and a little bit higher breast cancer and a few others, but very small effects. So what we recommend is always, if you have talk to your doctor and if you have other risk factors for that particular cancer for which alcohol is already a risk, don't combine to risk. So if you have a lot of breast cancer in the family. Yeah, you may want to stay away from alcohol. And there is only four or five cancers for which there is a consistent association of alcohol consumption and that particular cancer. So I will look at those and then determine is this type of cancer something that was in my family, a lot of people in my family died of. And that's the case. Yeah, stay away. But other than that, say up to four weeks, four drinks a week, very little evidence that it's gonna do anything to your health span.
- [38:24]
Lauren Everts
What about sleep in relation to cancer? Do you see people that are sleep deprived spike more in terms of having cancer or do you see it not affect. As much as.
- [38:35]
Valter Longo
I'm not very familiar with. I mean, in general, sleep is very, very important for longevity. And so for, you know, the number one risk factor for cancer is, contrary to popular belief, is aging. Right. So by far. Right. So even smoking disappears compared to 30 years of age. So the more you can reduce your biological age, the least chances you will have to get cancer. So sleep is at the center of biological age, is very important. So you need to find a way to sleep. Right. So yeah, absolutely. And one of the things that we preach is stay away from food three hours before you go to sleep.
- [39:17]
Michael Bostick
Oh, that's my problem. So if you can stay away. If you can't, you don't want to fast for five days. You would say stay away from food for three hours before you close your eyes.
- [39:28]
Valter Longo
Well, I would say do eat for 12 hours and end three hours before you go to sleep. Right. If you want to have the simplest of all.
- [39:36]
Michael Bostick
Wait, my brain doesn't think like that. This.
- [39:38]
Valter Longo
So say 8am let's say 8am you can eat between 8am and 8pm okay. And then don't go to sleep until 11 if you want to maintain that. If you say, no, I have to go to sleep at 10, then you have to do 7:00am, 7:00pm okay.
- [39:51]
Michael Bostick
So I like to go to bed at 9.
- [39:53]
Valter Longo
So then you have to do 6:00am I mean, you can start at 7:00am, end by 6:00pm okay.
- [39:59]
Michael Bostick
You know what? My husband after. This is going to be so annoying.
- [40:02]
Lauren Everts
Well, it's not good for you.
- [40:02]
Michael Bostick
He's going to be like, oh, why? Why are you Eating that acai bowl in bed. He's gonna be yelling at me.
- [40:09]
Lauren Everts
Sometimes people think I'm strange. Like last night we went to dinner, but I knew we had a late day yesterday. And then I knew I was gonna have to go to bed, like kind of right when dinner was ending. And I. I just didn't eat the. I didn't eat the dinner. And I. And it's not that I. I just. I don't feel good personally, when I go to sleep. When I just ate, I feel like I get bad.
- [40:28]
Michael Bostick
It's a fourth Japanese.
- [40:29]
Lauren Everts
Well, yeah, with that. I don't know how that happens.
- [40:32]
Michael Bostick
It's the. I've seen the way that your mom is and your grandma with food. It's different. It's different than Americans. I'm telling you, I've watched he. There'll be the best cake you've ever had in your entire life. You've never had a better cake. He will eat it. Like, I'll cut him a piece and then I'll look down and he'll get up and on the plate is like four bites left me. If it's the best cake, I'm eating the whole cake.
- [40:59]
Lauren Everts
Well, I eat to say to be satiated.
- [41:01]
Michael Bostick
Yeah. He eats till he's. It's very interesting.
- [41:04]
Valter Longo
Well, you're disciplined, right? And so it's good. I mean, you could do it. Most people cannot.
- [41:07]
Lauren Everts
But I don't even think it's discipline as much as, like. Like last night, I just knew, like, I was a little bit hungry, but I knew I was gonna just not feel great if I. I don't like eating that close and then running upstairs and going to sleep. I just feel like it ruins everything. But I was going to ask you, is it better in some scenarios to cut yourself off like that and then get the better sleep, or is it more important to actually eat the meal?
- [41:31]
Valter Longo
I don't think there is anything wrong with once in a while if you, you know, if you gotta eat at midnight, eat at midnight, that's okay. Okay. I mean, the brain. What you don't want is to have this frequently. I mean, I think it's good to keep. Keep very regular times, like the circadian rhythms. Right. So you, you want to stick with the. The regular plan, and the brain likes that. But then if once in a while you violate, it's okay.
- [41:56]
Lauren Everts
I mean, you know, you just want to be consistent.
- [41:58]
Valter Longo
Yeah. I mean, you know, you don't want to violate every other day or three times a week. Right. Because then. Then you lose the Benefits. But. And I think it's perfectly fine to not eat, right. You know, and people are obsessed with this idea. I'm always interested, entertained by when I see some movies and people haven't eaten for like two days and they think they're gonna starve to death. It takes two months, right? Two months to starve to death. But it's funny, right, because in the popular understanding of things, people think after two or three days. I just watched this movie about this rugby team that died in the Andes mountains of South America. I don't know if you're familiar with that movie, right? And then, like, on day two or three, they're stuck in the mountains and the plane crashed, right? They start saying, oh, we're gonna starve to death. And, you know, they're like two months away and they. They were found. And after 45 days, I forget what it was. But yeah, so. So skipping a dinner. My point is not at the end of the world. No, it's nothing. It's not the end of the world. It's good for you, right? It's good for you as long as you don't do it. So often they become malnourished.
- [43:08]
Lauren Everts
Well, I guess in this country in particular, the portions are so massive and there's this pressure. It's like, you got to finish your plate. I mean, a lot of people, like, you've heard, like, finish your plate, like, don't. And I don't know, I always just found that to be strange because I feel like you eat until you're satiated, and then if you're not hungry, like, it's more of a portion thing than is this.
- [43:26]
Valter Longo
But this is an Okinawa practice, right? There's an Okinawa. This is part of their rules, right? You live a little bit on the plate, right? So this is. Yeah. So somehow you got that. It's great. It's great. And most people don't, right? Most people don't. You know, So I would. I would probably not leave anything. This is why, for example, Monday to Friday, I don't eat lunch, right? Because let's talk about if I eat lunch, then. Then I gain weight, you know, like everybody else. Yeah.
- [43:53]
Lauren Everts
So, okay, we've talked about intermittent fasting on this show before, and we've had all sorts of different people come on and talk about these different windows you mentioned right before we started that 16 hour windows may not. Tell me if I'm wrong. Please correct me. 16 hour windows may not be great for many people. Can you.
- [44:11]
Valter Longo
Right, for most people, yeah. So the problem with the 16 hours is that in most cases they involve skipping breakfast. Right. And so you get more benefits than the 12 hours because of course, you're only eating for eight hours a day. And so a lot of people say no, do 16 hours because look at me, look at the results that I got. But our specialization is making you live to 110 or 100, let's say. Right. So we say, yeah, short term it'll be great for you. Long term is associated with increased overall mortality, increased cardiovascular mortality and lots of other problems. So what does it mean? That probably it gives you benefits and then problems at the same time. You just don't see the problems until much later. Now, and this is the Breakfast Keepers. We have very little data on the dinner skippers. Right. So but for breakfast, this has been known for 30 years as Meta. It was called meta analysis. The studies of all studies. Very clear. Right. Over and over and over in every country that has looked at it. So Breakfast keeper that do 16 hours of fasting, they live shorter, right? Now people argue. Well, because the Breakfast Keepers also have other bad behaviors and that's why they live shorted. Yes. But my question to those that argue like this is why if 16 hours is so beneficial, then why doesn't at least make you go back to a normal lifespan? Why does it actually shorten it? Right. This is not good. When in epidemiology you see something associated with worse, Right. Then probably forget that. Right? Don't do that. Right. Don't do 16 hours.
- [45:50]
Lauren Everts
Why do they think it shortens it?
- [45:52]
Valter Longo
Well, one reason. Last year several papers were published and they took people to the hospital and gave them the food. They gave them exactly the same food. And so they fed them starting at 8am or the same food, but started at 12. And the people that started at 12, they had the slower metabolism, lower energy expenditure and more hunger. Right? So just by. And they fed him the food, so they knew it was exactly the same food. So yeah, that could be part of it. But it could be worse, right? It could be worse. We know that, for example, cholesterol increases during fasting and then it comes back down. So 16 hours could be affecting some bad, bad risk factors that keep. So every day, let's say you have a peak of cholesterol. I mean, we don't know. Maybe it has nothing to do with that. But those are some of the things I think need to be investigated. Is it possible that these peaks of cholesterol every day are now eventually going to increase your cardiovascular risk, but short.
- [46:51]
Lauren Everts
Term do you like to implement a fast like that for people that want to do a reset or want to manage weight a little more effectively? Do you implement it at all or do you tell people to just shy away from the 16 hour fast?
- [47:02]
Valter Longo
No, we tell people to stay away. We tell people that 12 hours is great, it's going to take you longer, but it's something you can keep for the rest of your life. Once you get there, you'll feel this is nothing like I do it. And I don't feel like, oh, if I could eat for another two hours that would change my life. So to me it's completely irrelevant.
- [47:21]
Michael Bostick
But you miss lunch five days a week, right? Within that, yeah.
- [47:25]
Valter Longo
Then I had to because I eat a lot at night, right. And I have, you know, a good breakfast and then I eat a lot at night. And hey, to me it was, there was the compromise, you know, I like to eat and you know, I'm Italian and especially when I'm in Italy, it's impossible. You know, dinners are all the time and, and yeah, so I had to go move to Monday through Friday, no lunch. And, and I, you know, and we, we use this with a lot of patients that come to the clinic. And you suffer for the first couple months because your brain is telling you for two months or so at least. I suffer for a couple months. A lot of patients feel the same way because your brain is telling you where's lunch? Right. But then after two months it's just like the breakfast keepers, like most breakfast keepers say, it's really effortless to me. I don't feel like I have to eat breakfast, but it happens to be effortless but causing problems. The lunch skipping, there's no evidence but.
- [48:18]
Lauren Everts
For the average person then say if they could stop eating from 7:00pm to 7:00am and then eat in the window from 7:00am to 7:00pm, go to sleep at 10:00pm That's a, that would be like a healthy way to diet.
- [48:32]
Valter Longo
That would be the healthiest way.
- [48:34]
Lauren Everts
The healthiest way.
- [48:34]
Michael Bostick
And then also if you added no lunch five days a week, that's taking it up a level. And then what I'm hearing and tell me if I'm wrong, you would also add a fasting, mimicking diet at five times a year?
- [48:46]
Valter Longo
No, no, no, not five times.
- [48:47]
Michael Bostick
Not five times.
- [48:48]
Valter Longo
Two to three times. Say in the 20 to 40 years of age, I would say two to three times a year. Right. So unless you need them more. Right. So somebody gained a lot of pounds because they were pregnant or for whatever reason, then in the clinical trials, we've done once a month until phase B. Right. So. And I think it's important for patients because for people, it's not called impatient for people, because you do the five days and then you can go back to your. Whatever it is that you do. Right. And no changes in lifestyle other than the five days. So, yeah, for people that have a bigger problem, we can start, we can do. We usually do once a month and then we move them to, you know, maybe three times a year anyways, or four or five times a year starting on year two. Right. So, yeah, if you're obese and you have diabetes, you're going to need to put more effort initially. So 12 months consecutively, 5 days FMD. And. But this is without the other things. Right. So the doctor that I was telling you about, it was implementing all of it, longevity diet, the 12 hours and the fasting making diet, and only did five in one and a half years. Right. Even though he had diabetes and he was obese.
- [50:03]
Michael Bostick
So how much did he lose?
- [50:05]
Valter Longo
He lose 30 pounds.
- [50:07]
Michael Bostick
So he lost 30 pounds, it almost sounds like to me, and I'm not a scientist or a doctor, but it has the similar effects that Ozempic has, but in a natural way. And it balances your insulin levels.
- [50:21]
Valter Longo
Yeah. So, I mean, first of all, I don't want to sound like a commercial, you know, or an infomercial, but so we take. This is university work. We take it very seriously, you know, and we've let other universities do it independently of me, so that's exactly right. Right. So no lean body mass loss if it's not combined with drugs. The only time we see muscle loss or bone density loss is when we combine the FMD with drugs. Right. If we do it in three or four trials now, no drugs, no muscle loss, Ozempic, etc. A lot of muscle loss, Ozempic, a lot of GLP1 agonist. You know, Ozempic. I'm not familiar with the Ozempic specific literature, but say GLP1 agonist, overall muscle loss, bone density loss. And now the new study in JAMA ophthalmology, a big increase in ischemia, optic nerve ischemia, which is just, I think, part of the side effects. Right? Yeah. So I think that why drugs are overestimated and overvalued is because they're easy to do. Right. But then I think we're not thinking the fact that they're interfering with normal metabolic problems. Right. So now you GLP1, you're forcing this activation of this hormone, but the body is really in another modality. And so that's when side effects happen, when you either interfere with something or force something that is not normally there with that coordinated with the general response. So the. The fasting diet is basically going back to what we've always done and unlocking in a natural way, did that insulin resistance, that fat storage modality. And of course, in, you know, 10,000 years ago, you wouldn't want to lose muscle while, you know, you switch back to a fat consumption modality, and sure enough, you don't lose muscle. And why don't you lose muscle? Because we see stem cells being activated, including muscle stem cells, and we see cells being reprogrammed. Right. So the evolution has probably already set a method to make sure you don't lose muscle mass, or if you do, you lose it temporarily, and as soon as you refeed, you regain the muscle mass. And that's exactly what we see in the trial.
- [52:47]
Michael Bostick
I love Netflix. Who doesn't love Netflix? Netflix. Little popcorn, maybe some sour gummies. I'm good. There is a new show. It's a new series called Running Point. It's from Mindy Kaling, and it's starring one of my favorites. One of your favorites probably, too. Kate Hudson. Kate Hudson is comedy gold in Netflix's hilarious new series Running Point from Mindy Kaling, the genius behind Never have I Ever and the Mindy Project. So here's the deal. When scandal rocks, the Los Angeles waves one of the most iconic pro basketball teams, Isla Gordon, steps up to run the family business. Sure, her brothers and the board aren't thrilled, and the sports world is raising eyebrows, but she's about to show everyone that she can run the game better than anyone expected. She's calling the shots. Like it or not, this sharp, edgy, and hilarious comedy serves up the perfect mix of dysfunctional family drama. And trust me, you'll want to catch every minute of Kate Hudson proving the haters wrong while everyone tries to block her shot. Running Point is now streaming only on Netflix. Get ready to binge your new favorite comedy. I had the opportunity to watch it. It's edgy, it's bold, and it's hilarious. And I know you guys will like it. I am getting serious about removing toxins in my home, in my skincare, in my makeup. I'm trying to do the best I can. I'm obviously not perfect, but one thing that I do not mess around with is toxins in the home. So the brand that I use, you guys know this. You've seen it all over my social media because I can't stop talking about it. Is Branch Basics. They have this premium starter kit. It's going to replace dozens of toxic chemicals with just one concentrate. The concentrate's plant and mineral based. There's no synthetic fragrances, no harsh chemicals, no hormone disruptors. And it's effective. That's the best part. So I have had multiple people get Branch Basics and they can't believe how effective it is. It's safe for babies, pets and the planet. I am having a new baby, so I'm very particular. I also have two kids. They're little, they're close to the floor and I have two chihuahuas. Their noses are always on the floor. So I take what I clean my house with so seriously. I have replaced every single one of my toxic cleaning supplies with Branch Basics. I get all my friends on board. I'm really passionate about this brand because it's changed my home. Visit branchbasics.com skinny15 and use code skinny15 at checkout. You get 15% off plus free shipping on your first purchase. That's branchbasics.com skinny15 use code skinny15 for 15% off plus free shipping on your first order of premium starter kit. Today. A real icon in the space of skincare plastic surgery aesthetics is Dr. Jason Diamond. He has been on this show three times. I actually go to him for Botox when I'm not pregnant. He's done a little filler in my lip and I could not be more excited because he launched a skincare line and everything is designed to get you clinical results without the clinic. What you want to get is the instant facial collection from Dr. Diamond's medicine debut, skincare. That's right, you can have Dr. Diamond in your home. Basically, you can turn on your skin with Dr. Diamond's new infusion micro collagen matrix. It's a creamy gel collagen collagen treatment. And what he did is he designed it to visibly lift, firm and define the skin. So a lot of people with hyperpigmentation or fine lines or people who want like just a lifted face love his products. All the celebrities, all the influencers go to Dr. Diamond and there's a reason why he has an aesthetic eye like nothing I've ever seen. If you want younger looking skin that feels smooth, he also has this award winning plasma and emulsion and you experience rejuvenated skin very, very quickly. I tell you that as Dr. Diamond says, take your medicine, go stalk him on Instagram. See for yourself. Visit drdimonds medicine.com to learn more about the instant facial collection, you can use Code skinny at checkout and you get a free sample of the award winning insta facial plasma with any purchase of $200 or more. That's D R D I A M O n D S M e t a c-I n e.com code skinny and you get a free sample of award winning instafacial plasma. Enjoy.
- [57:20]
Lauren Everts
On the note of muscle, do you see a correlation of greater cancer risk or less cancer risk with muscle mass or do you not see that data at all? Meaning as the people that present with cancer, do you see any indication that muscle impacts cancers in the body or.
- [57:36]
Valter Longo
No, I think that, I don't know. I haven't seen data on that. And people would normally not look for muscle and cancer, but for sure, if you get into a state of frailty, that's a very bad sign for an oncologist. Right. So if patient loses muscle mass, usually that patient is getting in trouble. Right. It means that the system is failing and you know, the patient is becoming frail and with the muscle, I think is the immune system, as I was saying earlier. Right. So yeah, so you don't want. This is why in our trials, in cancer trials, so we published one with women with breast cancer and we had an exercise regimen muscle and the women actually gained muscle mass, you know, during the one year of therapy. So yeah, so it's very important to keep the muscle, but it's very important to keep the proteins as low as possible and keep them. So in that trial we got actually angry with some of the physicians that were overfeeding the patients between fasting, mimicking diet cycles. And this is probably why the women gained muscle mass. We did not want that. We wanted them to keep a normal muscle mass and then fight the cancer. Right. So but that's a special situation. But because you asked me about cancer, so ideal, you keep the diet, you know, in a way that keeps the, these growth factors, insulin and glucose is low but not too low. And then, you know, you have muscle exercise so that the women or men can keep a, you know, a good muscle mass.
- [59:17]
Lauren Everts
Okay. And then the follow up, the second thing which we haven't talked about are there when you run the blood work, are there any supplements or vitamins that you suggest people take or levels that they manage in order to stave off cancer or to combat it once it's there?
- [59:31]
Valter Longo
I mean, different people. There's lots of studies looking at the US population and most people are missing Something. Right. So the best thing you could do is just make sure that you're not missing B12 or D or, you know. Yeah. So I would say, you know, a multivitamin every couple days and Omega 3. Those seems to be the ones that people are missing the most. You know, one of the many vitamins. And so if you have a multivitamin every other day and omega 3 fish oil every other day, that's pretty good, or that's probably going to catch the great majority of the deficiency. There doesn't seem really to be anything that is confirmed to prevent cancer. Yeah. So the people that say have a lot of vitamin C, they don't. Most try. Most studies will suggest that there's minimal effect on cancer. And that's the one that has been mostly talked about for cancer. Right. Vitamin C. So. But yeah, having a high vitamin C intake or supplements, that doesn't really prevent cancer. You know, there could be some things that they do, but none that after 30 years of people looking, I haven't seen a single one.
- [60:43]
Michael Bostick
Before you go, you have to tell us what you think made your book so incredibly successful. The Longevity Diet was an international bestseller. It translated into over 25 languages, sold in more than 30 countries around the globe. And you were also voted one of the 50 most influential people in healthcare by Time magazine. That book obviously struck a nerve with a lot of people. What do you think about that book when you're reflecting on it was so impactful?
- [61:11]
Valter Longo
I think it was probably the first book that didn't just say, I'm going to use, let's say, epidemiology, the studies of population to make decisions. That's what a lot of what you hear. It was 30 years of work with the centenarians, the mice, the people, the clinical trials. And so I think people appreciated that all of that being put together, of course, would be almost impossible for anybody to be able to put it all together. And so because it was my job, I think I was able to. And I work with some of the best people, like Roy Walford here at UCLA and, you know, some of the best scientists in the world in this domain, you know, collaborate, let's say, with the Harvard School of Public Health and there's great, great work coming out of that school. Yeah. So I think, yeah, putting it together for people in a way that it was fairly straightforward for them, but also it was. I think they got the message that this is probably not going to be proven wrong in two years. It's not a fad that, okay, he's got a new idea, a new diet. It wasn't that. It was more, here's what, 30 years of work by me and many laboratories and many people that we collaborated with and also those that we didn't collaborate with. Let me put it all in a book and give it to you in a way that tell you a story, first of all. And I think the storytelling was also important. I didn't make it about a manual. It was more like, hey, I got to Chicago from Italy. My relatives had diabetes and I never seen diabetes. They came from Italy, they were all from Italy and a lot of them had diabetes and cardiovascular disease. And none of my family members in Italy had diabetes. So it's the same genetics, but all of a sudden. Yeah. So that's a storytelling that I think for people was also important to see. That or me being a biochemistry, having a degree in biochemistry and still having a terrible diet until I went to Walford. Right, so you have a biochemistry degree. Shouldn't you have a good diet? No, I didn't. I have a terrible diet when I first got to Los Angeles and I had high cholesterol, high blood pressure as a 25 year old. Right. I mean, I was starting to get there. So, yeah. So those, those are the things that I think that made it successful.
- [63:22]
Michael Bostick
Where can everyone find your new book? Where can they ask you questions? Fasting Cancer is the title, comes out February 2nd.
- [63:30]
Valter Longo
Yeah. So Instagram, Professor Valter Longo, Instagram, Facebook and then the Create Cures foundation. And please contact them. And the book is by every Random House.
- [63:46]
Michael Bostick
So, yeah, thank you for coming on. I am going to talk to you about trying my fasting mimicking diet twice a year. Okay, thank you.