Valter Longo
Biogerontologist · The Longevity Diet
Director of the Longevity Institute at USC, where his lab traced how nutrients and fasting switch the genes that set the pace of aging. He is best known for the fasting-mimicking diet, a five-day plan developed in that lab, and for The Longevity Diet, the book built on it. He grew up between Genoa and Calabria, played guitar in a rock band before biochemistry took over, and donates his book proceeds and consulting fees to two foundations he set up.
- Entries
- 19
- Does
- 9
- Recommends
- 8
- Discusses
- 2
Books
2 books in this stack
- BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
At Longevity's Table
A recipe book from his foundation, over 200 dishes out of the long-lived regions of Italy, chosen to line up with the longevity diet. Proceeds follow the same route as his other titles.
Source: Valter Longo: At Longevity's TableVisit valterlongo.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The Longevity Diet
His 2018 book, now in 25 languages, setting the everyday pescatarian pattern next to the five-day fasting cycles. The author proceeds go to the two foundations he set up rather than to him.
Source: Valter Longo: The Longevity DietVisit valterlongo.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it
Supplements
1 supplement in this stack
- SupplementDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Multivitamin
Takes one a couple of times a week, he told TODAY, as cover for anything the diet leaves short.
Source: TODAY: Diet and exercise habits of a longevity expert who wants to live to 120View item: MultivitaminOn record from 6 of 62 tracked people: 5 do it, 1 recommends it
Protocols
11 entriesStructured routines and practices with a defined method.
Every meal lands inside a twelve-hour window, breakfast included. He keeps breakfast because studies have linked skipping it to harm, he told TODAY.
Source: TODAY: Diet and exercise habits of a longevity expert who wants to live to 120A stationary bike sits in each of the three places he lives, which he says is the only reason the session happens. An hour every other day, resistance set to feel like climbing a hill.
Source: TODAY: Diet and exercise habits of a longevity expert who wants to live to 120Chickpeas, lentils and black beans supply most of his protein, with fish the smaller share. He points out that overshooting protein is difficult once beans are the base of the plate.
Source: TODAY: Diet and exercise habits of a longevity expert who wants to live to 120Plant-rich plates with seafood three times a week is how he described his own eating to TODAY. Legumes rather than fish carry most of the protein, and red meat turns up maybe once a month.
Source: TODAY: Diet and exercise habits of a longevity expert who wants to live to 120Weekdays run breakfast, no lunch, a few almonds, then dinner. Dropping the middle meal costs about 500 calories, he says, without much hunger or a slowing metabolism.
Source: TODAY: Diet and exercise habits of a longevity expert who wants to live to 120Weights or bodyweight work for all the muscles is on his exercise page, followed an hour or two later by a low-carb meal carrying a decent amount of protein.
Source: Valter Longo: Exercise and LongevityThe version he backs is the original one, plants and nuts, and he says almost nobody in Italy eats that way now. He puts the shift down to what he calls the poisonous five Ps: pizza, pasta, protein, potatoes and bread.
Source: Fortune: The key to a long life is avoiding the poisonous 5 Ps, says one of the world's top anti-aging expertsFive days at a time, twice a year for someone healthy and more often for people carrying high glucose or blood pressure, is the schedule he gave Blue Zones. He is open about owning the thing he is describing: he started the company behind the boxed version, and says he put his shares into a nonprofit he set up.
Source: Blue Zones: Fasting for Longevity: 9 Questions for Dr. Valter D. LongoUnder 65 he argues for protein that is low but sufficient and mostly from plants, pointing at the growth pathways his lab has tied to aging. Past 65 he wants it raised again, along with fish and eggs, to hold off frailty and muscle loss.
Source: USC Leonard Davis: New Article Outlines the Characteristics of a Longevity DietWater-only fasting belongs in a clinic, in his view. He built the five-day fasting-mimicking program because almost nobody in his early trials could manage water alone; they cheated, and told him it was simply too hard.
Source: Blue Zones: Fasting for Longevity: 9 Questions for Dr. Valter D. LongoAsked which test he rates, he names Morgan Levine's score, the one built from everyday blood markers such as A1C and blood pressure. Where several tests disagree, he suggests averaging them instead of keeping the kindest result.
Source: ZOE Science and Nutrition: Fasting and biological age with Dr. Valter Longo
Habits
5 entriesRecurring behaviors recorded in public statements.
An hour a day, kept up for decades to copy what the centenarians he interviewed described. Milan makes it easy because he walks to work; Los Angeles does not, so he walks to coffee shops and restaurants instead.
Source: TODAY: Diet and exercise habits of a longevity expert who wants to live to 120Sweets are the weakness he admits to, so he narrowed them down to 85 percent cocoa chocolate every night. Asked on a podcast for a guilty pleasure, that was the answer he gave.
Source: Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine: Intermittent Fasting with Dr. Valter LongoEscalators and elevators get skipped, and luggage goes up the airport stairs by hand while other travelers stare. Carrying is what bodies were built for, he argues, and muscles that never carry anything end up frail.
Source: TODAY: Diet and exercise habits of a longevity expert who wants to live to 120Three to four hours between the last bite and bed is one of the rules on his own site, sitting directly beneath the twelve-hour window.
Source: Valter Longo: Longevity Diet for AdultsThree tablespoons of olive oil a day, with an ounce of nuts alongside, is what the adult plan on his own site asks for, next to whole grains and a lot of vegetables.
Source: Valter Longo: Longevity Diet for Adults
In their own words
Checked word for word against the linked source
“I eat the diet I described above for my overall diet; for breakfast, I always have one green tea and one black tea bag with a squeeze of lemon, and cinnamon raisin toast with a low-sugar fruit preserve.”
Blue Zones: Fasting Mimicking Diet Could Fight Disease, Increase Longevity (opens in a new tab) “I cloned the environment because I realized that if I don’t have it at home… I would not do exercise… So every other day, no excuses. I have a stationary bike and I do one hour.”
TODAY: Diet and exercise habits of a longevity expert who wants to live to 120 (opens in a new tab) · 5 Oct 2023 On Cycling
“I committed all my shares in L-Nutra to a nonprofit organization that I started called Create Cures, so we could continue to research and learn about fasting.”
Blue Zones: Fasting for Longevity: 9 Questions for Dr. Valter D. Longo (opens in a new tab) “Well if it was up to me, I will eat sweets all day long, but I'm very good and so I narrow it down to now 85% cocoa, chocolate every night”
Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine: Intermittent Fasting with Dr. Valter Longo (opens in a new tab) “Ketogenic diet short-term is good, long-term it kills you early. The 16-hour fasting short-term is good. Long-term it kills you early. Very low carb diets. Short-term is good. Long-term it kills you.”
Stanford Medicine, The Future of Medicine: Valter Longo on Fasting-Mimicking Diets and Longevity (opens in a new tab) · 26 Jul 2026
Stack notes are paraphrased. Anything in quotation marks is a short excerpt copied from the transcript it links to. Not medical advice. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by anyone listed. How this works.