The Ingredients of Longevity Nutrition
by Konstantin Monastyrsky

I bet you don't want to get fat or drop dead from diabetes or heart disease. At least until the next meal, that is... Unfortunately, that's the nature of the “beast” — we are programmed by nature to eat, eat, and eat in order to hoard nutrients and energy all over the body.

And that's what our ancestors did throughout history — they ate, ate, and ate while foods were plentiful, and fasted or semi-fasted while foods were scarce. So, here is today's dilemma — foods never become scarce, and plentiful foods are killing us. What to do?

Go back to basics!
There are three possible hopes for attaining health and, by extension, longevity — wishful thinking, medical intervention, and basic nutrition.

1. The wishful thinking paradigm states that immortality is just around the corner — genome projects, stem cells, reprogramming of the telomeres, cryogenics, the works. Go baby, go! Eat yourself to death, but we’ll take care of you real soon. Right… The tombstones of the hopefuls— rich and poor alike— who died from a “healthy diet” wouldn’t fit into the Arlington Cemetery.

2. The medical intervention paradigm is best represented by the “lifestyle” drugs. High sugar from too much carbs? No problem, just take Avandia®. Hypertension from Avandia? No problem, just take Diovan®. Congestive heart failure from Diovan? No problem, just take thiazide (a diuretic). It works, kind of… Live in misery a bit longer — yes. Health and longevity — forget it!

3. The basic nutrition paradigm is the most difficult to grasp because it’s cheap, simple, low-tech, and doesn’t require anything special to do — except reading, thinking, and follow through. And, so far, it’s the only one proven to work. I hope you’ll adopt it, because it’s the foundation of health and longevity.

Since there are no money-making opportunities and no glamour attached to anything “basic,” you are least likely to hear about basic nutrition from the promoters, whose livelihoods, tenures, and self-aggrandizement depends on the “next best thing.”

To make basic nutrition palatable — sorry, promotable — I too gave it a glamorous name: 'Ageless Nutrition.' If immortality is indeed around the corner, at the very least you’ll get there in better shape. Imagine the indignity of facing eternal life while feeling and looking like a beat-up old bag…

To assure you that this isn’t yet another exercise in wishful thinking, here is a detailed primer on basic nutrition, referred to throughout this essay either as the utilitarian longevity diet or the idealistic ageless nutrition approach.

Nutrition to thrive vs. nutrition to get by
We — the rich and pampered Westerners — eat primarily for fun. Our ancestors ate for survival. Until quite recently, fun with food wasn’t yet an option for anyone but kings, queens, and their coterie. Everyone else thrived on basic nutrition — strictly foods from nature and without excess.

Once you pattern this kind of basic nutrition into your lifestyle, you are practically guaranteed longevity thanks to today’s extra safety net from the state-of-the-art emergency and infectious diseases medicine. On top of that, the modernity and technology largely offset the newer risk factors, such as pollution, depleted soils, prior exposure to drugs, and so on.

With minor exceptions, the core ingredients of basic nutrition remain unchanged from the beginning of the Neolithic era about 8,000 to 10,000 years ago until the commencement of the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century, when specialization, sophistication, and food processing radically altered urban lifestyles and diets.

Just before the Industrial Revolution, our ancestors could count their food choices on ten fingers. With a menu that limited, there was no need for nutritionists — all of the wholesome “goodies” literally fell into their lap by the evolutionary fiat in the form of basic nutrition.

The popular notion that before modern medicine and nutrition, people hadn’t been healthy or lived long, is a smoke screen. Poor, destitute, and hard laborers indeed hadn’t lived very long then, nor are they living any longer today. The upper strata, however, enjoyed good health and longevity. Here are the actuary stats for the American presidents born prior to the 20th century, and who passed away from natural causes:

President
Date of
birth
Date of
death
Age

James Polk 1795 1849 54
Chester A. Arthur 1829 1886 57
Warren Harding 1865 1923 58
Calvin Coolidge 1872 1933 61
Ulysses S. Grant 1822 1885 63
Franklin D. Roosevelt 1882 1945 63
Franklin Pierce 1804 1868 64
Zachary Taylor 1784 1850 66
George Washington 1732 1799 67
Andrew Johnson 1808 1875 67
Benjamin Harrison 1833 1901 68
Woodrow Wilson 1856 1924 68
William Henry Harrison 1772 1841 69
Grover Cleveland 1837 1907 70
Rutherford B. Hayes 1822 1893 71
John Tyler 1790 1862 72
Dwight D. Eisenhower 1890 1962 72
James Monroe 1758 1831 73
William H. Taft 1857 1930 73
Millard Fillmore 1800 1874 74
Andrew Jackson 1767 1845 78
James Buchanan 1791 1869 78
Martin Van Buren 1782 1862 80
John Quincy Adams 1767 1848 81
Thomas Jefferson 1743 1826 83
James Madison 1751 1836 85
Harry S. Truman 1884 1972 88
Herbert Hoover 1874 1964 90
John Adams 1735 1826 91
Average age at death 71.8

As you can see, the presidents born the earliest (in the 18th century) lived the longest because they didn’t live like kings yet. The exceptions were Harry Truman and Herbert Hoover — the luckiest of the bunch — both born late enough to still enjoy basic nutrition, while managing to catch most of the modern comforts and conveniences.

Remarkable, isn’t it? Our presidents born in the 18th and 19th centuries enjoyed a 71.8-year average life span, just 3 years shy of the life expectancy for American men living in the 21st century.

It’s even more remarkable when considering that most of these gentlemen had lived and worked in or around malaria-infested Washington, shook a great deal of dirty hands, commuted in horse-drawn carriages, drank wines, smoked cigars, or chewed tobacco as was common during that era. John Adams began smoking a pipe at age 8, and lived to be 91. James Madison smoked until his death at 85 [link].

I am not, of course, condoning smoking, snuff, or drinking, but making a point about the protective properties of basic nutrition. With today’s environment and pollution, you need every bit of extra protection you can get.

Was it better luck, stronger genes, smarter doctors, or safer drugs that enabled them to live that long. No, no, no, and no — it was all related to their basic nutrition. It goes without saying that none of them took drugs or supplements — at that time they simply didn't have any.

Wishful thinking, false hopes, and a sustenance diet in the second half of the 20th century have left deadly imprints on the health of our recent presidents and vice presidents, who, plus or minus few years, are our contemporaries — and certainly enjoy a king’s lifestyle.

The former president Bill Clinton (born 1946) barely survived a massive heart attack at 58, despite his fling with the South Beach Diet and extensive exercising with a private trainer.

Despite his gilded lifestyle before, during, and after the vice-presidency, Al Gore (born 1948) is affected by metabolic syndrome, which is apparent from his substantial truncal obesity.

President George Bush (born 1946) had hemorrhoids in his youth, precancerous polyps in his colon in 1998 and 1999, cancerous lesions on his skin, a syncope episode most likely related to hypoglycemia, osteoarthritis in his knees, and attention deficit disorder/hyperactivity disorder, apparent from his dyslexia.

Vice President Dick Cheney (born 1941) experienced his first heart attack at age 37, and his heart has been propped up with an implanted cardiac defibrillator since 2001. His list of chronic conditions is so long, the ambulance and cardiac resuscitation team follows him wherever he goes.

The basic nutrition of the 20th century hasn’t been very generous health-wise — not just to presidents, but to the rest of Americans as well. By the late 1930s, or early 1940s, the scientists knew (more or less) what was missing from the contemporary diet, and attempted to fix it. The first Recommended Dietary Allowances were released in 1941. Since then the RDAs have been hotly debated, and updated 11 times.

Recognizing that the situation isn’t getting any better, the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences abandoned RDAs in 1998, and has begun releasing Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) recommendations [link]. But the basic tenets of DRI remained the same as RDA, and the debate over the best sources for these nutrients is still far from settled.

On the DRI side, there are the advocates of the Food Guide Pyramid (MyPyramid.gov) who believe you should get all of your nutrients from fresh fruits, vegetables, and processed foods (fortified bread, cereals, juices, and fat-free or low-fat dairy) just as in this illustration (modified to fit this screen, click the picture to see the original):




On the basic nutrition side are those who realize that you can’t get all of the required macro- and micro-nutrients from food unless you lead an al fresco lifestyle in an unspoiled natural environment identical to that of our ancestors or of people still living in well-known longevity zones, as I described in the Fiber-Related Malnutrition essay.

As you can imagine, I clearly represent the basic nutrition side. My position is based on comparing foods people eat in the known longevity zones (longevity diet) vis-à-vis the Food Guide Pyramid (sustenance diet).

If you know what to look for, it doesn’t take a Ph.D. in nutrition to spot the differences between these two diets, just common sense — a classic approach from the forensic nutrition's prospective.

Once you recognize the difference, there are two ways to attain health and longevity. The first one is to continue testing your luck with the Food Guide Pyramid just like our presidents and vice presidents were/are doing all along. The second way, which I propose, is to adapt your eating as close as possible to basic nutrition—proven to “deliver the goods” by the ordinary lives of still-living centenarians in known longevity regions.

The second choice becomes even more transparent when presented this way: If you were a newborn, and had a choice between mother’s milk and infant formula, which one would you chose? Which one would be more nutritious and healthier for you?

Even a newborn is smart enough to answer these questions without giving it a second thought:

If you can help it, stay away from the “formula!”


Here is the analysis of basic nutrition vis-à-vis the Food Guide Pyramid. If this helps you in “getting off the formula,” then health and longevity are just around the corner.

The key ingredients of basic nutrition
Basic nutrition is far from ascetic — it’s food from nature, not little food. And it isn’t bland — it’s food from nature, not tasteless food. And it isn’t boring — it’s food from nature, not just all the same food all of the time. And it isn’t puritanical — spirits from nature are okay too. As you can see, the key operating words are “food from nature.”

Here are the core ingredients of basic nutrition. This is people’s nutrition in known longevity zones:

Extended and exclusive breastfeeding. Until the widespread availability of reliable formulas in 1950-60's, most children were breastfed exclusively until the development of deciduous (milk) teeth, and, depending on lactation strength, well past that point. Children were strong, sturdy, and disease-resistant.

Unprocessed natural water with a high mineral salt content. Until the widespread availability of tap water, which is heavily processed (i.e. filtered, aerated, ionized, and treated with chemical disinfectants), people were drinking mainly well or spring water, which is naturally rich in mineral salts. This kind of water provided all essential minerals and trace elements throughout life, particularly calcium, magnesium, copper, iron, and iodine. These minerals are essential for normal heart function, bone strength, collagen production, and blood oxygenation (iron) and thyroid health (iodine). Soft tap water lacks them all, and today’s industrial food can’t replenish them either.

No overhydration. Because there was no refrigeration or proper storage, fresh water was consumed mainly at the source to prevent digestive infections. The rest of the water was obtained mainly from food, fermented dairy, and low-alcohol beverages. This prevented overhydration and loss of essential minerals with urine.

Natural meat from small grazing animals. Fresh dairy, organ meats, and the minimally-processed meat of grazing animals provided many of the essential vitamins, minerals, and microelements. Today’s meats from corn-fed livestock have negligible amounts of essential supplements, and high-temperature cooking reduces their availability even more.

Consumption of organ meats and fermented dairy from free-range, grazing animals. Organ meat, particularly liver, offers the highest concentration of minerals, trace elements, and vitamins (particularly the B-group). Organ meats also provided plentiful vitamin B-12, which is essential for health, but not available from any plant sources. Today organ meat is rarely consumed.

Naturally-fermented dairy provided abundant predigested proteins, high-quality fat, and easily-assimilated minerals. These kinds of products are no longer broadly consumed.

Year-round exposure to UV-rays. Historically, most vitamin D was synthesized from cholesterol in the skin receptors under the influence of the sun’s UV-rays.

No exposure to antibiotics and antibacterial drugs. Intestinal flora is known to produce biotin (essential B-vitamin) and vitamin K. People in rural longevity zones had never used antibiotics and antibacterial drugs, such as mercury. They didn’t depend on these vitamins to come from dietary sources.

Consumption of fatty fish provides a continuous supply of essential fatty acids (EPA and DHA), as well as vitamins A & D. Most of the farm-raised fish, fillets, and warm-water fish lack similar quality fat and vitamins, even if regularly consumed.

Cooking techniques. People in longevity zones consume most food as soon as they are harvested, raw, or use low-temperature cooking methods. These factors preserve most of the micronutrients in these foods.

Natural ratio of macronutrients. Free-range meats are fairly lean, because grasses aren’t as energy-dense as corn or wheat. The ratio of protein to fat in raw lamb’s quarters, for example, is 4.25 to 1, and slightly less fat after broiling and draining it. Wild-caught fish and seafood, particularly from warm waters, are also lean. Carbohydrate consumption was low and sporadic, particularly as one moved away from the tropics. That’s because until very recently, there were no means to store, mill, and process grains into year-round consumables, and fresh fruits and vegetables were available only seasonally.

Negligible dietary fiber. Fiber in food was always avoided, and still is outside of English-speaking countries. Until recently there was no means of processing insoluble fiber into edible food. The minor amounts of soluble fiber consumed with natural fruits and vegetables don’t impact health.

Liberal consumption of low-alcohol wines and ales. Wines and ales were a primary source of water and carbohydrates. They were easy to make, energy-dense, and offered a reliable source of hydration without risk of contamination, particularly for people who didn’t lived close to natural springs or dug wells. The natural acidity, low sugar content, and presence of ethanol preserved wines and neutralized pathogens. Also, these beverages contain minerals, microelements, and phytochemicals — plant substances known for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. Natural grape wines also offered “nutritionally significant levels of riboflavin, vitamin B6 and niacin [ link].”

This kind of basic nutrition, adapted to today’s realities and environment, becomes the longevity diet, and provides a viable alternative to the sustenance diet, described next.

The sustenance diet — it gets you by until bye-bye…
It’s quite ironic that our emblem of healthy nutrition is called the Pyramid Food Guide, considering that the pyramids were the tombstones for dead pharaohs — and that fraudulent schemes based on the complicity of many participants are called “pyramids” too.




This “healthy nutrition” is carbohydrate-heavy because grains, fruits, vegetables, and processed dairy are cheap and plentiful, while meats and fish are expensive. The original RDAs were formulated for people in prisons, orphanages, and on public assistance, hence the reliance on cheap food.

The problems with today’s pyramid (as both — a tombstone and a deception) are obvious, once you begin comparing “what was before” with “what is now.” Here are all the same ingredients of the sustenance diet, but this time “what is now:”

Breastfeeding is limited or absent. Few children receive exclusive breastfeeding past 6 months of age. Up to 75% are fed formula [link]. Very few children receive extended breastfeeding. Asthma, anemia, bone disease, cavities, depression, diabetes, obesity, deformed jaws, chronic colds, and digestive disorders are widespread among children. For most, antibiotics replaced innate immunity.

Devitalized tap water. Raw unprocessed water isn’t available to most, unless you have your own dug or artesian well, and don’t filter and soften ground water. Surface water (i.e. from rainfall, rivers, lakes) doesn’t offer the same mineral content as raw water. Tap water is behind arthritis, osteoporosis, tooth loss, cardiovascular disorders (calcium and magnesium deficiency), thyroid dysfunctions (iodine), gray hair, wrinkles, and atherosclerosis (copper), diabetes (chromium), and many other conditions.

Overhydration. Excessive consumption of water causes rapid depletion of minerals stored in bones. The more demineralized water you drink, the more minerals are required to maintain blood homeostasis. Some of these minerals leave the body with urine and stools, but don’t get promptly replaced, because tap water doesn’t contain any. Consequently, most Americans experience bone disease and tooth loss long before reaching the midlife point. Healthy people in known longevity zones rarely experience tooth decay or tooth loss, and don’t suffer from osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. The perils of overhydration extend well past bone disease, as described in detail in the second chapter of Fiber Menace — called Water Damage.

Devitalized food. The majority of foods produced by agro-industrial complexes use every conceivable technology to “optimize yield” — synthetic fertilizers, toxic herbicides and pesticides, genetically-modified planting material, and so on. Practically all plants are grown on overused soil, devoid of essential minerals and trace elements. Fruits and vegetables are collected before maturity to preserve appearance, and stored in conditions that cause oxidation and loss of vitamins. The quality of meat, fowl, and fish is low because of industrial growing techniques, while their contamination with antibiotics and growth hormones is high. Practically all dairy, even some organic, is made from dry milk mixed with tap water. Fat is removed to be sold at a substantial premium as heavy cream, sour cream, and butter.

No daylight exposure. Minimal daylight exposure and the widespread use of sunblocks causes profound vitamin D deficiency in most of the population. Rickets, scoliosis, and osteomalacia (all bone-softening diseases) has become equally widespread and common.

Compromised or absent intestinal flora. Endogenous (in situ) biosynthesis of biotin and vitamin K by bacteria has been compromised in the population from the widespread use of antibiotics and antibacterial drugs, as well as by common pollutants, heavy metals, pesticides, and herbicides. This has lead to a broad number of neurological, skin, and mucosal disorders, hard-to-stop bleeding, and many other ailments.

Chronic deficiency of essential fatty acids. Wild-caught raw fatty fish is an expensive rarity for most of the population. High-temperature cooking destroys perishable essential fatty acids. On top of that, fat is scorned, and most fish is consumed as fillets stripped of fat. This leads to developmental problems, depression, bone disease, blood disorders, heart disease, and many other problems.

Intensive food processing. Gas and electric stoves, ovens, and microwaves allow for extended high-temperature cooking, substantial denaturation of proteins, rendering of fats, and destruction of delicate essential fatty acids. Even when foods are consumed that have seemingly adequate amounts of necessary nutrients, intensive cooking may cause malnutrition.

Overconsumption of certain nutrients. Vegetables fats and carbohydrates are routinely overconsumed in contemporary diets. This imbalance is behind the widespread occurrence of metabolic syndrome (prediabetes), obesity, and degenerative diseases.

Excessive consumption and dependence of dietary fiber. The consequences of fiber overconsumption are the focus of this site and Fiber Menace. Digestive disorders caused by fiber render an already meager diet even more deficient.

Overuse of distilled spirits. Distillation and aging of fermented fruits and grains into distilled high-proof spirits wasn’t generally available until the 15-16th century, and widespread consumption didn’t begin until a more evolved market economy. High-proof distilled drinks have zero nutritional value (relative to young wines), cause rapid dehydration, loss of minerals with excessive urination, liver disease, and dependence. Inadequate distillation leaves behind alcohols other than ethanol that are extremely toxic.

Widespread malnutrition isn’t big news to the United States government, which ends up funding Medicaid and Medicare insurance programs from our tax dollars. For this reason the government demands mandatory fortification of wheat flour and rice with folic acid, niacin, and iron; dairy with vitamin A, and recommends fortification of juices with vitamins C, D, and calcium, and dairy with vitamin D.

Alas, it’s too little, and too late. We get to live as we eat… According to the USDA, Americans spent $899.8 billion for food in 2006 [link]. Since we are spending twice as much on healthcare as Japan (which mainly has retained traditional ways of eating), an extra trillion dollars is spent to take care of nutritional disorders [link]. In essence, the United States government could have provided every single citizen with free food for less money than we are spending to support a sustenance diet.

So it’s a no-brainer — basic nutrition is better than a sustenance diet. You don’t get sick for nothing, and you get to live a longer life. But how do you switch to one without moving to Sardinia or Okinawa?