Limiting your consumption of one foodmay help you 'stay young', a top expert has claimed. Dr Valter Longo, who heads up the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California, has devoted his professional life to studying how we age and develop diseases.
Although most UK adults live to around 80 years old, Dr Longo suggests that you can indeed increase your life expectancy by adhering to several essential guidelines. Frequent exercise and a nutrient-rich diet are among the essentials he recommends, but keeping one thing to a minimum is encouraged too.
Perhaps unexpectedly, this is fish, with Dr Longo previously asserting that just 'two or three' weekly portions is best for an adult's 'longevity diet'. "Eat mostly vegan, plus a little fish," he wrote in a past online blog of advice on 'how to stay young'.
"Choose fish, crustaceans, and molluscs with a high omega-3, omega-6, and vitamin B12 content (salmon, anchovies, sardines, cod, sea bream, trout, clams, shrimp. Pay attention to the quality of the fish, choosing those with low levels of mercury."
As noted by Dr Longo, fish brimming with omega-3s - or 'healthy fats' - are especially beneficial for our well-being. Growing evidence suggests they play several key roles, not only bolstering cognitive function but also potentially reducing heart disease risk factors.
While this might appear overwhelmingly encouraging, there are some neglected drawbacks to consuming excessive amounts of fish. These are worries flagged by the NHS, with official advicecautioning that oily types 'usually have higher levels of pollutants than other types of seafood'.
This includes mercury, a toxic element to humans. Although the risk from eating fish is generally low, high mercury exposure can cause seizures, memory problems, numbness, and other symptoms.
"We should eat at least one portion (around 140g when cooked) of oily fish a week," online NHSadvice claims. "Oily fish usually have higher levels of pollutants than other types of seafood. For this reason, there are maximum recommendations for the number of portions some groups should be eating each week."
The NHS draws special attention to young girls, women planning pregnancy or wanting a child one day, expectant mothers and breastfeeding women. These groups should eat no more than two portions of oily fish per week as pollutants may affect the 'future development of a baby in the womb'.
It adds: "Eating fish is good for your health and the development of your baby. However, pregnant and breastfeeding women should avoid some types of fish and limit the amount they eat of some others. This is because of the levels of mercury and pollutants that some fish can contain.
"When pregnant, you can reduce your risk of food poisoning by avoiding raw shellfish and making sure that any shellfish or smoked fish you eat is cooked thoroughly."
Aside from this, Dr Longo encourages dieters to eat meals within a 'a twelve-hour period' every day to reap the most health benefits. Similar beliefs are backed by Professor Tim Spector, who previously told theZOE podcastthat it's worth steering clear of food for at least 12 hours overnight.
"There are a number of reasons for this," he said, according to a previous Mirror report. "One is that the body needs time to recover and that it's part of our circadian rhythms, so all the cells in our body have the same 24-hour clock."
Within the same conversation, Dr Sarah Berry added: "There was a really interesting study that came out last year that I think really nicely illustrates what's going on by eating late in the day. And in this study they gave people exactly the same food over exactly the same time period, but half of the people had the food slightly earlier in the day and the other half had the same food slightly later in the day.
"...Those people who were having it later in the day, despite eating late in the evening, woke up the next morning lots more hungry than the people who were finishing their food a lot earlier in the day."
