Influences #

These works have guided by thinking about how to maintain good health for as long as possible. They are roughly sorted by their level of influence on my thinking.

The Longevity Diet by Valter Longo. #

Good examination of fasting, as well as an overview of different ways to think about how to determine which diet is the healthiest long term (Longo’s “5 Pillars”). Provides some compelling theories of aging, with interesting yeast/mice/human results. In this book Longo advocates for a whole food plant based diet, interestingly limiting protein intake (unlike many other health advocates).

See this paper for a good summarized review of Longo’s thoughts on fasting. This overview gives an even broader look of Longo’s nutrition philosophy. From that paper, I also found this study which gives a super cool view into which types of dietary interventions are the most impactful in terms of life years gained/lost.

Michael Lustgarten’s Diet #

Michael Lustgarten is heroically tracking all the food he eats and doing regular blood testing. His diet, although very personalized, may be a good starting point for a generally healthy diet.

Longevity Advice #

Cool blog that does reviews of different longevity topics. I like their style, and their content is generally of good quality.

Kevin Bass #

Excellent science advocate that fights hard to avoid believing good stories that are not backed by evidence. Some of his work that resonates most strongly with me includes:

Good measured discussion of the Keto diet (on the Healthcare Unfiltered podcast). Does a really good job here discussing keto movement context and how LDL cholesterol is treated by the movement.
This tweet about how science in unnatural.

This book makes the conjecture that age may be partially (or primarily) because of our bodies waning ability to compete with (or stay in sync with) the microbes that colonize us. Not a ton of actionable info, but presents some really compelling theories!

Lifespan by David Sinclair #

Cool review of a new theory of aging that seems promising to be. Also does some good review of longevity concepts. This was my introduction to the field (specifically a Joe Rogan Experience David Sinclair interview). Be aware that David Sinclair is pretty optimistic and eager to promote things that are not 100% solid yet (see Resveratrol). A good summary of this book can be found at https://hplus.club/blog/a-summary-of-david-sinclairs-information-theory-of-aging/.

Red Pen Reviews #

I haven’t dug deeply into this website, but my skimming has found that it’s a pretty good way to determine which books to trust and which not to - a very important task given the plethora of bad nutrition advice out there.

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan #

I highly recommend this book! The biggest takeaway I got from it is that our tendency to break down foods and biology in general into atomic nutrients/aspects and pretend that is all they are (for easier study) leads often to bad models of reality. Biological systems are highly interwoven and the impact of stuff on them often depends on the greater context. For example, our body’s ability to absorb certain nutrients depends on what those nutrients are dissolved/complexed within.

Ending Aging by Aubrey de Gray #

See SENS.

The Drive Podcast by Peter Attia #

Good podcast surveying many different longevity-related topics in a long form format. Episodes vary in quality based on the guests :).

Found my Fitness Podcast by Rhonda Patrick #

Provides a good survey of the longevity space. Does contain a lot of over-hyped content (IMO), so episodes vary in quality.

The Good Gut #

Great book about microbiome health. Does a good job revealing what we do know about the gut and how frighteningly little that is! Unfortunately, due to how little we know about the gut, there isn’t a lot of super actionable advice here, except eating lots of fiber or “Microbiota Accessible Carbohydrates” (“MACS”) as they’re referred to in the book.

[Hormesis: A Revolution in Biology, Toxicology, and Medicine by Mark Mattson #

et. al.](https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-60761-495-1)

Collection of research on the concept of hormesis, or the idea that toxins/stressors are actually beneficial in low quantities, and become toxic past a certain threshold. Really dense scientific paper collection that I haven’t fully digested. I think the core idea is really interesting though!

The Blue Zones Solution #

The “Blue Zones” organization seeks to identify “blue zones” around the world with above average longevity and try to learn from the habits of the people in these zones. The overall recommendation is a standard “whole foods, plant based” diet. Interestingly, the “blue zones” philosophy addresses more things outside of diet (like a social community) that it recommends be holistically adopted with its diet recommendations.

Michael Pietroforte on hplus.club #

This guy writes pretty good high level aging overviews, and book reviews.

The Queen of Fats by Susan Allport #

Really interesting read about the science of omega-3 fatty acids. One of the core thesis is that our western diet has a higher-than-historical ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids, which causes problems. This is because the body can use these fats for the same purposes, but they have different performances for those purposes. For example, prostaglandins can be made with omega-3 or omega-6 fatty acids, but the omega-3 variants are less “strong” and may contribute less to heart disease.

Does a really excellent job of telling the story of the scientists who study/studied these fats, instead of just passing down diet rules without context.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatty_acid_ratio_in_food has some data about omega-3/omega-6 ratios.

How Not to Die by Michael Gregor #

This book is a good survey of diet from the “Whole Food Plant Based” perspective. Sometimes I think the author gets a bit over-zealous about how his philosophy is the best and makes lazy, broad, strong statements that are not adequately supported. For instance, dismissing certain foods (like meat) as obviously unhealthy without examining the counterpoints.

The author’s web site nutritionfacts.org is a decent source of information, though it suffers from the same problems as the book.

Genius Foods by Max Lugavere #

This book takes a more brain focused approach to diet, which pushes it more into the keto- space. AFAIK, ketogenic diets are more linked to brain health than other diets. I think it falls into the same trap as Michael Gregor, but not quite as badly. It’s a good intro to lots of cool food/health topics to explore more independently.

Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker #

This book provides some insight into the mechanisms of sleep, and advocates that people should generally spend more time sleeping (or give sleep more value that they currently do). See an interesting discussion at https://guzey.com/books/why-we-sleep/.

Biohack Stack #

Good place for ideas to experiment with. Good example of an interesting profile: https://biohackstack.com/posts/michael-lustgarten/.

Aging.ai #

A cool system for quantifying biological age. See also the young.ai app developed by the same people to make living better easier. I don’t use this system myself right now.

Age Later by Nir Barzilai #

I haven’t read this yet. See a review at https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/b8mz7zi6D6Y35dar4/book-review-age-later.

True Age by Morgan Levine #

I haven’t read this yet, but like what I’ve heard about Levine’s work on podcasts.

Categories: Health And Longevity

Backlinks: Sens,