L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2021 www.italoamericano.org 28 L'Italo-Americano But for the moment, we are talking about an age range that goes from 20 to 70. In a d d i t i o n , t h o s e w i t h pathologies must seek their d o c t o r ' s a p p r o v a l b e f o r e u n d e r t a k i n g t h e d i e t . I n Italy, we have clinics and f o u n d a t i o n s t h a t d o t h i s w i t h t h e c o l l a b o r a t i o n o f specialized doctors. What happens to the body during a fast or a fast-mimicking diet? We hear a lot about fast- i n g b u t o n i t s o w n , i t ' s a word that means very little. We need to talk about spe- cific things. For example, we have seen that, in mice, abdominal fat is used as the main energy source during t h e f i v e d a y s o f f a s t i n g . Then we observed that, in t h e f o l l o w i n g d a y s , a f t e r returning to their high-calo- rie diet, mice kept on burn- ing fat, which means that 5 d a y s o f a f a s t - m i m i c k i n g d i e t h e l p s b u r n f a t l o n g term. If you fast for too little or too long, you don't enter this phase, which is called "ketogenic." When you fast for a long time, the body tends to adapt and metabo- lism slows down, so you go from bad to worse: if your m e t a b o l i s m s l o w s d o w n , you burn fewer calories and stash fat away. So, this 5- days cycle is fundamental. A m e r i c a n f o o d c u l - t u r e i s d i f f e r e n t f r o m t h e I t a l i a n . D i d i t g e t a n y b e t t e r i n r e c e n t years? If anything, it got worse. The more Americans moved towards low-fat diets, the more they gained weight. T h e n , t h e y w e n t f o r l o w - carb diets and their weight i n c r e a s e d e v e n f u r t h e r . R i g h t n o w , 7 2 % o f Americans are either obese or overweight. But clearly, the problem is not in the amount of fat, carbs, or pro- teins in a diet, but in eating badly and too much, that is, e a t i n g t o o m a n y c a l o r i e s coming from animal fat and protein, sugar, and starches. W e b e l i e v e t h e Mediterranean diet is bet- ter, but the truth is there are more overweight children in I t a l y t h a n i n t h e U S . Southern Italian kids took the Americans over. W h a t i s w r o n g w i t h the Mediterranean diet? C h i l d r e n , f o r e x a m p l e , are stuffed with junk food, but also with foods rich in starch, or the famous 4Ps ( pane -bread-, pasta, pizza, potatoes). So a diet that we c a l l m o r e " A m e r i c a n , " made up of proteins, joins the Mediterranean made up of starches, and it's a disas- ter. If you are overweight between the ages of seven a n d e i g h t e e n , y o u h a v e a 400% increased risk of dia- betes throughout your life. W h a t f o o d m y t h s need to be debunked in 2021? Certainly the one about meat, both for children and adults. Children are prob- lematic because they eat at school and then again back at home, reaching levels of p r o t e i n s s i m i l a r t o t h o s e eaten by adults. They can e a t u p t o 3 - 4 t i m e s m o r e than they should. What do you think of the idea of slow food as opposed to fast food? It depends on what you m e a n . S o m e t h i n g s a r e more commercial ideologies than anything else. It's a m a t t e r o f h o w m u c h y o u eat, when, in which quanti- ties, and so on. If you get stuffed with pasta and pro- tein, that's not good.a What are you focus- ing on at the moment? I ' m w o r k i n g o n a b o u t f i f t y p r o j e c t s . O n e o f t h e more important is a clinical study on cancer immunity and the fasting diet, then there is one on diabetes and another on hypertension. W e a r e a l s o c a r r y i n g o u t many studies on mice; one will be published in a month and discusses cancer in both h u m a n s a n d m i c e . I t explores what we think is the future of nutrition in c a n c e r t h e r a p y , a n d h o w this can make a difference. A portrait of Valter Longo (Photo: Alan Weissman) LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE "The problem" - Longo explains - "is not in the amount of fat, carbs, or proteins in a diet, but in eating badly and too much, that is, eating too many calories coming from animal fat and protein, sugar, and starches." An elderly lady, smiling at the window: Longo's fast-mimicking diet could help the elderly keep healthier (Photo: Andrey Bayda/Dreamstime) Continued from page 26

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