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‘I am an expert in living longer and one dish is always on my table’
The same dish wont work for everyone, but some dishes will work for a lot of people.
Italian-American scientist and longevity researcher Dr Valter Longo recently revealed his number one dish for overall health and wellness. While there are things besides diet we should look to if we want to maximize our life expectancy, including maintaining strong and meaningful social bonds and eliminating toxic contaminants from our bodies, the food we eat is undeniably important. Heres a top tip from an Italian.
Pasta e Vaianeia means pasta and green beans
Dr Valter Longo, pictured above, is a professor of gerontology and biological sciences at the University of Southern California. As such, hes qualified to answer a few basic questions about how to live a long and healthy life.
In 2018, he came out with a book called The Longevity Diet, which recommends a plant-based diet (including fish) and limiting food consumption to within 12 hours of the day.
One such question, put to him by GQ, was about his favorite thing to eat, within the parameters of whats prescribed for a longevity diet. As in, what is his favorite food that fits into a diet for a long life&
His answer might surprise you or it might not. His standout meal is pasta e vaianeia, which is similar to a minestrone. Its from his parents area of southern Italy, and he eats it very frequently. The name is slang for “pasta and green beans,” but what makes it so special?
Why is it so good, and what does it mean to him as a diet researcher?
It’s a lot of legumes and a lot of green beans, he told GQ. A lot of people were poor in this region of Italy, but they had green beans that was the one thing they grew very easily.
In different places in the world, he explains, some things grow more easily than others. This is why, in Okinawa, people eat a lot of purple sweet potatoes.
In Italy, its green beans. And pasta e vaianeia has lots of legumes, lots of green beans and pasta. Lots of other ingredients, like some potatoes, carrots, and other vegetables. It’s a big dish, providing most of the nourishment, providing some proteins but not too much and contributing to a longevity state.
Blue Zones quotes Dr Longo as saying he used to eat it about five times a week. I think it was the perfect meal because it has a little bit of everything. I remember we used to always complain, Not again! Not this thing again! But thats all we ate all the time.
Personal aside: In my family, our version of pasta e vaianeia as in, the meal we had regularly that contained little bits of everything was pasta and red stuff. It mostly consisted of pasta and tomatoes, but also contained garlic, onions, tuna, anchovies, butter beans, and whatever else was available.
He has a guilty pleasure, too
Even longevity researchers relax their rules, sometimes. Dr Longo is no exception.
I enjoy the something called panettone, he says. Very unhealthy. A lot of fat, its a sweet thing that we do in Italy for Christmas, usually. If it was up to me, I would eat that every day. But unfortunately, I don’t. I don’t get to do that. It’s full of butter. It’s full of lots of other things.
There are some versions made with olive oil, but it’s full of sugar, full of butter, very tasty, and full of eggs.
The international panettone industry is worth over half a billion dollars a year, according to Reuters. Italian food manufacturing companies and bakeries make more than 100 million panettone and pandoro cakes every Christmas.
You might get tired of it if you ate it every day. Then again, you might not…
Dr Valter Longo is a professor of gerontology and biological sciences and director of the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern CaliforniaLeonard Davis School of Gerontology, in Los Angeles.
