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What’s The Best Diet for Longevity?

The best diet for longevity includes foods that promote healthy aging and avoids foods that accelerate it. Read our guide below for details.

Most diets are designed around short-term goals like weight loss or improved metabolic markers. What makes the best diet for longevity different is a focus on the long-term biology of aging: which foods slow the processes that cause cells to age, and which foods accelerate them. The NOVOS Longevity Diet draws on the best-evidenced aspects of the Mediterranean diet, Blue Zone eating patterns, and longevity biology research, while excluding recommendations that may accelerate aging in the long term. It is not a weight-loss diet, though many people following it do manage a healthy weight as a secondary effect.

For example, some of the more popular diets are the ones that advise substantially reducing carbs, like the keto diet or Atkins diet. There are diets that shun fats, like the Ornish diet. And you have high-fat keto diets that advise you to eat predominantly fats. Then there are the odd diets that tell you to mainly eat raw fruits or drink only smoothies. Incorporating extra virgin olive oil into daily cooking can promote longevity due to its rich content of monounsaturated fats and antioxidants.

How do you see the forest for the trees with all of these diets, which oftentimes contradict each other?

What Is a Longevity Diet and Why Does It Matter?

Longevity isn’t just about genetics ; it’s significantly influenced by lifestyle choices, with nutrition playing a pivotal role. A consistent pattern in longevity research is that whole, minimally processed plant-centred diets are associated with lower mortality rates and better healthspan outcomes compared to diets high in animal protein, ultra-processed foods, and sugar. Crunch the numbers, and it becomes clear that particular ways of eating stand out from the pack in terms of their benefits. Imagine devouring a rainbow of vegetables, generous helpings of fruits, and healthy doses of whole grains – that’s the flavorful Mediterranean diet in a nutshell. The benefits are clear: these healthy habits have a direct correlation with lower mortality rates and a reduced risk of developing chronic diseases later in life. Connecting the dots between how you eat and how long you live can add years to your lifespan.

The Problem With Most Diets

The problem is that most diets don’t look at the big picture, nor do they look at the long term effects. What drives them is the desire for immediate results – say, dropping a dress size – not a lasting transformation.

Most diets have noticeable short-term results as compared to the unhealthy Standard American Diet, such as weight loss and improved metabolic biomarkers (like lower triglycerides). Still, they are far from ideal and are even unhealthy in the long term, causing accelerated aging. Make no mistake, living a longer life starts with the food on your plate. Eating healthy isn’t just about getting by; it’s about thriving for years to come.

The NOVOS Longevity Diet: A Science-Based Plan for Healthy Aging

We take a different approach to nutrition—one that prioritizes longevity.

Forget crash diets and extreme cleanses. The best diet for longevity isn’t about restriction; it’s about supporting the biological processes that sustain your energy, metabolism, and overall health. By addressing the root causes of aging, a longevity diet naturally promotes a healthy weight and enhances long-term well-being.

Whole, minimally processed plant foods are crucial and consistently linked to longer, healthier lives. When we shift our perspective from quick fixes to lasting solutions, nutrition becomes more than a diet—it becomes a strategy for living better and longer.

Which Popular Diets Are Actually Good for Longevity?

Let’s look at some examples of how insights into aging can help us to better see if certain “healthy” food diets are really healthy in the long-term.

Take milk, for example. In the face of uncertainty, a single term can cause amental paralysis: whether. Milk has an uncanny ability to evoke a sense of nostalgia. Perhaps it’s the familiarity of Saturday morning cartoons, or the midnight snack that became a family tradition. Whatever the reason, milk is more than just a drink – it’s a connection to our past. Everyone’s got an opinion, and strong feelings abound, but the bottom line is this: what does healthy really look like? There are studies showing milk is healthy, given regular milk consumption could, for example, reduce the risk of colon cancer () (unfortunately, many studies are directly or indirectly funded by the dairy industry), while there are also many studies showing that milk is unhealthy, given it can increase the risk of prostate cancer () and Parkinson’s disease () and even increase mortality.

However, if you approach the milk discussion from an aging perspective, you can immediately see that milk is very likely unhealthy, especially in the long term, given that milk accelerates aging in many ways.

Milk is packed with age-accelerating culprits like mTOR, IGF, and insulin receptors, which kick into high gear when we consume it. Here’s the deal: the more you trigger these receptors, the more rapidly your body will succumb to Father Time. Face it, a fruit-and-veggie-heavy diet plays serious defense against chronic diseases, then tosses in some extra birthdays for good measure.

Did you know that milk contains galactose, a substance that essentially puts aging on fast-forward in lab animals? This allows scientists to get a closer look at how aging works and develop new insights.

Also, milk is made by nature to make calves grow quickly. One prominent, red thread running through all aging research is that “accelerating growth” accelerates aging and increases the risk of multiple aging diseases, like heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s.

Not to mention, a study found that milk consumption (equivalent to about 7 glasses per day for only one week) could induce insulin resistance in eight-year-old boys – an outcome that did not result from the same amount of protein consumption in the form of animal protein.

Is High Protein Good or Bad for Cardiovascular Disease?

Other examples are high animal protein diets , like the classic paleo diet, Dukan or Atkins diet. People who stick to these diets often see a pretty dramatic change: pounds melting away, insulin sensitivity improving, and triglyceride levels plummeting.

However, these are all short-term effects. Considering these diets from an aging (biogerontological) viewpoint, one can predict that these diets will likely accelerate aging in the long term.

For example, one very important mechanism that causes us to age is the accumulation of proteins inside and outside our cells, a process that also plays a role in various aging diseases, like Alzheimer’s disease or aging-related heart failure. Consuming lots of animal proteins accelerates this process.

Activation of “nutrient-sensing pathways” in the cell by amino acids (like the mTOR receptor) accelerates aging. If you eat meat, you strongly activate these nutrient-sensing pathways (R,R,R,R,R,R,R,R,R,R,R,R,R,R). 

Giving various species (including humans) lots of animal protein shortens their lifespan and increases their risk of aging-related diseases.

Too much animal protein accelerates aging, as hundreds of scientific studies have shown (just as too much sugar and too many unhealthy fats also accelerate aging). Crank up your health span by eating right – it’s the fastest way to boost your overall well-being.

Breaking Down the Keto Diet: A Hot Topic Among Health Enthusiasts

Another widely popular diet is the ketogenic, or keto, diet. Like the Atkins diet, it’s a very low-carbohydrate plan, meaning you consume minimal sugars and starches. However, instead of focusing on high protein intake, the keto diet emphasizes consuming large amounts of fats.

However, this approach isn’t ideal for the long term. Our bodies struggle to efficiently process fats, as fats don’t mix well with our predominantly watery composition. Fats tend to accumulate in various parts of the body and are challenging to break down and store. Long-chain saturated fats ignite a spark that sets off an immune system firestorm, literally calling inflammation into action. Other common fats induce cellular senescence , or overburden the liver.

However, certain fats, including specific saturated fats like butyric acid and caprylic acid, can be healthy. That said, it’s not as simple as “most fats are healthy,” allowing you to consume large quantities of any fat (as some keto diet advocates suggest), nor should most fats be avoided entirely (as some government guidelines imply). Incorporating healthy fats, such as those from extra virgin olive oil, can provide antioxidants and lower mortality risk. As you might already suspect, the reality is more nuanced!

Keto diets induce ketosis by significantly reducing carbohydrate intake, but they do so in a way that’s not ideal. While ketosis can be beneficial, it’s healthiest when achieved without excessive consumption of animal protein and fats. For example, ketosis can be reached through fasting, which is a more balanced approach.

The Mediterranean Diet and Longevity: Why It Works

Then there is the Mediterranean Diet. This diet promotes the consumption of vegetables, fruits, nuts, fish, white meat, and whole grains, and is the approximate diet of the longest-lived people in the five Blue Zones across the world. It is also consistently shown in studies to be the healthiest of all diets, according to a variety of measures. A key component of this diet is extra virgin olive oil, which is rich in monounsaturated fats and antioxidants like hydroxytyrosol and oleocanthal, promoting longevity through mechanisms such as autophagy. Among the most widely studied diets, the Mediterranean diet has the strongest evidence base for longevity. The NOVOS Longevity Diet extends it further by incorporating specific aging-biology insights, such as reducing animal protein, limiting dairy, and emphasising fermented foods, that the standard Mediterranean framework does not address. The truth is, research on human longevity has brought us closer to realizing even greater improvements.

Best Longevity Foods: What to Eat for a Longer Life

A diet designed for longevity is built on whole, nutrient-dense foods that nourish your body, combat aging, and support overall health. Prioritize these longevity-boosting staples:

• Leafy Greens – Spinach, kale, and other greens are loaded with antioxidants and fiber, helping to fight oxidative stress and support digestion.
• Berries – Packed with powerful antioxidants, berries like strawberries and blueberries protect against chronic disease and support brain health.
• Nuts & Seeds – Almonds, walnuts, chia seeds, and flaxseeds provide healthy fats and protein, reducing inflammation and promoting heart health.
• Fatty Fish – Salmon, mackerel, and sardines deliver omega-3s, essential for cardiovascular health and longevity.
• Whole Grains – Fiber-rich options like quinoa, brown rice, and oats support gut health and provide steady, lasting energy.

Most Diets Fall Short on Long-Term Health—Here’s a Better Approach.

Diets like paleo, keto, and Mediterranean offer valuable insights into aging, yet most fall short for long-term health. At NOVOS, we’ve untangled the connection between nutrition and aging to create the NOVOS Longevity Diet—a science-backed approach designed to help you optimize health and vitality. Prioritizing longevity first naturally leads to benefits like weight loss and enhanced well-being.

The NOVOS Longevity Diet consists of these 10 simple rules:  

1. Replace starches with more nutrient-dense foods. For example, eat much less bread, potatoes, pasta, and rice and replace them with vegetables (primarily), legumes, mushrooms or quinoa. Replace morning bread, for example, with oatmeal, chia seed, blended cauliflower, or chickpea porridge made with plant-based milk (e.g., coconut milk).
   
   
2. Get the right amount of protein. We don’t want too little protein, but we also don’t want to overdo it. 0.6 grams to 0.8 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight is a healthy longevity-minded range for most of us, with athletes and older adults focusing on the higher end of this range.
   
   
3. Limit your red meat consumption (beef, pork, and sheep), especially processed red meats, and replace with more fatty fish (salmon, mackerel, herring, anchovies, and sardines), lean poultry (chicken, turkey), mushrooms, tofu (miso, natto, tempeh), or mushroom-based or pea-based meat substitutes.
   
   
4. Drink lots of mineral water for proper hydration, several cups of tea (especially green, white, chamomile, and ginger), and ideally a smoothie that contains blended vegetables. Coffee is good for you, too, at least 10 hours before bed (up to 3 to 5 cups per day).
   
   
5. Eat a bit less. Rather than eating until you are full, eat until you feel content. Overall, you should be eucaloric (eat as much as you burn) or hypocaloric (a slight caloric deficit) most days.
   
   
6. Have a diverse diet of 30 or more natural ingredients. This can include vegetables, fruits, herbs, spices, legumes, mushrooms, etc. Each type is a different ingredient (e.g., oyster mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms count as two ingredients). As the American Gut Project found, doing so will improve your overall health, microbiome, and even mood.
   
   
7. Avoid deficiencies, inadequacies, and consume longevity molecules. Even with the healthiest of diets, it s unlikely you have adequate levels of selenium, vitamin D3, vitamin K2, B vitamins, magnesium, iodine, potassium, and choline. Eat choline rich foods, like egg yolks, fish, and broccoli. For potassium, consider using Lite Salt. For the rest, supplement. Also, take smart longevity supplements, like NOVOS Core, Vital, and Boost.
   
   
8. Consume fermented foods like kimchi, sauerkraut, natto, kombucha, yogurt, etc. These foods will further improve your microbiome, which offers a multitude of benefits ranging from nutrient absorption from food, mood, overall health, and longevity.
   
   
9. Minimize your alcohol intake. The most recent studies have shown that even the smallest intake of alcohol has a negative impact on health. If you are going to drink, try to keep it to one serving per day and have alcohol-free days.
   
   
10. Replace animal milk or yogurt with low-sugar, plant-based milk or yogurt (e.g., coconut, pea, or hemp). Cheese is allowed in moderation.
    

As you can see, this diet is not an “extreme” diet like so many others.

Nonetheless, the NOVOS longevity diet incorporates insights from these diets (like not drinking milk and consuming much fewer grains). 

But it does not agree with some of the other recommendations of these diets (like loading up on animal protein or fats, which is not healthy in the long term).

The best diet is one based on insights into aging, the fundamental causes of aging-related diseases like heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and cancer. 

You can download a poster of the NOVOS Longevity Diet here: