A scientific study in the footsteps of a ‘glorious’ past, that of one of the so-called ‘blue zones’ of the planet, territories that boast record concentrations of over one hundred years old. One of these lands of ‘Methuselah’ is in Calabria, it includes some municipalities in the province of Reggio, in the heart of the Aspromonte. Several scientists have long studied the secrets of these over 100, their diet. A tradition that has been lost over time, with the advancement of modern lifestyles. But which lives on in the diet of longevity, developed by the same scholars who now want to test its effects on the population of that area.
One such scientist is Valter Longo, known for his studies on centenarians and the ‘elixir’ of long life menu. Together with a team of researchers, the expert will be on Saturday 25 June in Varapodio, a small Calabrian town from which the path of this new research will begin. The launch ceremony of the study on healthy longevity proposed in Italy by the Valter Longo Foundation will be held here. This is, the experts explain in a note, “the first randomized study in Italy on the role of a particular nutrition that marries the science and diet of local centenarians, and which will be conducted over the next 18 months”. Objective: to test the effects of the longevity diet to reduce the percentage of fat mass, improve body composition, health and biological age of the community of the Municipalities of Varapodio, Molochio and Oppido Mamertina and other neighboring areas.
The recruitment of volunteers will start on Saturday 25 June. In addition to Valter Longo, director of the Ifom longevity and cancer research program in Milan and director of the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California – Davis School of Gerontology in Los Angeles, Giuseppe Passarino and Alberto Montesanto, professors of the University of Calabria, and Alberto Mirisola, professor at the University of Palermo, as well as representatives of the institutions involved and of the Valter Longo Foundation. Calabria, the experts point out, “has a long-lived lifestyle past, with some countries witnessing its tradition characterized by a diet low in protein and meat and rich in legumes and vegetable ingredients”.
However, in recent decades, like other areas of the Mediterranean, this land “has slowly abandoned its habits and customs to conform to a global reality, gradually losing many traditions, culture and lifestyle that contain an ancient wisdom and that have contributed to create the myth of a diet that brings health and longevity “, observe the promoters of the new study.
In the present, “the percentage of children and adolescents in excess weight among the highest in Europe and the chronic diseases most present in the Calabrian population in adulthood must make us reflect on the importance of returning to a nutrition that reflects both this historical heritage , but also a lot of scientific data necessary to maximize the opportunity to live up to a hundred healthy years “. This is the spirit of the study. The voluntary participation of the participants in the project includes a nutritional visit (enrollment phase) and a blood sample to determine any health risk factors.
They will then be simultaneously directed to carry out nutritional visits carried out by the specialists who adhere to the study and coordinated and supervised by the nutritional biologists of the Valter Longo Foundation, specialized in the longevity diet. During the nutritional visit, the indications for the subsequent adhesion to the path will be communicated, which includes 4 nutritional visits, the last of which is optional, within 18 months and two blood samples one year after the other. The day of Saturday 25 June in Varapodio will be dedicated to free nutritional visits for citizens and to the collection of voluntary adhesions to the study.
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