Only eat this food twice a week to 'help you live to 100' expert urges

A longevity expert has urged people to only eat a certain food twice a week as a way to help them “live to 100”. This recommendation comes based on the diets of the ’s longest living people, who reside in what are known as Blue Zones.

We are all well aware of the important role diet has on our health and wellbeing. Certain foods are known to raise the risk of issues such as high cholesterol, high , diabetes, and even cancer, while others can have a protective effect.

Research has also suggested that what we eat can have an impact on our life expectancy. This was reflected in a study of the world’s Blue Zones, which have the highest proportion of centenarians and lowest rates of chronic disease in the world.

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These zones are found in various parts of the globe including Sardinia in Italy, Okinawa in Japan, and Nicoya in Costa Rica. Although the specific meals consumed in these areas were not the same, people in these regions were found to eat more plant-based whole foods and fewer processed foods.

On the , its founder Dan Buettner explained more. He said: “It starts with food choices. Most of the Blue Zones residents I’ve come to know have easy access to locally sourced fruits and vegetables - largely pesticide-free and organically raised. If not growing these food items in their own gardens, they have found places where they can purchase them, and more affordably than processed alternatives.

“They have incorporated certain nutritious foods into their daily or weekly meals - foods that often are not even found on the shelves of convenience stores or on the menus of fast-food restaurants across the country.” As part of his findings, from more than 150 dietary studies, it was discovered that many people in these parts of the world are eating a lot less meat than you might think.

Based on this, Dan encouraged people to eat meat “no more than twice a week”. He continued: “Eat meat twice a week or even less in servings sized no more than two ounces cooked.

“Favour true free-range chicken and family-farmed pork or lamb instead of meats raised industrially. Avoid processed meats like hot , luncheon meats, or sausages.”

He explained that in “most” Blue Zones diets people ate small amounts of pork, chicken, or lamb. “Averaging out meat consumption over all blue zones, we found that people were eating small amounts of meat, about two ounces or less at a time, about five times per month,” he said.

The type of meat people in these areas consume is also thought to be of good quality, coming from free-roaming animals. He added: “These traditional husbandry practices likely produce meat with higher levels of healthy omega-3 fatty acids than the rich meat of grain-fed animals.”

However, Dan acknowledged that “we’re not sure if people lived longer because they ate a little bit of meat as part of the Blue Zones diet or if they thrived despite it”. He said: “There are so many healthy practices blue zones people engaged in, they may have been able to get away with a little meat now and then because its deleterious effect was counterbalanced by other food and lifestyle choices.”

Outside of Blue Zones research, various studies have pointed to the health risks of eating too much red and processed meats. The latter is particularly bad for us, shown to raise blood pressure, heart disease risk and even the chances of developing cancer.

Processed meats include things like sausages, sliced ham, bacon, and hot dogs, which are prevalent in a typical Western diet. So even if cutting down your overall meat intake to just twice a week seems too much, you could consider reducing the amount of processed meat you eat for your health.

Dan shared some tips on how to lower your meat consumption:

• Learn what two ounces of meat cooked looks like: Chicken—about half of a chicken breast fillet or the meat (not skin) of a chicken leg; pork or lamb—a chop or slice the size of a deck of cards before cooking.
• Avoid bringing beef, hot dogs, luncheon meats, sausages, or other processed meats into your house as these are not part of the Blue Zones diet
• Find plant-based substitutes for the meat Americans are used to having at the centre of a meal. Try lightly sautéed tofu, drizzled with olive oil; tempeh, another soy product; or black bean or chickpea cakes.
• Designate two days a week when you eat meat or other animal-derived food—and enjoy it only on those days.
• Since restaurant meat portions are almost always four ounces or more, split meat entrées [mains] with another person or ask ahead of time for a container to take half the meat portion home for later

Other diet recommendations based on the Blue Zones included eating more plant-based foods, eating up to three ounces of fish daily, reducing your dairy intake, eating beans every day, reducing the amount of sugar you eat, and snacking on nuts.