David A. Sinclair, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and one of Time’s 100 most influential people in the world and one of the top 50 most influential people in healthcare, phoned into On Air With Ryan Seacrest and shared his findings behind living a longer, healthier life as detailed in his book Lifespan: Why We Age ― and Why We Don't Have To.
Sinclair explained to Seacrest that the important point behind his book and research is “the good life.”
“I’m not doing any research to make people live longer in an old age,” Sinclair said. “This is about being much younger for longer.”
Sinclair explained that if the trends continue as they have the past 200 years in the United States, a child today can expect to live on average to 104 and in Japan to 107.
“They’re currently the longest lived people on the planet,” Sinclair explained of Japan. “Why do they live longer? They look after themselves. Generally, they don’t overeat and they tend to move more.”
And Sinclair expressed that it’s not genetic but lifestyle, similar to the findings behind the “Blue Zone” lifestyle in which “they fast; they don’t eat a lot of food everyday; they don’t finish meals; they eat about 70% till they’re satisfied; they move a lot; [and] they have a lot of friends” meaning “they’re generally content.”
Sinclair furthered that the findings results overall in when and how much you eat.
“There’s a lot of debate about the best diet,” Sinclair added. “But I’ll tell you what if there’s one thing … I’d recommend it would be not just to worry about what you eat, but when you eat. … We just realized the ‘when’ is probably more important than the 'what,'” he continued. “We’ve been brought up thinking … we should eat three square meals a day and snacks. That’s deadly if we do that and no wonder we have an obesity epidemic. We’re designed to have maybe two or one meal a day. Our bodies benefit by being hungry and they turn on what we discovered are called longevity genes.”
Sinclair concluded that because our bodies are “always content,” they don’t feel the need to defend.
“If there’s one thing I’d recommend,” he concluded. “It would be to eat less often.”
Listen back to the full interview in the audio above and check out Sinclair’s book Lifespan: Why We Age ― and Why We Don't Have To for more.