Customer Reviews

One Hundred Twenty-Year Diet: One Hundred Twenty-Year Diet

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Roy Walford (the author) is an active researcher in the field of gerontology (aging). His book, written for non-researchers, includes full scientific references as it introduces the study of aging and even a guide to how to separate scientific fluff from fact. The main substance of the book deals with how anyone can modify what they eat to live longer, and, more importantly, stay healthier longer -- at least as far as current research can determine.

Other, more recent, references on this topic (known as "Calorie Restriction with Advanced Nutition (CRAN)), include the Jan 96 issue of Scientific America and a more recent book by Walford and his daughter containing more practical advice on how to practice CRAN yourself (titled: "The Anti-Aging Plan : Strategies and Recipes for Extending Your Healthy Years")

Dr. Ray Walford, unfortunately, is no longer with us. He passed away at 83, I believe, far short of the 120 years he had hoped to live. I'm not sure, but I personally think that his much-publicized, and disastrous, stint in BioSphere injured him, and may have caused him to some degree to missed his goal.

That aside, the book is an excellent look at how we age, and what little we can do about it. Dr. Walford was a big proponent of the only scientifically valid way of extending life: caloric restriction. Basically, by living in a state of chronic low calorie intake, a human should be able (less the possibility of accident or murder) to live to the human maximum age of 120.

Few have the discipline to live on 1300 calories a day. But if they do, they can 'double' their 'vital years' according to Walford.

Walford was a man ahead of his time. Written nearly 30 years ago, Walford discusses nutritionally-dense foods, which is a way of saying that one should get protein, fats, and carbohydrates in optimum amounts, along with vitamins and minerals, in that 1300 calories a day.

One reviewer here perplexedly calls Dr. Walford a charlatan and a faddist. Neither is close to the truth. Dr. Walford bases everything he writes on solid medical research, little if any of it superseded in the last 30 years. I wonder if that reviewer even cracked open the book.

Walford is not a vegan, or even a vegetarian. He favors lean meats, beans, brown rice and whole grains. He likes fish, though he properly warns about mercury contamination. He urges the reader to use only extra virgin, olive oil. And he urges one to refrigerate the olive oil, though that makes it cloudy and hard to pour.

Highly recommended. Even if you don't think you want to extend your healthy years from 0-70 to 0-100, you will benefit from the sound nutritional advice in the book.

While some suggestions made in this book might help you live a little longer, don't expect to live over one hundred years as the book promises. This promise is BS. Medical science is making progress, but don't let con-men (con-persons) fool you into thinking that great advances have been made. Modern medicine is more interested in treatments rather than cures. Treatments are where the money is.

William McLean, CT(ASCP)(RET)