Today I will start with a medical question that I think you all can answer very easily. I want you to tell me who will have a heart attack faster. A 25yearold who smokes 4 packs of cigarettes a day, his diet consists exclusively of sweets, meat and fried foods, drinks half a bottle of hard alcohol a day, stays up late almost every day and has infinite anxiety or a 90yearold who has never smoked in his entire life never, never drank alcohol, eats the perfect diet, sleeps 7 hours every night and has zero stress? You don't’ have to have studied medicine to know that the person most likely to have a heart attack in the next five years is the 90yearold. Because his lifestyle may be excellent, but he has one risk factor that dwarfs all others: he's 90 years old. Obviously, he has reached that age because he does everything we said, and if you want to reach that age, you should do most of the things we said.

On the other hand, we must not forget that age is the most important risk factor for most diseases. Heart disease, stroke, dementia, cancer and other diseases occur at an older age. So, it's not a bad idea to try to avoid foods that accelerate the aging of our bodies. Because there are indeed foods that accelerate aging. There are tons of foods that are associated with aging, but today I'd like to focus on one amino acid, a common nutrient that is in most of our diets, so you can try to get as little of it in your diet as possible. It is about leucine.

Both the proteins in our bodies and the proteins we consume in our diet are made up of amino acids, and the scientific community has focused on some that seem to have some particular effects on our health. Leucine is one of the amino acids that appears to accelerate aging more than other amino acids. This unpleasant consequence comes from the fact that leucine activates a complex called mTOR, but also from the fact that it stops autophagy, the normal process of protein recycling in our body. So it is good that our diet has a little leucine, or at least don't have leucine in large amounts for a large part of the week. The ideal is not to not eat foods with leucine at all, but on most days to follow a diet that has a little leucine, so that autophagy is activated, and two days a week our diet contains enough leucine that helps in the synthesis of proteins. This switch from a leucinerich diet to a leucinepoor diet I believe is ideal for slowing aging and adequate protein synthesis.

So let's see which foods are rich in leucine so that we can make sure to eat them only on the weekend.

Beef. Just 100 grams of lean beef covers all our daily needs of leucine. Even this small amount would be enough to stop valuable autophagy, even if we don't get leucine from any other food.
Pork. Pork, because it usually has more fat than beef, has less leucine. But again, just 100 grams covers 70% of our daily needs. It is therefore good that, like beef, it should not be included in daily consumption. I remind you that when I say pork, I don't mean only steaks and burgers, but also ham, bacon, cold meats in general, such as sausages and others. Don't forget also the minced meat that is hidden in many foods. Even a small amount of minced meat will inhibit the valuable autophagy. Leave the pork for the weekend.
Tuna fish. Of the fish, the one with the highest leucine content is tuna, as just 100 grams cover almost 67% of our daily needs. I see a lot of people consuming tuna very often, especially people who want to lose weight. It can help with weight loss, but unfortunately it accelerates aging if its consumption is frequent.
Chicken. Chicken has comparable leucine to tuna, as 100 grams cover 65% of our daily needs. Unfortunately, the same applies to chicken as it does to tuna. Because both of these foods are very low in fat and calories, they are often recommended in diets and diets aimed at weight loss. It is possible that regularly eating such foods will help you lose weight, but doing so systematically will accelerate your aging. It is no coincidence that bowel cancer occurs much more often in people who frequently consume meat and chicken.
Lowfat cheeses. All cheeses that pride themselves on being low fat unfortunately contain a large amount of leucine. For example, half a cup of lowfat cheese covers half of our daily needs for leucine. If you often eat lowfat cheeses with your meals, then the leucine you consume prevents your body's antiaging mechanisms.
Low fat milk. Milk should not surprise us that it has a high leucine content, because cheese is made from milk. A glass of milk covers one third of our daily needs for leucine, so it is best not to consume it regularly.
Eggs. Just one egg covers 1/5 of our daily leucine needs. As many people are used to eating 2 and 3, even 4 eggs in one meal, it is good to keep in mind that this is not ideal for the rate at which your body ages.