Here's Dr. David Sinclair in 2013, and here's what he looks like today. Back then, he was 44 years old. Now he's 56. But here's the kicker: He looks like he's aged in reverse. He appears 20 years younger. How is that even possible? "I'm better than a 20-year-old for health. And I think a lot of that's due to my new diet that I've adopted because I can just see things getting better and better over time." Let me introduce you to Dr. David Sinclair. He's a genetics professor at Harvard Med School. What is his secret? Well, he completely changed up his diet and lifestyle. He says the science shows his body is actually getting younger. "I've looked at my blood by chemistry, and I'm actually now younger and healthier than I've ever been since I've been measuring it over a decade—now, it's more like 14 years. And I can plot various parameters: testosterone, glucose, inflammation, blood type, blood cell composition. And for most of those markers, I'm better than a 20-year-old for health." In today's video, we will first look at Dr. David Sinclair's exercise secrets for living longer. Secondly, his one eating habit for longevity. Thirdly, what foods he eats. Fourth, his daily supplement routine. And finally, what food he avoids. Let us explore his secrets to youthfulness and longevity. "By living a healthy life, you can slow that rate of aging and prevent this corruption of the body's software—and even reboot it." Dr. David Sinclair follows a specific exercise regimen aimed at promoting health and longevity. Here is Dr. Sinclair's perspective on exercise—and honestly, it is simpler than you might think. "The goal is to exercise three times a week and lose my breath. You want to be moving so fast that you cannot carry out a conversation easily. That's when you know you're becoming hypoxic—low in oxygen. And this low oxygen, we think, is a very good stimulator of stress on the body. Your body responds in a positive way to build muscle, get better blood flow, and also your tissues will put out chemicals that slow aging. So really, if you can just lose your breath for 10 minutes three times a week, that can give remarkable health benefits, lowering the rates of disease by 30%." Dr. Sinclair's Eating Habit for Longevity The key to living longer, according to Dr. Sinclair, is to eat less often. "It's not just what you eat, it's also when you eat. And this constant eating—three meals a day plus snacks—is making us age faster than we need to. I like to eat within a period of about 6 hours a day. Over time, I've learned to skip meals. I'm not always successful. Sometimes I have breakfast in beautiful places, but my goal is to not eat a large meal until dinner. And then I eat a very healthy vegan meal." What makes time-restricted feeding so powerful? Well, here's the fascinating science behind it. "If you're down to one meal a day—which I am now—you shed weight and then you get your 20-year-old body back. That's a nice bonus. It's the period of not eating that's so important for boosting the body's defenses against aging. Here is what really matters if you want to live a longer, healthier life: These long extended periods are doing a real deep cleanse on the body and turning on that autophagy—the process of recycling proteins very deeply." "What happens when there's not enough energy in the body? There is a set of genes that I wrote about in my book Lifespan that's called the sirtuins, and they get turned on when there's not enough energy in the body. Your sirtuins are like your body's natural defenders. These genes actually help slow down aging and protect your health. So if you don't have a lot of sugar in your bloodstream or a lot of protein, they will get turned on, and they defend the body against the damage that causes aging." "Intermittent fasting also has healing effects on the body. Certain diseases—type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, even cancer—those diseases seem to also benefit from fasting, including when you combine chemotherapy with fasting. You get this double benefit for many types of cancers." Here is a simple way to get started with intermittent fasting, straight from Dr. Sinclair's playbook: "The trick is that you want to fill your body with fluids. For me, it's constant coffee, tea, hot water all the way through the day. Being hydrated and filled with liquid takes away any feeling of hunger. Also, nuts—if you really need to eat something, a bit of protein is known to take away the feeling of hunger rapidly. You want to have at least 16 hours of not eating or not eating very much, and then you can have 8 hours." According to his research, when you practice intermittent fasting, it actually helps your liver work better. "Now, what happens when you do that—and it takes a few weeks for your body to adapt—is that your liver will learn how to compensate for a lack of food. It's called gluconeogenesis—the generation of glucose from your liver. It actually overcomes the feeling of hunger. Do it for at least 2 weeks because, after the 2-week mark—especially by the 3-week mark—your liver has now learned that you're not going to have breakfast or lunch, and it will start making glucose at a steady level." What Does Dr. Sinclair Eat for Longevity? Let's look at what Dr. Sinclair actually eats during his 6-hour eating window. "I went almost completely to plants, and my body has responded. I look better. I think my skin is better. I feel better. My memory is certainly better. You just look at those populations of people that live a long time—they are generally smaller women who don't eat much, who eat vegetarian. I mean, that's the fact." Let me break this down. He is not just eating any random plants. He is really specific about what he calls "stress plants." It is based on this fascinating concept called xenohormesis. Here’s what it means: When plants are under stress, they produce certain compounds, especially these things called polyphenols. When we eat these stress plants, those same compounds actually help our own cells become stronger. It is like the plant's stress response becomes our strength. Pretty clever, right? "Well, the xenohormesis concept—Conrad Howitz and I coined this term in the mid-2000s trying to explain why so many plant molecules are good for us. It just cannot be a coincidence. And there were at least 20 plant molecules called polyphenols that activate the SIRT1 enzyme. And when I looked into it, these polyphenols do remarkable things to the body." His discoveries about how these polyphenols work in our bodies are absolutely mind-blowing. "The one that got the most media attention—because it's in red wine—is resveratrol. But there's pterostilbene, there's fisetin, and there's quercetin. These are supplements that people are getting excited about only now. But when you look into it, they activate and inhibit pathways or proteins in the body that are known to be important for health and longevity." How can you tell if a plant has been stressed? Well, here's what to look for: "You can start with the generalization that if they're grown out in a field organically without pesticides, probably they're more stressed, right? If your food is stressed, then you get the benefits. Look for colorful, organic foods. These are your real ticket to living longer. And so what we focus on are plants that are full of color. So try to eat bright red and purple, dark green-colored vegetables because those are the ones that have these polyphenols that can turn on the body's defenses. And actually, in my lab, if we give polyphenols to mice, they actually get healthier and run further—like they've been exercising." You're probably curious about the exact stress plants in Dr. Sinclair's diet. Well, he starts his mornings with green tea—it's one of these stress foods, and it's packed with polyphenols. "I drink matcha tea most mornings, which is the very thick, dark green, creamy green tea. EGCG from green tea—this EGCG has great anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties." While he eats all sorts of leafy greens, he really emphasizes spinach in particular. "Eat a diet that's definitely full of leafy greens—particularly spinach is great because it's got the iron that we need, plenty of vitamins." He recommends olive oil for cooking. "A lot of olive oil with oleic acid, which activates SIRT1 as well. The Mediterranean diet is the one that I think is likely to be the easiest to do in the Western world and to have the biggest bang for the buck." If going fully vegetarian feels like too big a leap, don’t worry. Dr. Sinclair says the Mediterranean or Okinawan diets are great options too. Actually, he followed these himself for decades before switching to his current all-plant diet. Here is what he says about the Okinawan diet: "It's mostly carbohydrate, so there's a fair amount of rice—but probably could have done better with a bit of brown rice. White rice sends your glucose through the roof. But mostly what I was eating were Chinese or Japanese vegetables that I could get at the local market—so they're organic, fresh, green, full of vitamins—and soy. Mostly, it was a plant-based, soy-based diet with a little bit of fish." What Supplements Does Dr. Sinclair Take? Dr. Sinclair takes three main ones. But here's the important part: He doesn't endorse any specific brands or sell supplements himself. He's just sharing what he personally takes. "The one chemical that I take every day is resveratrol, which is the red wine chemical, and that comes from grapes. So that one gets sprinkled into some yogurt in the morning." Research shows that resveratrol and NMN can do some pretty remarkable things. They help revitalize your metabolism, maintain healthy cell turnover, slow aging, fix DNA damage, regulate genes, and reduce inflammation in the brain. "NMN is a version of vitamin B3 that makes a chemical in the body that we need for life, and that's called NAD. And as we get older, we make less and less of this. And without NAD, these sirtuins—that we discovered slow aging—they don't work without a lot of NAD. So as we get older, our defenses decline. And so by taking this supplement, we know that it doubles the levels of NAD back to when I was age 20. There's now clinical trials that my colleagues at Harvard have done that say that NMN has some health benefits in early studies—such as lowering cholesterol and blood pressure—and so I take that one every day as well." Here's the third important supplement that he takes regularly: "The third one is metformin. Metformin is a little bit more controversial because it's a drug—it's classified as a drug. That doesn't mean it's necessarily dangerous. In fact, it's one of the world's safest drugs. It's used for type 2 diabetes to control blood sugar. And what's been found is that people who take metformin tend to live a lot longer. Even those who don't have type 2 diabetes—there's evidence that they are protected against cardiovascular disease, frailty, and even Alzheimer's disease." What Foods Does Dr. Sinclair Avoid? Let's look at what he completely avoids to stay healthy and live longer. First up is sugar. "The big killer is sugar. Glucose, particularly fructose, is also pernicious. And if you give animals lots of glucose—and especially fructose—they will get fatty liver disease. They'll get diabetes. It's really bad. Cancer cells, by the way, love sugar. They live on sugar. And that's another reason why you should try to keep it low." He recommends staying away from foods that are high in glucose and fructose. "Try to avoid too much fruit—berries are okay—particularly fruit juice. Definitely avoid that sugar high. Spiking your sugar is not healthy in the long run. Your body can make its own sugar. Your liver makes sugar. You just need to wait two weeks for it to get used to it." Here's a smart tip about meal order that can help keep your blood sugar from spiking: "There's even an order at which you can eat your meals to reduce the blood sugar spike. You can put the sugar at the end of the meal. You can eat something, but you don't have to be draconian about it. I still like to steal a few scoops of ice cream if I see it, but I'm not going to eat a giant bowl of ice cream every night." Under that same sugar category, bread is another food he's completely eliminated from his diet. "The first thing I cut out was a lot of carbohydrates. I used to eat bread every day. I would just put—if I ate something, it would be on toast. That was my life. I cut that out and have found immediate improvements in my biochemistry levels, particularly my glucose levels." When you eat lots of carbs and fructose, your body pumps out more insulin, which is why you get hungry so often. Instead, let your liver do its job producing the glucose your body needs. "I'm at a state now where I don't get those rises and crashes. My liver is putting out glucose from when I wake up till dinner. And I've never been so focused. I've never been so brain fog-free. And I wish I'd done this in my 20s and done it my whole life because I've really never felt better because of it." Another food that Dr. Sinclair stays away from is meat. "The next thing I cut out was meat, and that improved my numbers even better. Cholesterol, triglycerides—all came down. Well, I love meat. I would love to eat meat. It tastes really good. It's just the science says plants give you better bang for the buck for longevity than meat. The protein that's in plants actually has a ratio of amino acids that stimulates these longevity genes—the sirtuins and another one called mTOR. And if you always eat meat every meal, your body is just not fighting aging the way it could if you ate more plants." "You can eat meat occasionally. Fish, for example, has a lot of great omega-3 fatty acids. So I'm not against meat. I just think try to focus more on plants if you can." Dr. Sinclair generally avoids dairy products, and his body is doing just fine without it. "The third change was the dairy. I did that just to see what would happen. I figured it wouldn't matter—I'm not allergic to dairy, I'm not lactose intolerant—but it did have an effect. It made things even better. And what I think is going on is that I was eating a large amount of protein—not just fat, but eggs and all that stuff. And now that I have less protein, I think that mTOR pathway—that's really important for longevity—is being better regulated." He recommends skipping alcohol altogether. "The new research just over the last 2 years says that drinking alcohol every day is really not good for you. So I've cut out alcohol, and I've focused on plants." If you're not ready to give up your wine just yet, here's what Dr. Sinclair has to say about it: "In the case of red wine, choose grape varieties that are stress-sensitive. Pinot Noir is one of the most sensitive, if not the most sensitive grape variety, and that's why it has the most resveratrol of any other type of wine." If you found this helpful, smash that like button and subscribe to support more videos like this. Please share your opinion in the comment box.