If you follow a minimal diet you can achieve super nutrition. Let's look at Luigi Cornaro, a man who at age 35 was weak, sick, and dying.
At the time, he consulted the medical heads of Genoa, Italy. He asked the doctors, "What can I do?" Finally, one smart doctor said, "Look, Luigi," (Luigi was a nobleman) "cut down on your riotous living, stop the drinking, cut out the rich food, eat as little as you can, and don't abuse your body. You can get well." So Luigi started to live what he called the "temperate life," "La Vita Sobra", the name of the book which he wrote later, The Sober Life. He reduced his foods, cutting down to twelve ounces a day of solid foods and fourteen ounces of wine divided into two meals.
Immediately Luigi began to feel better, and at the end of the year he was in perfect health, completely free of all problems, just on this small amount of food. He lived on this minimal diet from age 35 until 85.
Then his relatives ganged up on him. They said, "Luigi, you're an old man, you have to keep up your strength. You have to start eating more. Luigi, you gotta eat more!" They annoyed him so much with their advice that just to shut them up he agreed to increase his food. He increased it from twelve to fourteen ounces - that's only four tablespoons of food more. Immediately Luigi became violently ill; within three days he had a high fever. Within seven days he was near death.
So he said, "I'm through with this. I'm going to go back to my old diet." Within a few days he became well again, and he lived in a state of unbroken health and happiness until the age of 102. When he died, he died in an ideal way. He was in his rocking chair. He closed his eyes, took a nap, and didn't wake up. There was no pain or suffering, ever. His mind was clear as a bell until the very end, no senility, no memory loss. Indeed, one of the things he wrote about in his discourses was that his hearing and vision were perfect He retained all his senses. That's something you don't see today.
Okay, this is the value of a minimal diet. Now, Cornaro did not eat the quality of food that we recommend. They didn't know about the importance of fresh food in those days, the late 1400's, early 1500's. Luigi ate a little meat; he ate an egg yolk; he had panado, which was a vegetable soup with a little tomato; he had grape juice; and he had bread. He used to dip the bread in the soup. That was his diet. That's all he ate. He didn't want to eat fish because it didn't agree with him, and he didn't eat chicken. He ate a little meat. On that diet, which we natural nutritionists would call low quality, he lived to 102. I've always wondered what would have happened had he lived on our quality of food. He might have gone on to 150.
1 ounce=28.5 grams
12 ounces=342 grams
14 ounces=399 grams
LUIGI CORNARO ON "HOW TO LIVE ONE HUNDRED YEARS"
This book (How to Overcome Compulsive Habits) would not be complete without telling the classical story of an Italian nobleman named Luigi Cornaro who was born in 1467 in Padua, Italy. The remarkable story of his life has been an inspiration to countless numbers of people for almost 500 years, and it is wise that we take a close look at the lessons to be learned from a study of his experiences.
The wisdom to be gleaned deals with the following subjects:
The making of good and bad habits, and the art and state of mind one should cultivate which leads to their control. Since this is the chief subject of our study in this book, it behooves us to draw heavily upon the experience of an individual who solved his problems in a rather remarkable manner. The method he used may be applied by all individuals without exception and the same benefits may be expected by all who do so.
How an individual who was dying at 40 years of age brought himself to a state of good health in less than one year, and through the careful exercise of self-control prolonged his life to 102 years of age with the full preservation of all his faculties to the very end. The living of each day was a joy in his life at all times.
The amount of food necessary to sustain life. Since the quantity of food needed to maintain excellent health and spirits is so small, it is rather shocking to realize that all of us, with very few exceptions, overeat and produce an endless array of miseries in our lives in both mental and physical afflictions. The KEY to health and happiness is inextricably associated with the QUANTITY of food we consume daily.
Each morsel we consume beyond what is absolutely necessary to sustain life, wastes physical and mental energy at a fearful rate. If any single factor were to be considered as the most important for health and happiness, this would be it. Those who are compulsive overeaters should study, restudy and ponder deeply upon this question, for herein is contained the key to the solution of most of their daily problems. ......
PSYCHOLOGY, ENERGY AND FOOD
Our states of mind are dependent upon our health and closely related to the amount of food we consume. Dejection and melancholy are a projection into our conscious minds from our inner environment. Exhaustion of our energies by the excessive labors involved in metabolizing excess food reflects in our minds as melancholy, depression and negativity.
The psychological implications here are enormous. ......
A LONG LIFE FREE FROM SENILITY DEPENDS ON DIET
Proper diet is the most important factor in achieving a long life, one which is free from illness, senility, and decrepitude. It allows old age to be an enjoyable period of life wherein vigorous physical and mental activity is possible up to almost the very end of advanced years, without becoming helplessly immobilized and incapacitated. It allows natural death, a very rare phenomenon today, when it occurs to be as painless and as pleasant as going to sleep when fatigued. ......
HEALTH AND LONGEVITY
Let Luigi Cornaro, in his own words tell you about his most interesting findings in his chapter On Health and Longevity.
"THE MAKING OF GOOD AND BAD HABITS"
"It is a thing past all doubt that custom, by time, becomes a second nature, .....
This is so undeniably true that virtuous men, by conversing with the wicked, very often fall into the same vicious course of life. The contrary, likewise, we see sometimes happen: viz, that, as good morals easily change to bad, so bad morals change again to good. For instance, let a wicked man, who was once virtuous, keep company with a virtuous man, and he will again become virtuous; and this alteration can be attributed to nothing but the force of habit, which is, indeed, very great."
"NEVER SICK AGAIN"
"..... to lead a regular life. And it is not to be doubted that, were a patient so recovered to live in that manner, he could never be sick again, as it removes every cause of illness, and so for the future he would never want either physician or physic. Nay, by attending duly to what I have said, he would become his own physician, and indeed the best he could have, since, in fact, no man can be a perfect physician to any one but himself."
LUIGI'S RULES FOR HEALTH AND LONGEVITY
The Two Rules for Maintaining Health and Prolonging Life: These were reduced to two things, quality and quantity.
The first, namely quality, consists in not eating foods or drinking liquids harmful to the stomach.
"The second, which is quantity, consists in not eating or drinking more than the stomach can easily digest, which quantity and quality every man should be a perfect judge of by the time he is forty or fifty or sixty." .....
"I felt like singing a song after my simple meals."
Cornaro was of the conviction that no constitution could withstand excessive eating. To state it clearly, the inevitable conclusion was: "eat what you like, when you like and die young."
At ninety-five years of age Luigi Cornaro had all his faculties, as good as ever; his judgement, memory and spirits were undiminished. To the very end of his days, his life was active.
To the last moment, he continued his exhortations that all partake of the joys of small meals as a sure guarantee of physical, mental and emotional happiness.
At the age of 102, while sitting in his rocking chair, he closed his eyes in a peaceful sleep which was final.
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