Lifespan: The Revolutionary Science of Why We Age—and Why We Don't Have To

by David A. Sinclair

Some people are simply winners in the genetic lottery. The rest of us have some extra work to do. But the good news is that the epigenome is malleable. Since it’s not digital, it’s easier to impact. We can control the behavior of this analog element of our biology by how we live our lives. The important thing is not just what we eat but the way we eat. As it turns out, there is a strong correlation between fasting behavior and longevity in Blue Zones such as Ikaria, Greece, “the island where people forget to die,” where one-third of the population lives past the age of 90 and almost every older resident is a staunch disciple of the Greek Orthodox church and adheres to a religious calendar that calls for some manner of fasting more than half the year.