Dr. Mao’s Secrets of Longevity Cookbook

Eat to Thrive, Live Long, and Be Healthy, by Dr. Maoshing Ni: Over 80 Recipes for Heart Health, Immunity, Anti-Inflammation, and Weight Management

What’s the Secret to Living a Long and Fulfilling Life?

You hold the key to your own longevity, and it starts by respecting your body and eating a healing diet of living, natural foods. This cookbook shares recipes from some of the most famous ‘longevity capitals’ of the world, gathered from Dr. Mao’s extensive centenarian and patient interviews. The recipes make use of the top ten healing and longevity foods, while still tasting delicious! Try dishes like Squash Peanut Soup, Warm Cod Salad, and Quinoa Brown Rice Sushi and you’ll soon see a different in your energy and health.

The Secrets of Longevity Cookbook includes:

• Centenarians’ Top Ten Habits for Good Health
• List of Pantry Essentials and Guide to Cookware for Longevity
• Weekly Menus for Longevity and Health
• Over 80 Longevity Recipes

— From: Backcover

You are What You Eat, so Eat Like a Centenarian and Embrace Your Longevity!

The simple philosophy of this cookbook is that by following the dietary wisdom of centenarians, we can initiate self-healing within ourselves, enjoy life more in the present, and achieve longevity in the future.

Dr. Mao’s extensive interviews with centenarians from all over the world, including the ‘longevity capitals’ of Okinawa, Japan; Vilcabamba, Ecuador; Sardinia, Italy; and Bama County, China; provide the backbone of this book. Dr. Mao has compiled dozens of delicious and healthy recipes that he has gathered throughout the years from his patients, students, and even his own childhood in China.

Simple concepts, such as eating five smaller meals a day, consuming more plants, letting food be your medicine, and combining the best of the East and West, will help you make most of your meals each day and lead you on the path of longevity and health.

Dishes such as Banana Buckwheat Pancakes, Salmon Leek Salad with Ginger-Miso Dressing, Creamy Sweet Potato Soup, and Stuffed Pumpkin make use of longevity ingredients that will leave you satisfied and feeling great. Use the weekly menus to plan out your meals to make sure you’re eating healthy all the time.

You will also discover many other ways to eat to thrive, including tips on cookware and utensils, pantry essentials, and the best anti-aging foods.

Dr. Mao’s Secrets of Longevity Cookbook is all you need to start getting the most out of the food you eat. Instead of ingesting the empty calories that most packaged and fast food provide, you’ll be gaining all of the vital energy associated with eating a healing diet of living, natural foods.

— From: Inlay

Red Flags in the Ingredient List

Packaged foods are full of nasty additives used to increase flavor and extend shelf life. These unnatural additives may extend the life of the food, but they will subtract years from yours. Choose foods in their wholeness whenever possible, but if you plan on buying any packaged food, make sure you avoid these:

• Sodium chloride — a little salt goes a long way. Too much salt can lead to high blood pressure, compromised cardiovascular health, and kidney failure. Sodium content shouldn’t exceed 5 percent of the recommended daily intake.
• Sugar is an addictive substance with little nutritional value that can lead to weight gain, obesity, and diabetes. Watch out for these processed sugary components: high fructose corn syrup, glucose, confectioner’s sugar, dextrose, maltose, fruit juice concentrate, powdered sugar, sucrose, invert sugar, corn sweetener, corn syrup.
• Artificial sweeteners are found in most ‘sugar-free’ diet drinks, gums, candy bars, gelatins, and low-calorie desserts, usually in the form of Equal, Sweet ‘N Low Splenda, or other artificial sweeteners, most of which contain aspartame, sucralose, acesulfame K, and have been linked to cancer.
• Trans fats are used frequently in packaged foods to preserve freshness and extend the expiration date. These trans fats elevate your ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol and make your ‘good’ HDL plummet.
• Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is often added to salad dressings, canned goods, sauces, soups, chips, and many other processed foods. MSG has been linked to headaches, rapid heartbeat, nausea, chest pain, and overall body weakness.
• Sodium nitrite is often found in lunch meats, hot dogs, bacon, and smoked foods and has been linked to various types of cancer.
• BHA and BHT are often added to breakfast cereals, rice, chips, and other packaged foods to prevent the fats from going rancid. Although you would need to consume 125 times the amount added to foods to experience the negative effects, there is still concern regarding their safety.
• Olestra, used in fat-free snacks, is a chemically produced, synthetic fat with reported side effects that include anal leakage, gas, and cramps.
• Food colorings are often made with petroleum and have been linked to cancer. Especially avoid Blue 1 and 2, Red 3, Green 3, and Yellow 6, which can show up in everything from candy to beverages to sausage.
• Potassium bromate, a carcinogenic used as a chemical leavening agent in flour, bread, and rolls, has been banned in Europe.

— From: page 20