LS3 - Chris Crowley coauthor of Thinner This Year Formulates a Healthier Life

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Welcome to the Longevity Show. Informing listeners on the important aspects of health, wealth and happiness to ensure you live life to its fullest. With fascinating interviews with top authors and gurus in the field, along with the latest news in the science and technology of longevity, we're going to reveal expert advice and amazing secrets of living a longer, happier life. And now, here's your host, Jason Hartman.

It's my pleasure to welcome Chris Crowley to the show. He is the co author of the New York Times bestsellers Younger Next Year, Younger Next Year for Women and Thinner this Year, a diet and exercise program for living strong, fit and sexy. Chris, welcome. How are you?

Glad to be here. How are you?

Well, good, good. It's good to have you on the show. And I always like to give our listeners a little sense of geography. Where are you located today?

I'm in New York a lot of time, but right now we have a house up in the Berkshires and I'm at a big Victorian house in the middle of fields of snow and freezing cold.

Yeah, we could really use some of that global warming we keep getting promised right about now.

And not like me, I think.

Yeah, that's for sure.

It was well below zero up here all weekend long. That was interesting.

So thinner this year is the latest book, is that correct?

Yes, it is.

Okay, good, good. Well, you know, let's just dive into your philosophy on health and longevity. Take it where you want to take it and I'll ask questions as we.

Let me start like this. Basically the original books, Younger Next Year, which really were a huge success and are still selling like hotcakes years later, the basic premise is that there's a revolution in aging, a revolution in behavior, and if you do some stuff, some behavioral changes, you can avoid 70% of normal American aging until the very end of life, which is extraordinary. And you can avoid, not avoid, but avoid completely 50% of all the serious illness and accidents that the other kids have all the way out, not just for that till the end, but just plain don't have them. Heart attacks, strokes, adult onset diabetes, Alzheimer's, cancers, their works. And these books have been out for a while and no one disagrees with those notions. Behavioral change makes a fantastic difference in the quality of life, especially in the third act.

Uh huh. And what is the third act? How do you define that?

Oh, after you're 55 or 60 or whatever it is, the last third of your life, whatever it is. I mean, I'm beating the third act.

Sure, sure, absolutely. Okay, good. And do you offer adv on how to do behavioral changes at all?

Well, yes, we do. It turns out that the flywheel of a good life, in our view, is serious exercise six days a week until the day you die. That sounds gaga, unless you think all the time about those numbers that I just mentioned, that 70% of aging, that 50% of serious illness and accidents. Serious exercise does astonishing things. It changes your body chemistry in fundamental ways. It eliminates the inflammation that's the mother and father of all the serious illnesses. It just plain does. It does extraordinary stuff.

Amazing changes. It makes a world of sense to do four days of serious aerobic exercise every week and do two days of strength training, which I still hate, but it does different stuff. You want to do both those things. And finally and separately, it makes, especially in this country, it makes great sense to quit eating the way we eat and follow different eating patterns about that separately.

No question, Ari. I mean, we could talk about eating problems of America for days on end, but on the exercise thing, you mentioned cardio and strength or weight training. Where does yoga come into play, if at all?

Yoga's terrific. You want to kind of be careful. I don't think you can get hurt doing yoga. A lot of people go wind up with physical therapists because of yoga stuff. But it's wonderful if you do it right, it's terrific if you have the right people. It's probably closer to strength training than anything else. But, you know, there are an awful lot of different kinds of yoga. Some of them are very much like aerobic exercise. Not many, but mostly they're sort of like strength training. And there are some strength training done in a certain way.

Absolutely. Okay, good. That's good advice so far. Let's kind of drill down a little bit more and, you know, maybe I'll ask you on the exercise front, what are some of the repercussions of not exercising, especially after age 30?

Let me take an obvious one. Do you know what sarcopenia is?

I've heard of it.

Nobody's. Congratulations. Nobody's even heard that word. And we've all heard that sarcopenia. Sarcopenia is the disposition to lose 5 to 10% of your muscle mass every decade after 30. It's just horrendous. We're losing vast amounts of muscle mass as we age, and there's no need for it. Do some strength training. You can offset muscle mass almost completely. In the same vein, we're all suffering from bone loss. We have terrible bone loss, especially women, especially after menopause. 2% a year, Bones are going out the window. Just dreadful. You can offset that too by strength training. It is so important. It's just, it's night and day in terms of quality of life. If you get to be as old as I am, I'm in my 80th year through no fault of my own. But if you happen to get to be that old, let me tell you, you can see your pals who don't do this stuff and they are limping along and they're not having fun and they are delicate, but do this stuff and you could be about the same man or woman you were at 50 until you are 80 and beyond. And I know some there.

Yeah, absolutely. So 2% of our bone density is lost every year.

Women after menopause lose up to 2% of their bone mass a year. It's just horrendous. And that's where those broken hips and so on come from. And think about it, you know, woman in her late 60s, falls down, breaks her hip. Very common thing to have happen. Half those people will never walk unaided again if the cane and the walker and the chair. And 20% of those women will be dead in a year because of bone loss. Think about that.

Wow, that's unbelievable. That is just terrible. I know it's not as men, men get a little bit of a pass on this, but men have the problem too, right?

Oh, absolutely, yeah, yeah.

How? It's 2% for women, up to 2% and that's terrible. How does it work for men though?

Up to 2% after menopause, less than that before. And men are a half percent, 2%. But men have it too. It's serious business. You know, you live a lot, a lot of years, you're losing a half a percent. A percent a year, you lose a lot.

Any supplementation for the bone thing or is it purely about strength training?

It's our, you know, I'm not the expert. I'm the co author of these books. I hang out with smart people, people like Harry Lodge, my co author and the first books, and the wonderful professor Jen Sachek from Tufts. They're the brains. They're young and smart and I'm old and funny. That's how we divide it up. But they insist powerfully that supplements don't make any sense. Supplements don't do it. The way to get good vitamins and nutrients is eat decent food all the time. Don't bother with the supplements. They're shockingly expensive and all they give you is expensive urine.

So we really aren't absorbing things. Then you're with the theory that all the vitamins go down the toilet, huh?

Absolutely it does. Even and the wonderful one a day, we all sort of think, well, gee whiz, one a day vitamin can't hurt. That's probably true. It probably can't hurt, but it can't help either. Too bad. I mean, take all that dough, save it up, buy yourself a great bicycle.

Good. What else can people do? I mean, how about the carnivore, omnivore, herbivore debate? Should we be vegan?

No. If you have a serious heart problem, maybe it makes sense to go on a plant based diet. If I were having stents put into my body, I'd start thinking hard about doing an all plant based diet. But up until that time, I am told by Jan is a professional professor of nutrition at Tufts, which is probably the best nutrition school in the country. And she and others who study the actual science of nutrition. And not many of the writers on the subject do study that. They're doctors, and doctors don't know much about nutrition. But the ones who study it say that the answer is a broad based diet, heavy on fruit and veg, light on red meats, but some meats, some fish, a little bit lower on fats. But the notion that we're going to go Paleo is a deeply mistaken one in our view. The same with the Atkins diet. There's an obvious correlation between heavy meat eating heavy fat and serious heart problems. It doesn't make sense to do that. Our notion is you eat less of that but have a balanced diet of all the good stuff. One of the things you're quick to not eat is the stuff in the middle of the supermarket. All those prepared foods are jam packed with sugar and added sugar and added solid fats. Getting those out of your diet is a great idea. But otherwise heavy on fruit and veg, some good proteins, some fat, and not much in the way of prepared foods or fast foods. That's our suggestion.

And just, you know, I mean, the Paleo diet of course, takes out the breads and the grains. You know, what do you think of the. It sounds like you're not hugely fond of the Paleo plan.

There's no scientific basis at all for those things. It's the same as the gluten free stuff. There's a wonderful fad these days. There are these tides that go through, like religious belief tides that go Through Andi this, Andi that. No fat, all fat, all bread, all meat, blah, blah, blah. This anti grain thing is particularly annoying. It makes sense not to eat. That's a good idea. White bread, white pasta, white rice. Skip it. Good idea. Good for you. But whole grains are terrific for you. My beloved brown rice, Farro whole wheat. Marvelous. The idea of stopping those things is just nuts. Doesn't make sense.

And why are they good for you? Is it the fiber?

Yeah, they're wonderful for fiber, which is important. Having your body work properly. And they're full of vitamins and minerals and other nutrients that you need a lot. It's crazy to give up. If you have celiac disease. That's a special situation. You can't have wheat. That makes plenty of sense. But that's 1% of the population to have all these gluten free things on the market. Please. And they're almost always subsidying the gluten free part with other stuff that's not as good for you. Don't worry about it. Whole wheat. Whole grains are good for you. Unless you get celiacs. But that's 1% of the population and you'll know it.

So high quality cereals, muesli, granola, all kinds of. That kind of stuff is great, huh?

Try Farro. Farro's a wonderful grain. I'm not a nutty eater, I eat a lot of stuff. But Farro, which is an Italian grain, it's sort of like a Farro brown rice. F A R R O. It's an Italian grain. Brown rice on steroids. Just terrific. Really good stuff.

Yeah, okay, fantastic. Well, what else should we know about diet, exercise, medicine? Anything you want to talk about?

Golly, that covers the waterfront. Our notion is it makes the big one. If I get to wrap it up, I'd say flywheel of a good life is serious exercise. Six days a week, four days of aerobics, two days of strength training. That's the single most important thing. And if you can't do that, at least do the aerobic stuff. That's huge. And don't do it for five minutes and so on. And do it sort of hard for you. Not hard for. You know, that's a tornado. And Olympic athletes do all this stuff, but just vigorous for you. Get your heart rate up. Second, quit eating prepared foods. Don't eat white rice, don't eat white wheat. Don't eat most of the breads and stuff. I love bread, I love French fries. But all that fried stuff, it's terrible.

It's so bad.

Yeah, don't go there. Don't go there. Pretend you're going to eat salad. You're lying to yourself. That's happening.

That's a very good point. Very good point. Well, where can people find out about you and your books?

Oh, any place. We have a website thinner this year.com and youngernextyear.com either one. And the books are online and any place. Every store. You get them everywhere. They're all over the place.

And Chris, if you said, is your advice applicable to all ages? I mean, is it all across the board or are there certain ages? Different things.

You know, we kind of focused on the first books on the baby boomers just because I was so darned old, but it was really marketing. This stuff applies to everybody. It makes a world of sense to start this when you're 20 and you sure as the dickens ought to keep it up forever. It's interesting now that I'm so darned old, as I say, I notice what a difference it makes at my age. They were treating me at 80. And the people who are my age, I look at them, think, holy mackerel, that was close. Because most of them delicate, man, and not having fun. And I went skiing yesterday for the first time this year and thought, you know, not so many of us 80 years rotted and there's no reason not to be. It's just. It's just foolishness.

I know, I know. You're given one body, you better take good care of it. No question about it.

And it'll do amazing things almost all the way out if you use it hard.

Yeah, that's for sure.

If you don't, it'll go straight to hell and you'll be in trouble.

Yeah. Yeah. No question about it. Well, Chris Crowley, thank you so much for joining us today.

You bet. That was fun.

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