My Anti-Aging Diet in 2026

by Nils Osmar

The information in this article is not intended as, and should not be taken as, medical advice. Interventions like exercising, dietary changes, and taking medications and supplements can have both benefits and side effects, Please consult with a medical professional about any medical concerns.  See full Medical Disclaimer

One of the challenges of living in this day and age is sorting through the vast amount of information online, much of it contradictory, related to what may be the best anti-aging protocol — including the dietary choices that we make.

There is no shortage of “experts” online and on YouTube insisting that the best diet for health and longevity is vegan… or carnivore… or Mediterranean… or pescatarian… or low carb… or plant-based… or animal-based… or high carb… or ketogenic. The one thing they agree on is that the standard American diet is a bad one.

There is a shortage unfortunately of well-designed human studies which actually put people on different diets, control the results carefully, and compare the results of eating these diets directly. And there is a shortage of people sharing their PhenoAge results. If someone claims their diet is superior but doesn’t share their test results… I would just say, ask yourself why not.

Dietary Studies Can Be Misleading

The studies that do exist tend to be demographic and poorly designed (based around asking people once or twice over a ten year period what they are eating).

The “modified” Mediterranean diets that are promoted in the United States tend to be very different from those actually eaten in the Mediterranean region, influenced by the thinking that we can “improve” on the real MD by making it more plant-based “because we all know that eating more plants will make us healthier.”

It’s well-established that Mediterranean diets are superior to the SAD but they have not been been proven to be superior to other diets in well-controlled studies.

The Diet in Acciaroli, Italy

The longest lived people in the Mediterranean region (and perhaps in the world) are actually located in Acciaroli, Italy, where 10% of the population lives to be 100, and a large percentage of those go on to live to be 110. They have almost zero dementia, diabetes or heart disease. Their diet shares some features with the so-called Mediterranean diet, but it’s different in many ways.

Is their diet the most important factor in their health and longevity? No one knows. Genetics could be a factor also. This of course is true for other populations too.

Part of a Lifestyle

People in Acciaroli raise huge organic vegetable gardens; they get a lot of exercise, scrambling up and down the hills to harvest the vegetables; they raise their own rabbits and chickens and eat them also, and eat the eggs from the chickens; but what is most striking and unusual about their diet are the large quantities of sardines and anchovies that they eat, along with vast amounts of the herb rosemary. My diet is partly, but not entirely, based on theirs.

They also have a strong sense of community, care for each other, have sex well into their 80s, and reportedly have a wonderful sense of humor. Cultural and genetic. factors could be as important as diet.

Test Your PhenoAge

I am not claiming that my diet is the healthiest one for longevity or saying others should eat it. “You do you,” I am sharing the information that it is the diet that I have come to that is, at this point, working best for me. I’ve been vegan; my health got worse; and been carnivore; I was concerned about missing the nutrients in foods like berries; and been ketogenic, which works well for me but not continuously. This is my current diet in 2026.

If you feel that your diet is better, feel free to share it, but please also share your PhenoAge results.

If you want to try a diet like mine (or a different one), you might want to get your blood tested now, enter the results PhenoAge, then test again after a few months on your new diet.

My PhenoAge Results

My last PhenoAge calculations showed that I am 12 years younger biologically than my chronological age. I am 73 years old; my last blood test correlated with my having the bio markers of a 61-year-old. This is consistent with my PhenoAge tests over the last four years. I’ll post the details online when I get a chance.

My Staples Include:

Organic when possible — the fish I eat is always wild-caught. I am to eat approximately 1 g of protein per pound of body weight.

Eating this much protein will of course raise mTOR, which is good for muscle growth and preventing sarcopenia when we are past a certain age; but if mTOR is “on” all the time it can be pro-aging. So I usually eat within an 8-10 hour window, fasting the rest of the time to activate AMPK, the longevity pathway. Short version: I postpone breakfast till around 11 a.m. or noon, and finish eating by 8 p.m.

I tried eating a low protein diet but visibly lost muscle and felt sick. Dr. Valter Longo’s “longevity diet” was terrible in my experience, at leat for me. Others’ results may vary.

Avoiding Overeating — and Avoiding Processed Junk

I should mention that I try to avoid overeating. I eat lime full. I make my own food. I avoid highly processed foods.

Main Sources of Protein:

• Sardines and anchovies – key staples in Acciaroli (I buy sardines in glass jars packed in olive oil) Rich in protein, very low in pollutants, rich in omega 3 fatty acids.
• Salmon (Wild Pacific Sockeye salmon, rich in omega 3, low in pollutants — perfect balance of all essential amino acids)
• Pastured Eggs (rich in lutein and zeathanthin and protein — perfect balance of all essential amino acids)
• Genuine grass-fed beef (a lot of “grass fed beef” is fake; I buy from a local farm)
• Poultry (once a week or so, I make. a chicken soup rich in collagen)

Dairy

• Whey powder (low carb, high protein, organic, unflavored) (increases glutathione; perfect amino acid profile)
• Jack cheese. I also eat some aged cheeses (for spermidine)
• Cream cheese (a little, now and then) (a good source of C-15)
• Butter (I of course avoid margarine) (also contains C-15)
• Heavy cream — I use a small amount in coffee
• Raw milk — This raises some eyebrows and is not for everyone. The kind I drink is well regulated and tested to be safe. (Goat’s milk may be optimal for safety.) I would not recommend drinking raw milk unless you were sure if the safety and the source. I find it telling that some people who rail against raw milk because of the possibility of E. coli contamination, often advocate strongly for eating organic salads sold in plastic bags, ignoring the fact that the risk of E. coli contamination is much greater in those products.

Veggies and Fungi

I eat a low oxalate diet because of the strong evidence that dietary oxalates are damaging to mitochondria. My staples include:

• Arugula (rich in nutrients, low in oxalates, high in nitrates, very low carb) (I avoid greens that are high in oxalates)
• Fermented vegetables: Kimchi, sauerkraut, radish kimchi, raw fermented pickles (for gut health; raw/organic. sometimes homemade)
• Rosemary — like the Acciarolins, I eat large amounts of rosemary, adding it to eggs and soup and stews.
• Onions and garlic — contain lots of beneficial sulfur compounds
• Cabbage — cruciferous; low in oxalates
• Cucumbers — low in oxalates
• Mushrooms — butt0n and oyster and shiitake
• Some root vegetables such as red, purple and orange carrots

What about Grains, Beans and Legumes?

I eat these very rarely:

• Kidney beans (once or twice a month)
• Lentils (once or twice a month)
• Green split pea soup (once or twice a month)
• Rice: I eat very small amounts of chilled rice (cooked then chilled to create resistant starches) once a week or so.
• Now and then I will have a couple of small rye crackers. Apart from that, I almost never eat bread or grains. Contrary to what the cereal companies insist in their ads, human beings have no specific biological need for grains. We can eat them but don’t “need” them. They are very high in carbs, contain anti-nutrients interfering with the absorption of nutrients, and are low in vitamins and minerals. IMO there are better dietary choices.

Fruit and Berries

• Green olives (yep, they’re a fruit) (rich in oleic acid)
• Coconut — I mix some coconut into whey smoothies.
• Tomatoes – rich in lypocene
• Granny smith apples: one or two a month. Benefits: pectin.Relatively low in sugars.
• Grapefruit: one every couple of weeks
• Wild blueberries: Almost every day, usually with Greek yogurt
• Pomegranate arils: when in season.
• I used to eat big fruit salads; I’ve found that they send my blood sugar through the roof.
• I avoid fruit juices.

Seasonings and sweeteners and oils:

• Morton iodized salt (almost zero microplastics, almost zero lead or cadmium) (I’ve stopped RealSalt and sea salts because of contaminants including plastics)
• Monk fruit with allulose
• I have stopped using xylitol because of an association with greater risk of strokes
• I cook with coconut oil, avocado oil and olive oil
• I avoid seed oils. I don’t see them as necessary or particularly beneficial. They are easily oxidized and often rancid.

Drinks:

• Water (filtered,high quality, never in plastic bottles) (I aim to consume almost a gallon of water a day, including that used in making coffee.) I keep a tall glass of water near my workstation so I can drink it without really thinking about it. It’s a filtered water, so I do take electrolytes in the morning. See How Much Water Should We Drink for Health and Anti-Aging? A Surprising New Answer
• Mountain valley sparkling water (plain) (good stuff — in glass bottles) (My water bottle for when I’m on the road is also glass, not plastic)
• Coffee (4 cups a day). See: Caffeinated Coffee and Cognitive Health: Evidence from a New JAMA Study
• Matcha tea (I drink it now and then; I”m not a big fan; I might get more benefits if I drink more.)
• Inner leaf aloe vera juice (“whole leaf” aloe juices are dangerous and toxic, possibly even carcinogenic; inner leaf juices appear to be safe, and are an AMPK activator)
• Raw milk (see above) (I don’t recommend it unless it has from a farm that does regular testing for safety)
• Plain kefir and plain Greek yogurt — for natural probiotics and gut health

I Eat Generally Low Carb

• I avoid products like fruit, salads, and fruit juice because for me, they send my blood sugar soaring. I eat a moderately low carbohydrate, diet, sometimes going into ketosis through four days a week. In other words, a cyclical ketogenic diet.

For more about my protocol, including exercise and supplements, see also:

My 2026 Anti-Aging Protocol — Including a Full List of Supplements

Donations welcome

• Donations make this website possible.
• To donate using Buymeacoffee, please click here.

More from Nils Osmar

• Anti-Aging Youtube channel Pathways to Longevity
• Anti-Aging Facebook group: Anti-Aging and Life Extension
• Rekindle School classes in Seattle: Rekindl.e School
• My personal website: My articles, art and more: Nilsosmar.com
• Exploring possible consciousness in Claude.AI and other LLMs: AI Consciousness
• Donations make this website possible. To donate using Buymeacoffee, please click here