The 5 Pillars system is the method that allows us to identify which studies, which information is the correct one to base our dietary choices on and how much to eat, reducing the risk of misinformation.
The 5 Pillars are.
- Basic Research and Juventology/Biogerontology. It is the study of nutrient modality and how sugars and proteins affect cell function, aging, age-related damage. It is the study of simple organisms that allows us to determine if a certain diet results in healthy longevity.
- Epidemiology. The study the causes of diseases in populations, the risk factors of diseases
- Clinical studies. The hypotheses formulated by basic and epidemiological research must be tested by randomized clinical trials.
- The study of centenarians.
- The study of complex systems. How excessive intake of a nutrient, combined with other factors contributes directly or indirectly to the onset of disease, damage, aging of the system, and thus death.
For example; high-protein, hyperlipidic, low-carbohydrate diet is a type of diet based mostly on one or two of the five Pillars. Studies of populations with record longevity show that such populations do not adopt such a diet, and in the long term, both epidemiological and clinical studies show that such a type of diet has negative effects: it accelerates aging, the onset of disease.
( source: The Longevity Diet, at the Longevity Table by Valter Longo).