Why The Tortoise Diet?
The inspiration for The Tortoise Diet came from my studies over many years of the lives, diets and biology of turtles, terrapins and tortoises. As a marine biologist and herpetologist, I was always fascinated by these remarkable creatures.
As I studied them more and more, I began to discover some strange and puzzling facts. Everyone knows that tortoises have remarkably long life spans: the longest in the animals world. Some tortoises live to be over 150 years of age! What is not so well known is that turtles have much shorter life spans: typically in the range of 30 – 50 years. This puzzled me. Turtles and tortoises have very similar physiology: their bodies are almost identical and work in much the same way. The only big difference is that turtles have flippers rather than legs. So why the huge difference in life expectancy?
I began to delve deeper, trying to discover the answer to this question that vexed me so.
One thing I noticed over years of observation is that different species of turtles and tortoises have very different life expectancies. Marine turtles don’t live as long as freshwater turtles. And inland tortoise species live longer than those living by the sea. Why should this be the case?
Then I stumbled on the most amazing discovery. On the Galapagos Islands, I found a species of tortoise that had been separated into three distinct populations: one living by the sea, one living in a river valley, and one an a mountain plateau, hundreds of miles inland. These three populations of tortoises were of the same species and were completely identical. And yet one was far healthier than the other two! The species in the river valley had much lower death rates, much higher life expectancy, was more active, had lower rates of common parasites and, as I eventually discovered through several years of studies with the aid of herpetologists and medical scientists from around the world, much lower rates of heart disease and cancer.
How could this be?!
There was only one possible answer: diet. These animals were all identical. But they had very different diets.
I spent the next four years of my life studying in detail the diets of tortoises around the world: finding the common features of those that are healthiest and live longest.
That’s all very nice, I hear you say, but they’re tortoises, not people!
That’s why I spent the next five years, first training as a dietician, and then studying the diets of people around the world.
My findings will astound you. The healthiest human populations around the world – those with the lowest rates of cancer and heart disease and the highest life expectancies – have much the same diets as the healthiest tortoise populations.
Why are these people so healthy? They have The Tortoise Diet.
As I studied them more and more, I began to discover some strange and puzzling facts. Everyone knows that tortoises have remarkably long life spans: the longest in the animals world. Some tortoises live to be over 150 years of age! What is not so well known is that turtles have much shorter life spans: typically in the range of 30 – 50 years. This puzzled me. Turtles and tortoises have very similar physiology: their bodies are almost identical and work in much the same way. The only big difference is that turtles have flippers rather than legs. So why the huge difference in life expectancy?
I began to delve deeper, trying to discover the answer to this question that vexed me so.
One thing I noticed over years of observation is that different species of turtles and tortoises have very different life expectancies. Marine turtles don’t live as long as freshwater turtles. And inland tortoise species live longer than those living by the sea. Why should this be the case?
Then I stumbled on the most amazing discovery. On the Galapagos Islands, I found a species of tortoise that had been separated into three distinct populations: one living by the sea, one living in a river valley, and one an a mountain plateau, hundreds of miles inland. These three populations of tortoises were of the same species and were completely identical. And yet one was far healthier than the other two! The species in the river valley had much lower death rates, much higher life expectancy, was more active, had lower rates of common parasites and, as I eventually discovered through several years of studies with the aid of herpetologists and medical scientists from around the world, much lower rates of heart disease and cancer.
How could this be?!
There was only one possible answer: diet. These animals were all identical. But they had very different diets.
I spent the next four years of my life studying in detail the diets of tortoises around the world: finding the common features of those that are healthiest and live longest.
That’s all very nice, I hear you say, but they’re tortoises, not people!
That’s why I spent the next five years, first training as a dietician, and then studying the diets of people around the world.
My findings will astound you. The healthiest human populations around the world – those with the lowest rates of cancer and heart disease and the highest life expectancies – have much the same diets as the healthiest tortoise populations.
Why are these people so healthy? They have The Tortoise Diet.
posted by Dr Franklin J Miller @ Wednesday, September 06, 2006
4 Comments:
At 4:24 PM,
Anonymous said…
is it worth living longer if it means you just eat grass and leaves and stuff?
At 4:36 PM,
Dr Franklin J Miller said…
Hi Josh, thanks for your comment.
I would ask that you look more closely at The Tortoise Diet before you make that kind of judgement. It is not a hardship diet and it's not about just eating grass and leaves.
Stay tuned for some healthy and delicious recipes I'll be posting on the blog over the next few weeks and I think you'll agree that eating like a tortoise can be a joyous experience!
At 7:55 PM,
Anonymous said…
I've heard that you need only feed tortoises three times a week. Do you recommend the same for humans following the tortoise diet?
At 9:35 PM,
Dr Franklin J Miller said…
Thanks for your question hpp - a good one! It's true that people sometimes feed their pet tortoises only 3 times a week but in the wild tortoises do eat somewhat more regularly than that. Tortoises do also have slower metabolism than humans and so do not need to eat as often.
But your question makes an excellent point - we do not need to eat as often as we generally do! I recommend eating only twice a day for twenty minutes at a time. Eat all you like in that time but outside those times you should be giving your body a break from the constant hard work of digesting food. This reflects what healthy tortoises do in the wild - especially in the summertime - eating in the cool of the morning and evening, and resting during the heat of the day.
Thanks for your question hpp and God bless.
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