Health and Life Lessons from a 16th-Century Centenarian
500 Years Ago, What Were Luigi Cornaro’s Secrets to Long Life?
One of the most thoughtful and delightful 75th birthday presents I received was a book written by a 16th-century Venetian nobleman named Luigi Cornaro who lived healthily to about 100 years old. (Some sources say he was 98, others say 102.) Titled Discourses on a Sober and Temperate Life, Wherein Is Demonstrated, by His Own Example, the Method of Preserving Health to Extreme Old Age, the book has been an eye-opener for me on health and longevity as well as how to spend all that extra quality time on this planet as a result of not getting sick or dying at an earlier age. And remember, this was 500 years ago, long before modern healthcare or any medical understanding of age-related conditions.
To place Cornaro’s story in historical context, this was the time of Shakespeare, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, Columbus and Magellan, and Nicolaus Copernicus, a kind of mini-Axial Age that we now call the Renaissance in Europe. Reaching the ripe, old age of 100 was exceedingly rare in this era. As a point of comparison, Shakespeare died at age 52, Leonardo da Vinci at 67, and Columbus at 54.
A One-Word Formula for Longevity
In one word, Cornaro’s formula for longevity and health was temperance, which means he moderated his appetite to a point that he was eating and drinking much less than most people. He also advocated moderation of his “passions” and leading a quiet, contemplative life while being of good cheer and usefulness to his fellow Venetians.
When he was 35 to 40 years old, Cornaro was so overweight and ill that the doctors (or whoever passed as doctors back then) told him he had very little time to live, and there was nothing they could do for him. Fueled by his own drive and discipline, he dramatically reduced his intake of food and wine, lost tons of weight, began feeling much better, and continued these healthy practices for the rest of his very long life. He spends lots of time in his discourses on the difference between food consumed for the sake of the palate, that is, your tastebuds, and food consumed for the sake of digestive comfort, that is, your stomach saying, “that’s enough.” This is a 500-year-old lesson that I’m afraid many of us in our modern world have yet to learn when it comes to our health. Obesity and being overweight is still among the leading risk factors for longevity.
What, When, and How Much He Ate
At one point in his 70s or 80s, Cornaro weighed the amount of food he consumed every day. It came to 12 ounces, which he said was what his digestive comfort dictated and was much reduced from what he used to consume and from what other people around him ate. The average person today consumes 3-3.5 pounds of food every day. I’ll let you “digest” those numbers on our own.
Other than what he calls panado, a kind of bread soup that is still a staple in parts of southern European Mediterranean life, he mostly ate protein—fish, chicken, and mutton (lamb). He ate in small portions throughout the day rather than one big meal, there again prioritizing digestive comfort over stuffing himself because the food tasted good. He writes that one’s “digestive fire” is reduced as we get older, and the stomach can’t accommodate big portions as easily as when we were younger. There again, this lesson, especially in the face of super-size portions and “finish everything on your plate” beliefs that permeate our lives, is a great one to take on board.
The one puzzling thing he writes, for me, is that he was still drinking 14 ounces of wine a day (about half a bottle in today’s world), again, much reduced from what he used to. I scratch my head at this, but one wonders just how much wine he used to drink and just how much wine others drank every day back then. (On that note, a wise history buff friend of mine told me that beer and wine were safer alternatives to dirty drinking water, and that they were less potent then than today.)
Cornaro’s Outlook on Later Life
Perhaps the biggest takeaway for me in this amazing story is his outlook on the wonder of getting older, of just being healthy and alive much longer than anyone else he knew. His appreciation of life was deep and palpable, inspired by his health practices. He saw these extra healthy years as a great privilege, and he wrote his discourses so more people could live longer and enjoy what he was enjoying.
Cornaro spent his later years in a variety of ways that suited him. He wrote these discourses as well as a play and some short novels. He engaged in exchanges with friends and fellow Venetians about health and matters of life, urging them to appreciate their own lives and health as much as he appreciated his. Most of all, he spent time with his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. He expresses that he was immensely grateful that his life had been so blessed with health and extra years, which allowed him to be a part of their lives and they a part of his.
Sounds to me like a pretty good way to spend a long and healthy life!
