Forever Young: Go Ahead and Chow Down
I'm actually somewhat relieved to hear that so-called caloric restriction might not be necessary for living longer after all. I can undertake and undergo many things in quest of eternal youth, but not eating isn't one of them. And remember, the advocates of caloric restriction for life extension weren't presribing a bit of cutting-back on one's intake; no, they meant cutting normal calorie consumption in half (or even more severely), if I recall the discussion accurately.
New research on fruit flies shows that shifting a diet's relative amounts of nutrients, such as carbohydrates, protein, and fat, while only moderately cutting calories, extends life span just as much as a drastic calorie cut does. In experiments, flies placed on a reduced-protein diet lived about 24 days longer than the average fruit fly's life span of 40 days. That extension, of about 60 percent, rivals the added life span of flies on a typical caloric-restriction diet.
If the same concept works in people, the currently popular "low carb" diets, in which people eat large amounts of protein but fewer sugars, could be undermining the dieters' longevity. (Uh-oh. So much for my South Beach diet.)
In any case, scientists are quick to point out that allthough eating fewer calories has shown some health benefits in people, no one has yet to demonstrate that simple caloric restriction has any life-extending effects in humans.
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antiaging, anti-aging, life extension, longevity, aging, medicine, science, health, nutrition, food, animals, insects, biology, news
New research on fruit flies shows that shifting a diet's relative amounts of nutrients, such as carbohydrates, protein, and fat, while only moderately cutting calories, extends life span just as much as a drastic calorie cut does. In experiments, flies placed on a reduced-protein diet lived about 24 days longer than the average fruit fly's life span of 40 days. That extension, of about 60 percent, rivals the added life span of flies on a typical caloric-restriction diet.
If the same concept works in people, the currently popular "low carb" diets, in which people eat large amounts of protein but fewer sugars, could be undermining the dieters' longevity. (Uh-oh. So much for my South Beach diet.)
In any case, scientists are quick to point out that allthough eating fewer calories has shown some health benefits in people, no one has yet to demonstrate that simple caloric restriction has any life-extending effects in humans.
Technorati Tags:
antiaging, anti-aging, life extension, longevity, aging, medicine, science, health, nutrition, food, animals, insects, biology, news
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