We all need to eat, but not so much -- especially to get life-extension benefits. The benefits of calorie restriction have been demonstrated many times in recent years. Whether it's from intermittent fasting, longer fasting, or not eating as much overall, eating without starving has been shown to increase the lifespan of 20 species of animals, including our close relatives the primates.
Oddly enough, simply smelling food could influence the aging process as well, which can be shown by looking at the autophagy (cellular recycling), food absorption and olfactory neurons in the C. elegans worm. This has recently been studied and published in PLOS Genetics
Autophagy allows sensory neurons (like those for smell) and nutrient levels (from food) to work together to influence the lifespan of an organism. Autophagy also reduced the insulin growth factor (IGF). Digging deeper into the complex communication environment of our cells could help us understand and directly affect obesity even the aging process.
Researchers looked at autophagy in the brain, the intestines and the communication between the G.I. tract and the brain and back. The presence of food in our body is not the only way food can affect us it seems. Being on a diet and not eating much aren't the only things that influence the brain and G.I. tract. Olfaction (neurons detecting smells) also influences the brain and G.I. tract, and somehow acts like calories to reduce the impact of life extension through calorie restriction. This was shown in previous research with fruit flies a well.
In order to gain the benefits of an extended lifespan from limiting a diet, autophagy must be functional. The smell of food alone affects autophagy through the olfactory neurons, which affect communication between the brain and the G.I. tract. Autophagy is involved in the aging process, and at least in the worm, it seems that autophagy in the olfactory neuron secretes neuron signals that influence the aging process.
Scientists don't exactly know yet why calorie restriction extends lifespan of many animals. It's believed by many that a diet or calorie restriction adjusts the metabolism and physiology of an organism from the cellular level.
Next up for the team of researchers is looking is figuring out which proteins regulate the aging process, as well as look for specific autophagy inhibitors and activators that can trigger an increase or reduction in lifespan. Autophagy also plays a part in diseases, where the less autophagy means the disease process will be exacerbated and get worse, while an increase in autophagy has the opposite effect.
Being able to manipulate the autophagy process can lead to scientific breakthrough to cure diseases, eliminate obesity, and increase human lifespan to who knows how long. This is pretty exciting, but I am always cautious about human minds tampering with the finer complexities of the human organism. Hopefully there won't be any negative side-effects to whatever they come up with.
Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.
References:
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-08-it-not-just-what-you.html
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/08/170802092008.htm
http://www.belmarrahealth.com/food-calories-food-smell-contribute-aging-process-study/
http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1006764
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Calorie restriction and expanded lifespan is very interesting. Maybe the mechanism for expanded lifespan has something to do with less oxidative stress with less calorie intake.
Eating food creates oxidative stress?
Yes, metabolism yields oxidative stress.
Ah, then that makes sense. Thanks. I gotta stop "killing" myself with too much food then ;)
Thank you so much for this post Sir @krnel, I just know if food smells can also accelerate aging. If it is about about a diet, I would like to ask you, how is the system a good diet so as not to interfere with the health of our bodies, your answers are very important, Sir, because I do not know about this diet system. By the way, your posts are always interesting and always helpful, Sir. Thanks for sharing to all of us.
Well I think we should just smell food when eating, and not before.
Thank you so much for your response Sir @krnel, I'll try for the future that like you said. thanks Sir. ;)
It will be great for us if scientist find out how to contro againg isnt it? then at 200 years old we can still be blooging at steemit and going to night clubs hiyaaaaaaaaaaaa
Thanks for sharing this. I'll print this post and put it in the kitchen for my kids to see and understand why mom isn't cooking anymore. I'm sure they'll understand that going without cooked food is a small price to pay if they want their mom to live longer. On the other hand, they just might decide they love the smell of fries more...
Yes, work less in the kitchen and live longer LMAO
The hunger in a body shape to signal the energy of the body has begun to diminish, so it needs to be sorted back by eating food. However, there is still a debate when we eat, whether when hungry or have to eat before hungry. In belief, hunger often affects our choices in choosing food. When we feel very hungry, we tend to choose foods with strong flavors such as sweet, salty and fatty, this can get hooked and excess food. Myth, eating before hunger will also affect the assessment of the food to be consumed and make it easier to choose healthier foods. In addition to influencing the decision in the selection of food, eating before hunger also affects how one enjoys food. A person who eats before hunger is more likely to eat slowly and stop eating faster because ghrelin hormone levels have not been too high.
That's a very good observation. Thanks for the feedback.
This is interesting data, I'm aware of research showing the cascade of metabolic effects that occur simply by chewing (a possible reason to not chew gum) and since there are apparently also connections between the senses i.e. smell, sight & taste, this is totally understandable.
It really comes down to the question of how much of a trade off do you would want to make?
Is life worth living longer without the smell of fresh baked cookies?
Yes, it is (for me anyways). Smell them when you eat them :P Smelling things primes us to want to eat even if we didn't want to before. Evil smell! lol
I try to avoid them as well but will allow myself to occasionally splurge.
It's a pretty well known tactic to have fresh baked cookies sitting in a house when a realtor brings a prospective buyer through. It evokes not just the hunger effect but for some, childhood memories.
Later it turns out that not only the smell but also the observation of food have a certain effect. Thanks for your post! It's interesting!
LMAO, oh boy ...
@krnel - Aww - Looking at food and smelling food are some pleasures that people on the diet indulge in since it is considered harmless so far. Now, we will have to be careful to not even smell food since it will diminish the benefit of dieting (as far as enhancing life expectancy goes I wonder what happens to the weight loss itself? Does the efficacy of the diet for weight loss also go down with olfactory assault of food? Thanks for this heads up. Upvoted
It has an effect it seems. So if you smell in between meals it might be tricking the brain into sending signals related to consuming food, I don't know hehe.
We learn something new every day!
ok, time to have a deeeeep sniff of my food!!
Nooooo, don't do itttttttt!!!!!!
ok i didn't sniff ;-)
I would like to share with you the very first part of my great Earthship Story.. As you may know i built a fully sustainable off-grid eco home in India. It was a great mission and a wonderful story!
I'd like to invite you to read the introduction post i jude made and hope you follow this and enjoy!
https://steemit.com/life/@eco-alex/diary-of-a-first-time-eco-builder-or-the-creation-of-my-life-s-dream-a-totally-off-grid-self-sufficient-home-earthship-karuna
hope you are well!
We all must eat clean and natural foods, reduce refined sugar/aspartame consumption.
Very interesting piece about the smell of foods though @krnel we can't all exist on no food/water :P
So resteeming this !!! :-)
Yeah, maybe we could though :P Who knows... it doesn't seem possible, but maybe we could just breathe smells and get calories lol.
Each method of eating patterns has advantages and disadvantages of each, so must be tailored to the needs of each individual. Eating only when hungry is likely to be difficult for some people, including those with metabolic syndrome such as diabetes or obesity, because the body is more "immune" to satiety or leptin. In addition, nutritional quality should be considered in applying both with the consumption of fibrous and high protein foods to maintain a sense of satiety in sufficient time.
In his psychic discourses, Edgar Cayce said that if "the assimilations and the eliminations would be kept nearer NORMAL in the human family, the days might be extended to whatever period as was so desired."
@krnel :D The senses are such a treat. Relating to smells, raw vegan diets eliminate body in the long term. Human's aren't supposed to smell like we do...putrifaction. When you regenerate and detoxify the body, you will smell like the fruit you eat :) Namaste
Yes, don't eat dead bodies, cadavers, carcasses and corpses. Death-dealing is not supposed be the path we take. We have greater potential. With technology we can remove ourselves from the low consciousness state of survival and instead live to be more moral.
Exactly my friend! Human beings are highly refined and have immense responsibilities as guardians of our planet. I've come to realize I do not think we are innately harmful, but some how developed aggressions, most likely from diet.
Eating and weight gain are tied together in complex ways. There is no one thing that causes weight gain in humans. Genetics, portion sizes, physical illnesses such as Thyroid disease and diabetes, general eating habits, and many other factors all dictate obesity factors in individuals.
Interesting read. Upvoted! Thank you sharing!
True, there are many things.
very intriguing title; lured me in for sure, th ough I admit I can't resist the fasting element of the health topic especially.
A truer first sentence hasn't been spoken in a while :) feels like my "Overating: Food is Too Convenient post inspired you :)
Onto your focus; incredible new revelations even to me. I coincidentally have been thinking more on this though, smelling food definitely already starts the digestion process, and starting that digestion process is starting to break a fast.
I've heard before that eating less is better and fasting is a goos thing. But haven't heard of smell effects. Very interesting topic.
You write about a large verity of topics.
Yes I do
Smelling? For real? I never knew that
It is amazing to see how smelling as well as eating are so intertwined. You can't enjoy one with having the other but I didn't realise what huge effect smelling had.
Thanks for this really enthralling post @krnel
Scientists don't exactly know yet why calorie restriction extends lifespan of many animals. It's believed by many that a diet or calorie restriction adjusts the metabolism and physiology of an organism from the cellular level.
Less free radical damage, down regulate expression of IGF-1/mTOR, and a few others things I believe are known. I'm sure we are only touching the surface of it regardless.
Being able to manipulate the autophagy process can lead to scientific breakthrough to cure diseases
You can with fasting, and has already shown to be successful in cancer treatment and prevention - https://www.canceractive.com/cancer-active-page-link.aspx?n=3408
Sirtuin
Right...those proteins are naturally expressed via caloric restriction/fasting.
generally regarded as the means for life extension benefits of caloric restriction/fasting, and stimulate autophagy ;), remember exercise too. Nad+.
It might have something to do with free radicals and oxidative stress. Smell triggers an initial digestive phase that involves salivation and gastric acid secretion. This will make the body feel hungry (and more sensitive to smell so we can "seek" food). Metabolic processes produce free radicals as a byproduct. Most of the diets these days lack antioxidants and we typically eat huge portions of the bad food. So I suppose this contributes to an imbalance of free radicals and antioxidants in the body (oxidative stress). OS affects aging and the ability of the body to regulate itself properly so diseases pop up here and there. Of course digestion isn't the only internal source of free radicals (heck even breathing produces free radicals). But since we can regulate eating as compared to breathing, I suppose it would make sense that reducing free radicals from that area would extend lifespan. Or we can probably load up on antioxidant-rich food and eat small frequent meals (which also lessen body stress in digesting food said my doctors lol). Now if only I can follow through with that (medical) advise.. but being on steroids isn't making it easy. Ah well.