A New Study Shows Eating little Gives Long life

Eating little slows aging, a rule that, it turned out, also applies to us, not only for laboratory species, such as worms and fruit mosquitoes. This is the novelty of one of the last and most relevant studies to understand if and how a less rich diet can serve to have a healthier old age and, perhaps, even to prolong life.
We have long known that caloric restriction , which consists of a diet with an important cut of calories compared to needs (about 15-20% less), extends the life of many organisms and animal species, from yeasts to flies, worms to mice and dogs and even monkeys. The doubt was if the same thing could also apply to human beings.

Credit Pixabay

TWO YEARS ON A DIET

To clarify the issue, the US National Institutes of Health set up a multi-center study called CALERIE
some years ago to investigate the long-term effects of caloric restriction: 200 people, healthy adults, divided into two groups, followed for two years a rather strict diet, or have eaten as usual. At the end of the period, various biological parameters of the persons in the two groups were evaluated and compared.

IN A SEALED ROOM

One of the effects evaluated was the metabolic rate, measured with great precision thanks to an innovative technology of about fifty participants. These people, in addition to the usual tests and analyzes on energy consumption, underwent the analysis in a metabolic chamber . For 24 hours, they remained in this sort of sealed room where, minute by minute, the oxygen they consumed and the exhaled carbon dioxide was measured.

This data, combined with that of the nitrogen present in the urine, provide a precise measure of how much fats, proteins or carbohydrates a person is consuming: that is, a precise assessment of how the metabolism works.

Credits Pixabay

MORE EFFICIENT

The researchers verified that people who remained on a diet for the two years of the study used energy much more efficiently than others, particularly during sleep. And the other measurements also indicated a reduction in metabolism and, consequently, a reduction in damage to organs and tissues due to oxidative stress, which in practice causes aging.
It therefore seems that what has already proved to be valid for animals can also apply to humans. It remains to be seen whether the reduction of aging can, as a practical consequence, also lead to a lengthening of life, something that should be observed in longer studies, in the order of tens of years.

LONG LIFE WITHOUT SACRIFICES?

The interest of researchers, however, is also another. Once understood through which biological mechanisms triggered by the reduction of calories the aging slows down, one could try to reproduce them artificially , even with drugs or in other ways, to overcome the possible psychological difficulties of a strict diet.
Other studies, such as that of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, have already shown that even a few days of fasting alternated with periods of normal feeding can achieve similar "anti-aging" effects, containing the risk factors for diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

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