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Low-Cal Diet Extends Life... As Long as You Don't Eat

Posted by michael on from the life-only-seems-longer dept.

There has been a lot of research recently showing that a restricted calorie diet can extend the lifespans of various creatures. Sadly, it seems that as soon as they start eating again, the benefits are lost.

4 of 352 comments (clear)

  1. Google Link by hamster+foo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here's the google link directly to the story.

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  2. stop yer whinin'! by violagal · · Score: 4, Informative

    C'mon people, I like to eat as much as the next guy or gal! The point is, just stop stuffing yourself silly--restricted calories != starvation, just limiting your intake so that you're not pushing yourself past full when you eat. I'm so sick of seeing fat Americans everywhere I go. We really have to do something about our problem. It's gross and embarressing, and *extremely* unhealthy.

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  3. Re:And as long as you are a fruit fly by andykuan · · Score: 3, Informative

    They've seen this effect on a whole range of animals. They've done this on rats and have even tried it out on monkeys.

    One article from this NIH site seemed to indicate that, despite prolonging an animal's lifespan, caloric-restriction diets didn't seem to do anything about cognitive decline.

  4. Life limited by Oxygen consumption by spineboy · · Score: 3, Informative
    I used to work at the National Institutes of Ageing at the NIH in Bethesda MD, with the research scientists who pioneered this area of research. What they found was that lifetime TOTAL oygen consumption for the "starvation" group of rats and the normal diet rats were the same. In other words the rats/mice had a limited amount of oxygen that they could consume in their lifetime before they diet, got cancer, etc.. They could use it up faster by proessing the normal amount of food, or use it up at a slower rate with the calorie restricted diet. Oddly enough, it reminded me of Bladerunner, and the replicants -where Rutger Hauer gives his speech about life - you can burn slowly for a long time, or blaze brighlty for a short time.

    Oxygen is a pretty harsh molecule/element/radical, and their hypothesis was that it basically damaged the cells/DNA - so the more you received of it, the more oxidation damage your cells received. They did not look into the effects of exercise when I was there.

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