If you eat fewer calories you live longer no matter when you start

Main Category: Cancer / Oncology
Article Date: 23 Mar 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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If you restrict your daily calorie intake you will live longer. Even if you start doing this at middle age, you will still live longer. Some people had thought that this would only work if you started eating less at an early age.

Scientists prolonged the life of mice by restricting their daily calorie intake. You can read about this in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They believe this also applies to humans. More evidence that this would work for humans is needed, say dietary experts.

The scientists found that the calorie restricted mice lived, on average, six months longer than normal mice. They also found they were not getting cancer till later in life.

According to some research which has been carried out on dogs, a calorie restricted diet does prolong life.

When middle-aged mice were put on a calorie restricted (CR) diet they immediately started to show signs that they would have a longer life, and they did. The effect on the mice's liver gene expression was the same as the mice who began their calorie restricted diet when they were younger.

The research was carried out at the University of California.

The researchers said "CR begun relatively late in the lifespan of mice was as effective as CR begun early in life at decelerating mortality rate, extending remaining lifespan, and delaying the onset or progression of cancer as a cause of death."

Dieticians were impressed with the finding. However, they added that more research was needed to see if this really would be the case for humans. They also added that humans in developed countries eat too much anyway, and reducing their calorie intake would do them good.