Practicing calorie restriction can increase your longevity.

Ever since we read a New York magazine article about calorie restriction, we’ve been fascinated with the practice, developed to increase longevity and slow the aging process. Proponents, such as those in the Calorie Restriction Society, eat a nutrient-dense diet consisting of 20–25 percent fewer calories than the recommended amount — about 1,200–1,600 for women. At first, we were incredulous — who has discipline or desire to follow such a regimen of meticulous calorie-counting? But recent studies on mice and humans have substantiated the benefits of the diet, including decreases of age-related disease. Results from one of the latest studies, published in Science, found that calorie-restricted (by 30 percent) rhesus monkeys showed less age-related brain atrophy than the control group with an unrestricted diet.

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center and the William S. Middleton Memorial-Veterans Hospital have been studying the rhesus macaques, which have an average lifespan of 26 years, since 1989. Calorie restriction slowed the aging process in the primates and delayed brain atrophy, cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. While 50 percent of the control group is alive, 80 percent of those on the restricted diet remain living. How exactly calorie restriction works, however, remains a mystery. “The exact mechanism of the beneficial effects of calorie restriction is not known,” says Ricki Colman, Ph.D., gerontologist at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center and lead author of the study.

For more on this topic, check out our story about calorie restriction in the June/July issue of VIVmag. Do you think you could lead a calorie-restricted lifestyle if it does mean a longer, healthier life?

Photo credit: Nadia Pandolfo

Tags: age-related disease, Ageing, Aging, Calorie, Calorie restriction, Calorie Restriction Society, cancer, cardiovascular disease, Diabetes, Diets, Fauna of Asia, Gerontology, health, Health/Medical/Pharmaceuticals, lead author, Medicine, Nadia Pandolfo, New York City, Population, Rhesus Macaque, Ricki Colman, University of Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin-Madison, William S. Middleton Memorial-Veterans Hospital, Wisconsin, Wisconsin National Primate Research Center