Results from a 20 year study on monkeys and their diets show that eating fewer calories can help you live longer. Animals with a restricted diet of 30% were shown to outlive those that were given the freedom to eat what when and how much they wanted. The monkeys also had improved chances of avoiding age related diseases, cancer, diabetes and brain atrophy.
In terms of overall animal health, Weindruch notes, the restricted diet leads to longer lifespan and improved quality of life in old age. "There is a major effect of caloric restriction in increasing survival if you look at deaths due to the diseases of aging," he says.
The incidence of cancerous tumors and cardiovascular disease in animals on a restricted diet was less than half that seen in animals permitted to eat freely. Remarkably, while diabetes or impaired glucose regulation is common in monkeys that can eat all they want, it has yet to be observed in any animal on a restricted diet. "So far, we've seen the complete prevention of diabetes," says Weindruch.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by coconutnut.
We write extensively about related issues at http://dentistryfordiabetics.com/blog, especially the links between elevated blood sugar and gum disease that can interfere with diabetes control and significantly increase risk of serious health events such as heart attack, stroke and blindness.
- Charles Martin, DDS
Founder, Dentistry For Diabetics
As I suspected, Ms. Szwarc (junkscience) writes for a lobbying firm that denies global
warming, etc and is funded by McDonalds, among other conglomerates. (If you
know who is paying for an opinion, you can generally figure out what it will
be.)
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Tech_Central_Station
She is identified here as an "obesity crank" and for misinterpreting studies
and other sophistry here:
http://scienceblogs.com/denialism/2007/12/obesity_crankery_a_growing_pro.php
#more
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Sandy_Szwarc
Resveratrol is supposed to make you live longer, too. Ashkenazi Jews have a mutation that make them live longer, healthier lives under the right circumstances. That's my problem with life extending research. My 90 year old ashkenazi grandmother who is in perfect health aside from Alzheimer's. I know I don't want to live that long when I haven't seen a single suggestion of preserved cognitive functioning to go along with that old age. 110 and counting with dementia? No, thanks. People on CR must be betting on a cure within their lifetime. There's something to be said for advancing one part and expecting the other to catch up, I'm just not an optimist. (I am, however, verbose)
This doesn't sound appealing at all.
Also, Re:
"If caloric restriction can delay aging, then there should have been significantly fewer deaths in the dieting group of monkeys than in the normally fed comparison group. But this is not the case. Though a smaller number of dieting monkeys have died, the difference is not statistically significant, the Wisconsin team reports."
That doesn't specifically disprove the theory behind CR. It means the study was null and we can't draw any conclusions from it. However, they _did_ see qualitative effects that were interesting and probably should be investigated further.
It's hardly junk science...just junk reporting.