A life-extending diet is… not eating?

Let’s face it, most of us like to eat… a lot. Needless to say Halloween doesn’t help the temptation with all those sugary sweets either. A radical new way of thinking could leave you weeping for food if the results continue. At the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, a couple of monkeys are the subjects of some provocative new studies which may hold the key to a longer lasting life.

The idea here is calorie restriction, or the consumption of 30 percent less calories than normal. Getting all of your vitamins and minerals is part of the deal too, but the results speak for themselves. Two rhesus monkeys are compared as they near the senior citizen mark of laboratory animals. One is losing its hair, lethargic and clearly less active than his companion. The other is thin and spunky, making sounds at visitors while clearly being the healthier one. And he is older.

It’s a bold claim: could cutting calories really extend our life? It has been the only non-genetic method to produce these results on a consistent basis. Obviously we won’t know until the future if calorie restriction holds the fountain of youth for humans, but you can rest assured that Thanksgiving won’t be as fun anymore if the scientists are correct!

Author by Adams Briscoe