Does Severe Calorie Restriction Help You Live Longer? Probably Not

At last, some sanity.

According to a 25-year study using rhesus monkeys, a lifetime on a very-low calorie diet did not help them live any longer, researchers from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge reported in the journal Nature. Rhesus monkeys are genetically relatively similar to humans. They were fed on a diet consisting of 30% fewer calories than the control group were for a quarter of a century.

The authors say that there are two factors which have the largest impact on lifespan: Good genes A healthy and well balanced diet Don Ingram, a gerontologist who designed the study nearly thirty years ago while he was at the NIA (National Institute on Aging), said "To think that a simple decrease in calories caused such a widespread change, that was remarkable."

At the start of the study, there were already suggestions that severe calorie restriction over the long term might have a positive impact on longevity. Several studies had shown that half-starving roundworms lived much longer than their well-fed counterparts. Animal studies with rats had demonstrated how low-calorie diets kept them youthful for longer.

Scientists from the Washington University School of Medicine, in St. Louis, Missouri, proposed that low-calorie diets reduce a human's core body temperature, resulting in longer life. A study carried out by researchers from the Department of Genetics Evolution and Environment at University College London, published an article in Nature which said that high protein diets make us live longer, not low calorie ones.

But they still have no idea what they are talking about.