Low Calorie Diets Extend Life

Research has shown for years that animals on a low calorie diet live longer. A recent study shows that even if this diet is taken on in midlife years, the benefits are the same.

A study done with fruit flies compared flies that gorged on heavy calories for the first half of their life with flies that were on a low calorie diet for that same time. About halfway through their lives, both sets of flies then went on the low calorie diet. Both then lived about twice as long as a normal fruit fly.

These low calorie = long life studies have been done on flies, mice, monkeys and other animals. In all cases, the results are that the animals on the lower calorie diets end up living the longest.

Some say it may not necessarily be the sugar itself, but perhaps is the toll that reproduction takes on the body and energy. Animals that have lower calorie intakes tend to stop reproducing. Further research is needed to determine if it is the calorie lowering itself, or the living without the strain of childbearing and childrearing that leads to the longer life.

Low Carb Medical News