Calorie Cutting Pays Big Dividends
Posted on Jul 14th 2009 9:00AM by Karen AspFiled Under: Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements
 |
| Photo: catsper, Flickr |
So says a new study from the journal Science in which researchers followed more than 70 monkeys for 20 years. Half of the monkeys followed a calorie-restricted but nutrient-dense diet, eventually eating 30 percent less calories than they normally would. Meanwhile, the other half ate whatever they wanted.
In the end, 53 percent of the calorie-restricted were still living by the end of the study, compared to only 34 percent in the other group. Even more important, monkeys that ate fewer calories stayed healthier for longer periods of time. In fact, they were three times less likely to develop age-related diseases like cancer, heart disease and diabetes.They also showed improvements in brain health. "All of these changes are helping slow the aging process," says Dr. Richard Weindruch, lead study author and professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Another one of his studies even found that calorie restriction could help oppose loss of muscle with aging.
Because monkeys and humans are closely related, the results may apply to you, too. However, Weindruch is hesitant to make recommendations for humans, saying a 30 percent reduction may be too extreme for most people. "And if you're lowering your food intake, you could also run into malnutrition," he says. If you want to try this, work with a qualified nutrition expert who can make sure that while you're cutting calories, you're getting the nutrients you need.
My take on this? Cutting 30 percent of calories does sound a bit extreme. But if shaving a few calories could help me live healthier, boost brain health and keep my weight in check, sign me up -- as long as I don't have to give up my favorite occasional splurge: A Dairy Queen Blizzard with Reese's peanut butter cup.
