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Page: Nutrition and Longevity
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Calorie restriction
Lifespan may be somehow related to the amount of food energy consumed. A pursuit of this principle of caloric restriction followed, involving research into longevity of those who reduced their food energy intake while attempting to optimize their micronutrient intake. Perhaps not surprisingly, some people found that cutting down on food reduced their quality of life so considerably as to negate any possible advantages of lengthening their lives. However, a small set of individuals persist in the lifestyle, going so far as to monitor blood lipid levels and glucose response every few months. See Calorie Restriction Society.
Underlying this research was the hypothesis that oxidative damage was the agent which accelerated aging, and that aging was retarded when the amount of carbohydrates (and thereby insulin release) was reduced through dietary restriction.
However, recent research has produced increased longevity in animals (and shows promise for increased human longevity) through the use of insulin uptake retardation. This was done through altering an animal’s metabolism to allow it to consume similar food-energy levels to other animals, but without building up fatty tissue.
This has set researchers off on a line of study which presumes that it is not low food energy consumption which increases longevity. Instead, longevity may depend on an efficient fat processing metabolism, and the consequent long term efficient functioning of our organs free from the encumbrance of accumulating fatty deposits. Thus, longevity may be related to maintained insulin sensitivity. However, several other factors including low body temperature seem to promote longevity also and it is unclear to what extent each of them contribute.
Antioxidants have recently come to the forefront of longevity studies which have included the Food and Drug Administration and Brunswick labs.
Whole Plant Food Diet
Heart disease, cancer, obesity, and diabetes are commonly called "Western" diseases because these maladies were once rarely seen in developing countries. One study in China found some regions had essentially no cancer or heart disease, while in other areas they reflected “up to a 100-fold increase” coincident with diets that were found to be entirely plant-based to heavily animal-based, respectively. In contrast, diseases of affluence like cancer and heart disease are common throughout the United States. Most Americans eat an animal protein based diet, with relatively few calories coming from plant foods. (This is clearly not correct, most calories in western diets come from plant originated carbohydrates and oils). Adjusted for age and exercise, large regional clusters of people in China rarely suffered from these “Western” diseases because their diets are rich in vegetables, fruits and whole grains.
The United Healthcare/Pacificare nutrition guideline recommends a whole plant food diet, and recommends using protein only as a condiment with meals. A National Geographic (November 2005) cover article, titled The Secrets of LIVING LONGER also recommends a whole plant food diet. The article is a lifestyle survey of three populations, Sardinians, Okinawans, and Adventists, who generally display longevity and "suffer a fraction of the diseases that commonly kill people in other parts of the developed world, and enjoy more healthy years of life. In sum, they offer three sets of 'best practices' to emulate. The rest if up to you." In common with all three groups is to "Eat fruits, vegetables, and whole grains."
The National Geographic article noted that a NIH funded study of 34,000 Seventh-Day Adventists between 1976 and 1988 "...found that the Adventists' habit of consuming beans, soy milk, tomatoes, and other fruits lowered their risk of developing certain cancers. It also suggested that eating whole grain bread, drinking five glasses of water a day, and, most surprisingly, consuming four servings of nuts a week reduced their risk of heart disease. And it found that not eating red meat had been helpful to avoid both cancer and heart disease."
Note that cancer is now common in developing countries. According a study by the International Agency for Research on Cancer: “In the developing world, cancers of the liver, stomach and esophagus were more common, often linked to consumption of carcinogenic preserved foods, such as smoked or salted food, and parasitic infections that attack organs.” Lung cancer rates are rising rapidly in poorer nations because of increased use of tobacco. Developed countries “tended to have cancers linked to affluence or a "Western lifestyle" -- cancers of the colon, rectum, breast and prostate -- that can be caused by obesity, lack of exercise, diet and age.”
The French "paradox"
Main article: French paradox
It has been discovered that people living in France live longer. Even though they consume more saturated fats than Americans, the rate of heart disease is lower in France than in North America. A number of explanations have been suggested:
* Reduced consumption of processed carbohydrate and other junk foods;
* Ethnic genetic differences allowing the body to be harmed less by fats;
* Regular consumption of red wine; or
* Living in the South requires the body to produce less heat, allowing a slower, and therefore healthier, metabolic rate.
However, a growing number of French health researchers doubt the theory that the French are healthier than other populations. Statistics collected by the WHO from 1990-2000 show that the incidence of heart disease in France may have been underestimated and in fact be similar to that of neighboring countries.
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