Why I Practice Calorie Restriction

Calorie Restrict to reach longevity escape velocity

Yoda (left) and Princess Leia (right).

Yoda is one of the longest lived mice on record. 

I've talked a little about what makes people able to do calorie restriction for many years successfully and a study published in April confirms what I believed. People who maintain CR for very long periods of time have psychological distinct profiles compared to the average person. When a person starts a diet, it is not long before they fall off and return to their previous habits. When most people think of a diet, it's not usually to improve their health either, it's to lose weight and get thinner in the short term, so people will usually rely on drastic diets that are very unhealthy and potentially damaging to their health. 

I know a number of success long-term calorie restrictors who've been on the diet for more 10 years; and some more than 20 years!  This is without showing any signs of disordered eating as well. When a person typically starts a calorie restriction diet to improve their longevity, their weight is secondary to their primary goal, which is to improve their health and live longer. The reason I started calorie restriction was to improve my health, but it was also part of a long-term goal to stay alive as long as possible to take advantage of the technology that is coming in the next few decades which would be able to extend my life further. One of things found in the study is that we are more future orientated. And from talking to people on CR, this is something that was pretty obvious.

"Results indicated the CR group averaged 10 years of CR but scored lower than comparison groups on measures of disordered eating (p < .001) and psychopathology (p < .001). Particularly against overweight/obese participants, CR participants scored lower on neuroticism (p < .04) and hostility (p < .01), and were stronger in future time orientation (p < .05). Overall, CR profiles reflected high self-control and well being, except for having few close relationships. This study suggests a potential predisposition for successful long-term CR without disordered eating." 

I never took part in this study, but I have been on CRON for about 10 years now. And I've been eating very healthy for close to 12 years. I would say that the profile describes me pretty well. Calorie Restriction has always been very easy for me to do, but I realise that this is not the case for everyone. This is why I try to get the point across that even mild CR can have significant benefits. If you combine that with a high quality raw food diet, then the pay off is going be huge. Perhaps the study that I quoted above should reassure people that living this way does not predispose or cause anyone to develop disordered eating habits.

"To infinity and beyond!"

Okay, if you hadn't guessed already. I never want to die. I love life so much, and would love to explore the universe in the future. To go and see other planets and look for alien life out there. This is why living the way I do is so easy for me! I look up at the stars often and wonder what else is out there? I said the reason why I started CR was for health, right? But I also love astronomy and space. I knew in my mind that space exploration is slow and it really wasn't moving fast. Certainly not fast enough for me to see the colonisation of our solar system and beyond. So for me it was only logical to get more involved in the life extension community to make this dream become a reality. And why not dream big? When people are asked about living longer, many say that it would be too boring. No way, I say just the opposite! We are headed towards a fantastic future and we should be excited and proud of our achievements so far. The best part of our journey is not behind us, it's ahead of us. So really, I'm not too bothered about restricting my calories, when the pay off is potentially so huge. I do enjoy the present, but I'm I'm very excited about the future. It's amazing to be connected to so many inspirational people and people that are working on projects that will change the world. Open your eyes a little to see the bigger picture, and look for the good, it's all around us. Find what interests you and makes you feel alive and grow. Find your passion! Live your dreams!

Will we make it?

Aubrey De Grey uses the term 'escape velocity' which basically means that we'll be able to rejuvenate people and keep them alive long enough to take advantage of the more refined and advanced medical procedures that would be more effective in reversing the molecular damage that accumulates over time in the body with age. So if you are 80 years old, the first generation of these technologies will be able to take you back 30 years and you would function and look like a 50 year old. Then since it would take you another 30 years to become biologically 80 again (110 chronologically), the second generation of treatments could take you back another 40 years, so this time you are biologically 40 even though you are 110+ years old. In the near future, we could literally be adding one year to our remaining life expectancy with each year that passes! There are many exciting technologies that are starting to mature and slowly becoming more effective. In the near future we can expect to be able to regenerate new organs and tissues inside the body using stem cells and gene therapy. Also 3D printing is a very exciting technology! If you want to be part of the future and be alive when these technologies are perfected, then no matter what your age is, you should begin eating a very healthy calorie restricted diet now.

RECOMMENDED READING

Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime By Aubrey De Grey Ph.D and Michael Rae. This is a few years old, but still remains the objective of SENS Foundation. It details all the types of damage that needs to be repaired in the human body to reverse ageing and live longer. 

Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever By Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman. Ray sent me this book many years ago and I loved it! It takes you through all the things which you can do to extend your life and live to a time when we have full control of disease and ageing. He focuses mainly on the Biotech, Information tech and the Nanotech revolution. In his book he describes what we can do with our diet to be healthier and also recommends supplements. Although I am less enthusiastic about supplements extending the lifespan of healthy people, there are many good recommendations in the book which could help people who are not as fortunate and need to target specific problems. 

Reference.

1. Angela C. Incollingo Belskya, Elissa S. Epelb, A. Janet Tomiyama
Clues to maintaining calorie restriction? Psychosocial profiles of successful long-term restrictors. Appetite. 2014 Apr 18;79C:106-112. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2014.04.006.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666314001718

Lean is Healthy

EATING HEALTHY IS NO WALK IN THE PARK

Have you ever had a time in your life when everything is going so well, you are feeling the best you've ever felt since adopting a healthy lifestyle, and then a concerned friend or family member makes a negative comment about the amount of weight that you've lost? But you are still well within the healthy range? If you answered YES, then you're not alone.

 

I've heard from countless people who live a healthy lifestyle that they get these sort of comments a lot, at least for the first few months or year. Sometimes it's simply because they are concerned and care about you; but in other cases, especially friends and strangers, it might be a bit of envy or jealousy. Or they could just thin you are crazy for doing the diet. :) A lot of the comments usually come from a place of ignorance and distorted perception of what is "normal" for a typical human. Society's waistlines have bulged over the last few decades, and things are not improving, they're getting worse! So compared to most people, we're extremely skinny. 

When we grow up around people that are overweight, it creates a new norm, so we are less able to distinguish between what is normal weight and what is overweight. And it might be shocking to hear, but some people even fail to recognise obesity.  If you drop your weight to a normal BMI of say 19-20 on calorie restriction, people are more than likely going to comment on this weight loss, and tell you that you've gone too far. But according to how you feel, and your excellent test results, you really couldn't be much healthier; and they couldn't be more wrong. 

At first it might seem that these comments wouldn't do much harm, but if they are persistent, you might develop a heightened anxiety around the issue, and feel the need to defend your lifestyle choice.  Nine years ago, in 2005, I had some of these issues myself with my own family and friends. I was continually bombarded with questions and concerns for my health. They told me that I could not live on healthy food alone, I had to eat "normal" food. It's completely ridiculous if you think about it. How can they say these things when they are eating processed junk food and are overweight?  

To put my parents mind at ease and get them off my back, I gave them reports on my nutrition that I did with a dietary planner. I showed them that I had exceeded the requirements for all nutrients. And to get my message across even better, I showed them a report of their own diet . . .  Which from what I remember was terrible and lacked so many vitamins and minerals. The topic came up less after this, but it still took them a long time to realise I knew what I was doing.

What happened?  I stayed healthy. I stayed young. I stayed alive. The results after a few years were undeniable. They eventually gave up because they saw the great results I had from the diet over the long term. Before I even started the diet, I had done a lot of research and talked to people to get some advice. I knew what I was doing, but other people at the time didn't think so. 

So, if you're just starting off eating healthy, doing calorie restriction, and people are making negative comments, don't stress over it too much. It's likely just temporary and mostly because they care. Just be a good example, and they might even change their diet themselves.  I think for most people, it's just the shock of seeing the weight come off and their distorted perception of what is normal sets off alarms bells that shouldn't have even gone off. If we didn't live in a society where over 1/3 of people are either overweight or obese, being lean would be such an issue. 

According to the BBC's Global Fat Scale, I am skinnier than 98% of adult males aged 15-29 in the UK. And I am skinnier than 87% of males between these ages in the entire world. It says that I am most like someone from DR Congo. DR Congo has the lowest mean BMI of 18.75. While the highest BMI goes to Micronesia with a mean BMI of 30. The average BMI for people in my country is bordering on being overweight at 24.78. It's clear why we stand out from the crowd when you look at the scale on the BBC website. 

As long as you're healthy, fit, and you have excellent results from the diet, just keep going! It's not always easy these days to live differently. Reach out and find people who take care of themselves and you can relate with. Not people who constantly try to sabotage your efforts. Eating healthy is hard enough as it is without people trying to encourage you to eat badly. 

What has been your experience since starting a healthy diet? Has it been difficult with family or friends?

High Nutrition on a Low Calorie Diet

Low Calorie, High Nutrition

Doing Calorie Restriction the right way: I've come across a lot of diets over the last 10 years, and many of them seem to miss out on important nutrients or have serious imbalances which can cause some issues over the long term. When we judge whether or not a diet is working for us, we'll usually just look at the physical changes of our body and not pay much attention to anything else. When eating a very low calorie diet, you really want to make sure that you pay extra attention to the nutrients you are getting to avoid deficiencies. For calorie restriction to work, this is very important. Slight deficiencies over the long term can cause increased rates of disease; they usually don't kill you immediately. 

Deficiencies and imbalances: As a raw food vegan myself, I've had to adjust my diet slightly, as well as use targeted supplementation to protect against deficiencies and imbalances. Unfortunately, in the raw food community - which is growing in popularity - some people are being very ignorant when it comes to these potential hazards. Take for example zinc to copper ratio! These two minerals compete at the same sites for absorption in the gut; so getting too much of one can throw it out of balance and cause a secondary deficiency in the other.  In a raw food diet, copper is usually abundant in plant foods, so we get plenty of that. The problem lies in that we get plenty of copper, but not enough zinc, thus throwing out that balance. It's really not uncommon to get 4 - 5 mg of copper on a raw food diet. Ideally, you want to aim for a Zn to Cu ratio between 8:1 to 10:1. So you want 8 - 10 mg of Zinc, for every 1 mg of copper in your diet. Getting these ratios correct is important because it can have significant effects on your health. Getting this ratio is important because elevated copper and low zinc will increase the burden of oxidative stress in the body, by decreasing levels of superoxide dismutase which is responsible redox reaction or dismutation of superoxide free radicals into oxygen and hydrogen peroxide. These enzymes are part of the intraceullular and extracellular antioxidant defense system in the body and are important for protecting against cancer!  Zinc is also involved in many catalytic activities involving 200 enzymes. It plays a significant role in DNA synthesis, cell division, wound healing, immune function and also prevents accelerated ageing.

Any imbalance here can very easily be corrected with supplementation. So if you have to supplement, please do! Signs of zinc deficiency will not show up right away; one symptom that I came across myself early on was dry rough hands. Other symptoms like poor immune system, skin problems, hair loss and more can show up. I've known a few people on high plant diets who had these problems and corrected them when they started to supplement. 

Garlic can enhance the absorption of Zinc: Taking garlic with your food can significantly increase the bioavailability of Zinc by 10 to 70 percent. Every time I have beans, I always try to include some freshly crushed garlic.

Other potential deficiencies on a raw food vegan diet: B12, Calcium and Iron. Unlike Zinc, these can be easily tested for, so get blood work done and supplement where necessary. I personally take a B12 supplement called Methylcobalamin; and I choose my sources of calcium wisely! Kale has more bioavailable calcium than spinach. So remember, even if your CRON-O-METER shows up that you met the recommended daily allowance (RDI), you still can be low.

Eat a diverse range of foods: This is one way to ensure that we are getting proper nutrition and all the protective compounds in plant foods. There are many types of fruits and vegetables which provide unique phytochemicals that are very beneficial to your health and longevity. One of the reasons I think eating a strict fruitarian diet is bad is because fruits have never been shown to be more beneficial than vegetables. Vegetables are much more nutrient dense than are fruits. Fruits can provide you with a lot of calories, but you get vitamins, less minerals, and fewer phytochemicals. 

The aim is simple: Get the most nutrients in the fewest amount of calories possible. A low calorie diet should ideally meet all vitamins, minerals, fatty acids with diet alone. If you can't do that, then don't be afraid to supplement where it is needed.  I'm no longer a strong proponent of taking huge amount of supplements unless there is a specific disease or problem to target. Sensible targeted supplement will only help you in creating a more healthy and sustainable lifestyle. A low calorie diet or a raw food diet is very healthy when done right. Unfortunately, a lot of people miss things on the diet because they didn't have the right information or were misinformed by others.

What I eat in a week: I've had requests in the past by a lot of people to show what I eat in a week. So from Monday I will record everything until Sunday. I'll put information in CRON-O-METER also. So look out for updates on this!


Reference 

1. Gautam S1, Platel K, Srinivasan K. Higher bioaccessibility of iron and zinc from food grains in the presence of garlic and onion. J Agric Food Chem. 2010 Jul 28;58(14):8426-9. doi: 10.1021/jf100716t.

2. Josko Osredkar and Natasa Sustar
Copper and Zinc, Biological Role and Significance of Copper/Zinc 
Imbalance
http://omicsonline.org/copper-and-zinc-biological-role-and-significance-of-copper-zincimbalance-2161-0495.S3-001.pdf

Skin Care

SKIN CARE

Yesterday I received my order for my favourite skin product, Skinceuticals CE Ferulic acid. I've been using it since around 2009, and it was one of the few products that which totally agreed with my sensitive skin. Most of the products I've bought in the past were always causing issues, especially clogging my pores and causing breakouts. This however produced no negative effects, only positive ones, like clearing up my complexion and removing much of the hyperpigmentation I had left over when I had acne a long time ago. I only use it once a day after cleaning in the morning, and it moisturises fairly well because it has vitamin E there. Vitamin C is the active ingredient which significantly boosts collagen production and also protects against free radical damage. The Vitamin E and Ferulic Acid - which are both natural ingredients - work synergistically with the vitamin C to produce even greater results.

Benefits of Skinceuticals CE Ferulic

• Provides 8 x photoprotection
• Reduces sunburn cell formation by 96% 
• Prevents formation of thymine dimers; these are DNA mutation that case skin cancer

So as I said above, my order came, but this time I had received a free sample of another product caused Skinceuticals Hydrating B5 Gel. Normally, I'm very reluctant to try out new skin products because of my bad experiences in the past. But since I had this for free, and there are no obvious ingredients in there that should cause an issue, I decided to try it. Okay, so it's only my second day! But the moment I put it on, my skin felt baby soft! I went online and did a bit of research, and apparently B5 is good for acne sufferers. And the hyaluronic acid acid which is naturally produced by the body anyway, gives plenty of moisture to the surface of the skin. I can definitely feel a difference already. It's not like I even went from dry skin to moisturised skin either. My skin was pretty good before! Skinceuticals actually recommends that these two products be used together. So, we shall see if I end up adding this to my skin care regimen . . . But it's looking likely that I might, because I already love how it feels and looks. Another benefit I've read is that it helps give the appearance of smaller pores. I usually like to wait about 4 - 12 weeks before commenting on a new product, but I saw pretty instant results, so I thought I'd share my initial thoughts with you. 

I've been using all kinds of skin products since I was 16 years old. In order to stay young looking for longer, I believe the best results come when you combine skin care and a good with sensible sun exposure. We have to nourish our skin from within, but never forget to protect your skin from the outside where it is exposed to the environment. A low calorie diet can only do so much in slowing down ageing. I would be nice to not only feel young on the inside, but also look the part too! 

You can buy the product I use, Skinceuticals CE Ferulic below. The product lasts about 6 - 7 months, so when you work out the cost per month, it's not too bad. Also, remember to store in the fridge as this will reduce the rate of oxidation of the vitamin C. You want to make sure the product maintains a champagne colour and doesn't go yellow to be effective.

Is Fasting Good For You?

FASTING FOR BETTER HEALTH

People do short fasts and long fasts for many reasons. Some claim that it helps to reduce the risk of disease, to clean out toxins from the body; while others do it for spiritual and religious reasons. I've had quite a lot of experience with short fasts of about one to three days, but never more than this. Is there any benefit going beyond this? 

In 2007 I experimented with fasting by consuming most of my calories early in the day and creating a cut-off point where I wouldn't eat beyond a certain time. So I would wake up by 7 am and consume all my calories for the day by 2 pm. Although it's going back a bit, I remember feeling a lot more alert, and I could fall asleep faster and sleep better. Aside from the growling noises in my stomach  — which usually came on at the most inconvenient times  — the long fasts each day were pretty easy for me to because at the time I had so much going on with college and work, I didn't have much time to think about food. I guess I've always found any kind of dietary pattern very easy to adapt to. Even when I was consuming a mere 1550 Calories per day for several years, I didn't find it too difficult. After about 5 years I decided to increase my calorie intake so that I could increase my BMI a little and be safe; as I thought having such a low BMI was too risky at that time. I did this experiment where I would stop eating early in the day for about a year, and then returned to my normal pattern of eating. 

Using fasting to maintain a low calorie diet: In the last few years I have settled into just fasting one day a week. This not only gives my body a rest, but it helps lower the average calorie intake across the week if I had eaten too much on any particular day. In animal studies, it is the total calorie intake that matters when it comes to slowing down ageing; not when the calories were eaten. I find this method very effective and easy to do and makes it even easier to maintain a low calorie diet.

Benefits of Fasting: As for the health benefits of fasting, yes, they do exist! But you do not have to fast for a crazy amount of time to get them. When a person fasts, their body releases certain hormones such as Ghrelin, which stimulates appetite and has many beneficial effects around the body such as:

• Increased motivation
• Reduced anxiety and depression
• Protective against neurodegenerative diseases
• Enhances learning and memory 

When you fast you also increase the production of a protein called Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). This protein is also increased when a person is on a calorie restricted diet or is exercising. The beneficial effects of BDNF are primarily:

• Enhanced learning and memory
• Protection against neurodegeneration diseases; Alzheimer's and Parkinson's
• Increased neurogenesis (creation of new neurons in the brain)

Back in 2012 there was an excellent documentary called Eat, Fast, and Live longer. Michael Mosley investigated the research behind calorie restriction, fasting, and ageing. He travelled around the united states to speak to researchers who are at the cutting-edge of ageing research to find out which is the best way to reduce the risk of disease and possibly slow down ageing. During the show he spoke to Mark Mattson who is an expert in his field. He explained how beneficial fasting is for the brain and how well it delays the onset of Alzheimer's disease in mice that are destined to get it an an early age. To speed up the onset of Alzheimer's disease, the researchers put Fructose in their drinking water. The mice on the high sugar diet without being fasted developed the disease earlier than the mice that were fasted! Hear about the incredible results in the video below!

Although fasting is greatly beneficial to our health, there is no need to take it too far. One or two days is more than sufficient to get the benefits. Prolonged fasting can be dangerous to one's health, especially to the heart. In one study conducted on rats, they showed that every-other-day fasting caused diastolic dysfunction The heart became stiff and did not relax properly. They also showed reduced systolic pump function. So be careful with prolonged fasts. One day is totally fine and will not hurt you. There is no need for 1 week fasts.  I am currently writing a much more detailed review on fasting, but today I thought I'd just create a short overview of the benefits and risks of fasting. 

Q. What is the longest you've fasted? And did you experience any positive or negative effects from it?

References

1. Mattson MP. Energy intake, meal frequency, and health: a neurobiological perspective. 

Annu Rev Nutr. 2005;25:237-60

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16011467

2. Protecting new neurons reduces depression caused by stress

http://now.uiowa.edu/2014/04/protecting-new-neurons-reduces-depression-caused-stress

3. Meyer RM, Burgos-Robles A, Liu E, Correia SS, Goosens KA (October 2013). "A ghrelin-growth hormone axis drives stress-induced vulnerability to enhanced fear". Mol. Psychiatry. PMID 24126924

4. Diano S, Farr SA, Benoit SC, McNay EC, da Silva I, Horvath B, Gaskin FS, Nonaka N, Jaeger LB, Banks WA, Morley JE, Pinto S, Sherwin RS, Xu L, Yamada KA, Sleeman MW, Tschöp MH, Horvath TL (March 2006). "Ghrelin controls hippocampal spine synapse density and memory performance". Nat. Neurosci. 9 (3): 381–8. doi:10.1038/nn1656. PMID 16491079

5. Wenzhen Duan*, Zhihong Guo*, Haiyang Jiang*, Melvin Ware†, Xiao-Jiang Li‡, and Mark P. Mattson. Dietary restriction normalizes glucose metabolism and BDNF levels, slows disease progression, and increases survival in huntingtin mutant mice

http://www.pnas.org/content/100/5/2911.full

6. Lee J, Duan W, Mattson MP. Evidence that brain-derived neurotrophic factor is required for basal neurogenesis and mediates, in part, the enhancement of neurogenesis by dietary restriction in the hippocampus of adult mice. J Neurochem. 2002 Sep;82(6):1367-75.

7. Ahmet I1, Wan R, Mattson MP, Lakatta EG, Talan MI. Chronic alternate-day fasting results in reduced diastolic compliance and diminished systolic reserve in rats. J Card Fail. 2010 Oct;16(10):843-53. doi: 10.1016/j.cardfail.2010.05.007. Epub 2010 Jul 1.

Health and Longevity: The longer you live, the healthier you've been

Health and Longevity: The longer you live, the healthier you've been

   Jeanne Calment at 120

When people think of living a really long time, they might assume that these extra years would be spent in a state of decrepitude, where the person is not able to live independently and suffers from multiple health issues which significantly decrease their quality of life. Perhaps this misconception creates a fear in peoples minds about living to a very old age? But in reality, for the majority of people who reach 100 years and beyond, their health has been superior to most people and their medical costs are only a fraction of what is normal for the average person. How can this be? For one, they must have some remarkable genes! And in some cases, no doubt diet plays a very significant role in allowing them to reach such an extreme age in excellent health. Usually they don't suffer from the the most common diseases that people suffer from in the west. We could place centenarians into three groups: survivors, delayers, and escapers. While they all may have reached the century mark, they got their on different paths. (1).

• Survivors: These are centenarians who had developed at least one of ten major age-related illnesses before eighty; but despite them, still managed to reach one hundred and beyond. 

• Delayers: These are centenarians who had delayed development of major age-related illness until after 80 years. 

• Escapers: These reached one hundred without developing any lethal diseases; they have the most chance of becoming a supercentenarian and are very exceptional cases. These are the people which need to be studied to gain insights into their lifestyle and genetics. 

 Walter Breuning, taken on April 8, 2010 taken by Fred Pfeiffer

Disease Free Survival: To see how dramatic these differences are, just take a look at Figure4. HERE (2). It's very simple to understand: The black curve is the control group; they started to develop diseases very early in their life; and by age 60 things started to fall apart. After a person turns 60, this is when ageing speeds up dramatically for the average person. All other groups have delayed morbidity: The nonagenarians (people between 90-99) never started to see a significant increase in disease until their mid-seventies. And for centenarians there's a slight delay beyond that of nonagenarians by a few years. When we look at the semisupercentenarians, they live a little longer with better health than all previous groups. And finally there are the supercentenarians! Those that reached at least 110-years managed to live most of their life disease free. Approximately 80% of the supercentenarians were disease free at 100. (2). There seems to be a biological limit to human lifespan, which is around 115 years. Of course there are exceptional cases like Jeanne Calment who lived to 122-years, but she is an extreme outlier, and to this day since her death in 1997 remains the oldest person on record. To break this barrier, we need to extend the maximum lifespan of our species. It could be—judging by supercentenarian phenotypes—that people who live to this age are already taking advantage effects of calorie restriction without actually doing the restriction part. Lucky for them. But for most people, to reach this these ages and beyond, you really have to be exceptionally healthy and do all the right things. And even then, there are no guarantees.

Walter Breuning was a great example of someone that defied ageing. He lived to 114-years, and almost right until the end he was independent, had no cognitive-deficits and was pretty healthy for his age. According to many interviews, Walter had eaten a calorie restriction diet. He ate only two meals per day and maintained a lean BMI of 19 throughout his entire life. He believed that keeping his mind and body active was an important factor in his longevity. Also he never retired until he was 99 years old! Having a purpose in life and something to wake up for is certainly good for your wellbeing and longevity. At the time of his death, he was the fourth oldest man ever to have lived. There are a few interviews with him that I recommend watching on youtube. Walter was a lovely guy; he was kind, smart, and wise. I loved hearing his stories about all the inventions he got to see when he was growing up. It's simply remarkable what you can see in your lifetime if you are able to live as long as he did. There are other examples of people who ate light and lived a similar lifestyle as Walter, and I'll surely be writing about them also in the near future! 

Walter Breunning at 114 Years Old

"Every day is a good day, that's what you should think about; every day is a good day, and make it that way!" - Walter Breuning 

How long do you think you'd like to live?  

References

1. Evert J1, Lawler E, Bogan H, Perls T. Morbidity profiles of centenarians: survivors, delayers, and escapers. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2003 Mar;58(3):232-7. PMID: 12634289

2. Andersen SL1, Sebastiani P, Dworkis DA, Feldman L, Perls TT. Health span approximates life span among many supercentenarians: compression of morbidity at the approximate limit of life span. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2012 Apr;67(4):395-405. doi: 10.1093/gerona/glr223. Epub 2012 Jan 4. PMID: 22219514

Raw Food vs Cooked Food

Is Raw Food Better Than Cooked?

In the raw food community it's common knowledge that fresh raw food contains more nutrients than cooked food; but is this always the case? And should we always consume raw fruits and vegetables over cooked?  Well, the short answer is no, because it entirely depends on which food we're talking about. Although raw food contains many nutrients that are beneficial to our health, some are better absorbed once the food has been steamed or boiled.  This is simply because cooking breaks down the tough cellulose walls and releases the nutrients; and therefore they become more bioavailable. This is why I'm not a strong proponent of a 100% raw food diet. By limited yourself to only raw foods, you're limiting the amount of valuable compounds that have proven health benefits. Basically, you want to look at the 'net-benefit' when choosing to eat your food raw or cooked. You'll invariably decrease the amount of certain nutrients, while increasing others, but this is why it's important to have a wide variety of raw and cooked fruits and vegetables. For example, cooking may increase the level of carotenoids, but decrease the level of phenolic compounds such as caffeic acid, ferulic acid, quercetin, kaempferol etc. (1). Steaming and boiling seem to be beneficial for some vegetables, whereas frying foods should absolutely be avoided.. Our digestive systems are perfectly able to breakdown the food without enzymes coming from the fruits and vegetables themselves.

Although the nutritional value of foods like brown rice, wholegrains, potatoes are lower than most plant foods, they can certainly be part of a healthy diet for most people, and should not cause any problems. In fact, many raw foodists find it difficult to consume enough calories because of the quantity of food they consume which are not energy-dense! So these foods are rich sources of calories that you can consume if you're falling short of your caloric intake. Legumes such as beans can also be a very healthy and an important part of the diet. One study found that legume intake is the single most important predictor of survival in older people! For each 20g increase in daily intake, there was a 8% decrease in mortality. (2)

From the current evidence that we have, there is no clear advantage of consuming a 100% raw food diet over a high raw food diet between 70-80%. People who practice calorie restriction are not on a 100% raw food diet, but have results that match or are better than raw foodists on several health markers. All of these foods are very good sources for complex carbohydrates and should be consumed as part of a healthy diet. As much people try to aspire to be 100% raw foodists, there is no proven benefit to being this strict. Eating healthy cooked foods is perfectly fine, and in some cases, is more beneficial. I only consume a 70% raw food diet, and have obtained excellent health from doing this diet for over 10 years. Perhaps many raw food obtain 'guru' status because of how strict they are. So many people in the raw food community are trying to reach the same 100% goal as them, but not everyone can achieve this level of discipline. Fortunately, to get great results and great health, you do not have to adhere to a full 100% raw food diet. You just have to a eat a whole food diet which is high in raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.

Table 1 

Raw Foodists are deficient in Lycopene: In a study published in the British Journal of Nutrition, researchers looked at the level of carotenoids in strict long-term raw foodists. In the study they found that despite the fact they were consuming a high level of carotenoids from raw fruits and vegetables, a large number (77%) of the raw foodists were below the normal range for lycopene; and the best predictor for lycopene levels was the amount of fat consumed in their diets. Many compounds including lycopene are fat-soluble; that means they need to be taken with fat to be absorbed adequately. For this reason, it highly recommended that people on raw food diets consume adequate amounts of fat and/or include processed tomato products in their diets. (3). The biggest trade-off when cooking tomatoes is that you lose Vitamin C. Fortunately this vitamin is abundant in a raw food diet anyway.

Tomatoes contain a significant amount of dietary lycopene compared to many other foods. Unfortunately, by eating tomatoes raw, you're losing out on obtaining a significant amount of an important phytochemical. Our body's only able to absorb approximately 10-30%, so to get the most from your diet, you would have to either cook the tomatoes or consume other tomato products which have been processed. tomato sauce, tomato juice, tomato paste, and ketchup are some of the best sources of lycopene. (4, 5)

Why is lycopene important? Lycopene is distributed throughout the body to various organs such as adrenal glands, prostate, breasts, liver and testes; and it's also stored in adipose tissue. It has been found to be protective against many types of cancer including breast, prostate and lung cancer; it's also protective against cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and macular degeneration. (6). Lycopene also significantly lowers the level of oxidative stress. Researchers found that 30 mg of lycopene was able to reduce baseline DNA damage by 9%. (7). In other studies, they have shown that tomato paste can reduce lymphocyte (white blood cell) damage by up to 50% with just 7 to 16 mg of lycopene per day! (8,9). If all these benefits weren't enough to make you want to get more lycopene in your diet and body... lycopene concentration in the skin has been associated with better skin health and increased perceived attractiveness. (10). The glow one gets from carotenoids, signals better immunity and fertility to the opposite sex. (11).

References:

1. Miglio C1, Chiavaro E, Visconti A, Fogliano V, Pellegrini N. Effects of different cooking methods on nutritional and physicochemical characteristics of selected vegetables. J Agric Food Chem. 2008 Jan 9;56(1):139-47. Epub 2007 Dec 11. PMID: 18069785

2. Darmadi-Blackberry I1, Wahlqvist ML, Kouris-Blazos A, Steen B, Lukito W, Horie Y, Horie K.

Legumes: the most important dietary predictor of survival in older people of different ethnicities.

Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2004;13(2):217-20. PMID: 15228991 

3. Ada L.Garcia1, Corinna Koebnick1, Peter C. Dagnelie, Carola Strassner, Ibrahim Elmadfa, Norbert Katz,  Claus Leitzmann1 and Ingrid Hoffmann1. Long-term strict raw food diet is associated with favourable plasma. b-carotene and low plasma lycopene concentrations in Germans British Journal of Nutrition (2008), 99, 1293–1300 PMID: 18028575

4. Gartner C, Stahl W, Sies H. Lycopene is more bioavailable from tomato paste than from fresh tomatoes. Am J Clin Nutr 1997;66:116–22 http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/66/1/116.abstract

5. Rao AV, Agarwal S. Role of lycopene as antioxidant carotenoid in the prevention of chronic diseases: a review. Nutr Res 1999;19:305–23. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0271531798001936

6. A.V. Raoa,∗, L.G. Rao. Carotenoids and human health Pharmacological Research 55 (2007) 207–216

7. Sridevi Devaraj, PhD, Surekha Mathur, PhD, RD, Arpita Basu, PhD, Hnin H. Aung, PhD, Vihas T. Vasu, PhD, Stuart Meyers, DVM, PhD, and Ishwarlal Jialal, MD, PhD. A Dose-Response Study on the Effects of Purified Lycopene Supplementation on Biomarkers of Oxidative Stress PMID: 18689558

8. Riso P, Pinder A, Santangelo A, Porrini M. Does tomato consumption effectively increase the resistance of lymphocyte DNA to oxidative damage? Am J Clin Nutr. 1999;69:712–718. PMID: 10197573 

9. Porrini M, Riso P. Lymphocyte lycopene concentration and DNA protection from oxidative damage is increased in women after a short period of tomato consumption. J Nutr. 2000;130:189–192. PMID: 10720168

10. Darvin, M. et al. 2008. Cutaneous concentration of lycopene correlates significantly with the roughness of the skin. European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics, 69,943-7. PMID: 18411044 

11. Ross D. Whitehead mail, Daniel Re, Dengke Xiao, Gozde Ozakinci, David I. Perrett mail

You Are What You Eat: Within-Subject Increases in Fruit and Vegetable Consumption Confer Beneficial Skin-Color Changes Published: March 07, 2012DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0032988
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0032988

I'm 30 in October! [Picture update]

I thought that I'd just do a quick picture update since my last picture on here was from when I was 28. I'm turning 30 years old in October! That thought used to scare me at one point, but now not so much. I started to eat a healthy diet when I was 18, but never truly got into Calorie Restriction with Optimal Nutrition (CRON) until I was 20. I'm genuinely excited for the next 10 years. I know exactly what I want to do and where I want to be. :)   The last two pictures of my long hair at the bottom is from late 2013. I'm eventually going to donate some of my hair.  The pictures are a bit bright as I took them right in front of the window. :)




 

BBC Horizon: The CRON challenge - Eat, Fast, Live Longer

Luigi Fontana says that Joe's diet has reduced his risk to 'one in a million' chance for developing cardiovascular disease, stroke, myocardial infarction, or heart failure. Calorie Restriction is extremely powerful in protecting humans against many common age-related diseases.

See Joseph a few years back when he was on Oprah HERE

Calorie Restriction in Rhesus Monkeys and Humans: A short review of the effects on health and lifespan.

Since the 1980s researchers have been conducting an experiment on rhesus monkeys by restricting their calories to see if CR is beneficial in improving their health and ultimately slowing down ageing, as it does in other species such as yeast, worms, flies, spiders, rats, mice, dogs, cows, among others the diet has been tested on. Rhesus monkeys live around 27 years on average, and are thought to be the most similar physiologically to humans  — so it's believed the results would be more translatable to humans. Pending the final results, I'll go into what the current findings are, what they could mean, and whether or not the work is likely to be translatable to people.

 Normal diet (left: A/B) Calorie Restriction (right: C/D).

WISCONSIN RHESUS MONKEY STUDY

The study began in 1989 where they introduced 30 male rhesus monkeys into the study and then a further 30 females and 16 males in 1994. The animals were randomized and then put into either the control group or the calorie restricted group. Restriction of calories was done in phases: 10% reduction in calories based on individual primate ad lib caloric intake until they reached 30% restriction. Unlike the NIA study, this ad lib group were allowed to eat as much as they wanted. The animals also received very good care and any conditions that developed during the study would be treated. The median survival for rhesus monkeys in captivity is about 26-27 years and a maximum lifespan of 40 years, with 10% reaching 35 years of age.

In 2009 we got a glimpse that calorie restriction in non-human primates seems to work and extends both healthspan and lifespan (1). Age-related mortality was slashed and control fed animals were 3-times more likely to die of age-associated diseases than the restricted monkeys; although at this point all-cause mortality between groups did not reach statistical significance. The calorie restricted animals were far healthier with a complete protection from diabetes; they also had less heart disease, fewer rates of cancer, less muscle loss with age, less brain atrophy, among other benefits. It has been reported that the calorie restriction monkeys also look a lot younger than their well fed counterparts.

An update came in April 2014: Calorie Restriction improved all-cause mortality and age-related mortality in primates (2). Age-related mortality includes deaths from cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis etc. All-cause mortality takes into account deaths from accidents, anesthesia, gastric bloat (accidentally caused by overcooked batches of food), and endometriosis (a non fatal human disease). Most of these may have been preventable deaths and were not caused by intrinsic ageing and so a separate analysis for just age-related mortality was created to look at the effect of CR on deaths caused by ageing and the diseases that are associated with it.

So far 63% (24/38) of the control animals have died from age-related causes compared to only 26% (10/38) of the calorie restricted group. This indicates that simply reducing calories can have a dramatic impact on the incidence of diseases with age.  For all-cause mortality, the control group had 1.8 times the risk of death from any cause compared to the CR group. Right now there are currently 12 CR monkeys a and only 6 control fed animals alive.

Rhesus monkeys, left to right, Canto, 27, on a restricted diet, and Owen, 29, a control subject on an unrestricted diet, are pictured at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on May 28, 2009 by Jeff Miller.
See previous post on Canto and Owen HERE

CR 'anti-aging' protocol: Although calorie restriction has improved average lifespan in the study at WNPRC, the effects of the diet on the monkeys metabolic, lipid and hormonal profile has been inconsistent with the changes that are observed in mice, rats and humans. Reasons for this could be that the reduction in calories was not sufficient to signal low energy availability to activate the pathways and responses that are involved in retarding ageing in mammals. However, even with the inconsistent results, the monkeys still benefited from a reduction in calories and stayed leaner, healthier, and younger for longer.

table 1

Before the monkeys began the diet, they were monitored for a 3-6 month period to assess their caloric intake when they had free access to food so that the researchers could establish an individual baseline from which to reduce the calories from. Given that high sugar diets stimulate appetite, the monkeys ate a generous amount of food during this period. Later in the study the researchers found that the difference between the calorie restricted group and the control group dwindled to only 18% difference because the monkeys in the control group voluntarily reduced their calorie intake. Monkeys normally do this with age, but this was fairly early in the study, so the researchers lowered the intake of the CR group further to establish a 30% difference once again. Although there were some exceptions, as not all monkeys had their intakes reduced further because of the appearance of the animal and was deemed too risky to the animals health. No further reductions in calorie intake in the CR group is being performed at this stage of the study, even if control animals still continue to decrease their intake in old age.

A sweet disaster: To understand why there might have been a longevity advantage in the CR group relative to the control group, even though the CR monkeys did not display the CR-phenotype, we have to take a look at the diet used in the study. The monkeys in the Wisconsin study were fed a semi-purified diet which comprised of 65% carbohydrates with 28.5% coming from sucrose and the remainder from cornstarch vs the NIA study where the monkeys chow comprised of 56% carbohydrates with only 3.9% coming from sucrose (3). The high level of sucrose in the diet that the Wisconsin monkeys received could explain why there were more cases of diabetes in the controls of this study compared to the NIA controls; although interestingly there were two cases of diabetes in the young onset monkeys in the NIA study whereas the WNPRC study reported a complete protection from diabetes in the CR animals. Also, although blood glucose levels were lower in the WNPRC monkeys, they had very high levels of insulin in the controls and the CR diet brought it down to more appropriate levels. In contrast with the NIA monkeys which had lower levels of insulin but slightly higher levels of glucose.

It was reported that 5 of the 38 monkeys of the Wisconsin control group developed full blown diabetes vs only 5 out of 64 in the NIA control group (11% vs 8%). Diabetes incidence does have a strong correlation with increasing weight. The NIA monkeys weighed less at all ages than the WNPRC monkeys. (2). In humans, the prevalence of diabetes (diagnosed) in the UK is as high as 5.8% in England, with the national average at 4.6% in 2013 (4). Earlier reports say at least 12% of deaths in the UK are a result of diabetes and its complications. This means that the control group in this particular study represents more closely a typical western population  in terms of diet and disease incidence.

Longevity phenotype: A lot of research has gone into the biology of aging in recent years. What is clear is that there is a specific phenotype that is common among long lived individuals and families. Typically, they will have low levels of glucose and insulin. (diabetes cases being rare in those who reach 100). Studies have shown a decreased functioning of the IGF-1 receptor and/or decreased levels of IGF-1 levels — which could be achieved by lowering protein intake to recommended daily levels of 10% of total calorie intake coming from protein (17) — leads to protection from diabetes, cancer and extends lifespan (5-8). Lower levels of thyroid hormones have also been found in people with exceptional longevity: lower fT3, lower T4 and high-normal TSH can be exceptionally long lived. (9,10). Higher HDL is protective; as well as lower levels of LDL cholesterol and triglycerides. (11). Table 1 and 2 shows the Wisconsin and NIA monkeys failed to display the changes that are a typical with CR. In the Baltimore longitudinal study of Aging, men with lower insulin, lower body temperature and high DHEA were found to be longer lived. Humans who voluntarily do CR (myself included) do display these changes with the exception of changes in T4 and TSH thyroid hormones which is mixed in humans. Overall, humans seem to be responding more favourably to calorie restriction and more closely matches the phenotype displayed mice and rats that have a dramatically extended lifespan. I believe in order to understand the relevance to studies on ageing, we must first understand if the study group actually responding properly to CR, like rodents and humans do.

A little extra weight is not good for you; dispelling the 'myth' that being overweight reduces the risk of mortality: Several reports have come out in the last few years suggesting that being overweight decreases mortality. They typically either show a J-curve or a U-curve for BMI, which basically meant that being thin was associated with greater mortality, and being obese is even worse; but being slightly overweight was  actually good for you. (12). They came to this conclusion by looking at a large number of people and excluding all obvious causes of being thin: smoking, alcohol abuse, and pre-existing diseases were controlled for to see what is the optimal BMI in humans. Unfortunately these studies fail because of serious methodological flaws and the inability to control for leanness because of healthy lifestyle, rather than poor diet and ill health. 

Healthy individuals eating a diet that is rich in vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and fish are likely to represent a very small fraction of lean individuals. Indeed, one study that was conducted by Cardiff university found that only 15 men out of  2,235 men ate more than 5 fruits and vegetables a day. Less than 1% followed all 5 healthy behaviours.  Following a 'healthy lifestyle' is not common here in the UK (13). This indicates that being thin in the general population is more likely to be a result of poor lifestyle choices  and/or underlying diseases than to a healthy lifestyle — which in many studies has been correlated with lower rates of mortality. In fact, just recently it was reported that eating 7 more more fruits and vegetables a day is associated with a 42% reduction in mortality. And the more fruits and vegetables consumed, the lower the BMI. (14).

If we agree that this study does not represent a true 'anti-ageing' study because the CR group were not restricted enough to elicit many of the CR responses that drives its 'anti-ageing' effect; and that the controls were also overfed, then this study represents what the general population could expect if they were to reduce their calories a little and maintained a healthy body weight.

Both the Wisconsin and the NIA primate studies show that lowering body weight is very important to health and lifespan. And whether or not there is diminishing returns in the effect CR has on lifespan as body weight is progressively decreased, there should be no doubt that excess body weight is bad news when it comes to diseases of ageing such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. These are some of the biggest killers in western countries today. These studies show that changing dietary habits can have a dramatic impact on your disease risk, and that you have more control than you might think. You are not destined to develop the same diseases as your family and friends if you act now to live a healthier lifestyle. As this study shows, you could potentially add years to your life. And you'll see the effect on quality of diet plus staying lean is even greater still!

NIA RHESUS MONKEY STUDY

In this study they had two groups on the diet to establish what effects CR has on health in young animals and old old animals. The study conducted at NIA was more in-line with rodent experiments where control group were restricted by 10% to avoid the effects of obesity, whilst  the CR group are restricted by 30%

Energy intakes were calculated from tables of energy intake requirements for the rhesus monkeys by age, weight, and gender. Both groups received a relatively healthy diet that was also supplemented with 40% extra vitamins and minerals to insure that the calorie restriction group met the recommended daily intake for all nutrients. However, as the control group also received the same diet, this meant they were super-supplemented. (The NIA-1-87 formulation). The diet is also natural based and contains many phytochemicals and other micronutrients that are beneficial to health and could in synergy with CR to improve health. During the course of the study, measurements were made to see what effects CR had on the monkeys health. 

table 2. no change = no effect relative to control monkeys

Young-onset: In the CR'd male monkeys there was no effect on glucose levels compared with the controls. In the females there was only a very slight reduction. Triglycerides tended to increase with age across all groups; interestingly, young-onset CR'd females experienced a significant increase in triglyceride levels compared to the control female group (15), which is bizarre, because in humans, there are no differences by gender in the response to CR when it comes to the dramatic lowering of triglycerides. The monkeys also failed to exhibit several other distinct changes that usually occur with CR: There was no reduction in testosterone or estrogen as we see in rodents and humans. And no increase in the stress hormone cortisol. Serum triiodothyronine (T3) was reduced by 14% in the young and old CR'd female monkeys and very little effect in males. In humans practicing vigorous CR there is a major reduction in T3; but this was not observed when  overweight people who had lost weight to get within the healthy BMI range like those in the CALERIE study (more on that later).

Old-onset : In males there was a significant decrease in cholesterol in the CR'd group. Glucose was also reduced significantly, while there was only a modest effect was seen in CR'd females. Triglycerides were significantly reduced in CR males, and modestly reduced in CR females. (15). Blood pressure was not affected in the monkeys; which is inconsistent with the data in humans, as we see a dramatic decrease in blood pressure from average values for their respective ages to levels that of a child: approx 100/60. (16) Indicating once again that humans respond better than monkeys to CR. 

CR has a dramatic effect on cancer if started young: It's worth noting that one significant effect has been found in the young-onset monkeys: so far none of the calorie restricted monkeys have developed cancer (CR 0/40 vs  6/64 AL) Calorie restriction initiated early in life is powerful in protecting against cancer in rhesus monkeys and possibly humans. This is one effect that is consistent with what we see in rodents. Unlike old-onset rhesus monkeys, the young-onset do see reductions in IGF-1 levels, which may partly explain this effect (although not entirely). In humans pracitcing vigorous CR with protein restriction (10% of calories), both young and old see significant reductions in IGF-1. (17).

Longest lived rhesus monkeys on record: Although survival was the same for both groups in the old-onset group (35.4 years), this was significantly longer than previous reported median lifespan of just 27 years for a rhesus monkey in captivity. (15). Not only that, of the 20 male monkeys in the old-onset group, 4 monkeys in the calorie restricted group have lived beyond 40 years and only 1 control monkey. 

40 years is considered the maximum lifespan for a rhesus monkey. Researchers analysed data on lifespan of 3264 rhesus monkeys, and only two 40-year old monkeys has ever been documented. According to researchers, one year for a monkey is roughly equivalent to 3 human years. (1). So 35.4 years for a rhesus monkey would correspond to about 106 human years? Rhesus monkeys in this study in both old-onset group gained 8 years extra life; equivalent to 24 human years. As the study is still about 10 years away from being completed, I would expect that we could see a few more 40-year old monkeys in the young-onset group. 

The NIA group had fairly significant survival advantage over all groups in the WNPRC study. With a 10% restricted healthy diet, the NIA cohort broke longevity records. Is it possible that the 10% reduction in calories with a very healthy diet that was rich in vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, omega-3 fatty acids was additive in its effects with CR, so that the 10% CR group effectively got the same benefit as the 30% restricted group? As these monkeys have lived far beyond what is typical for a rhesus monkey, it's clear that quality of diet matters a lot; and being lean is very beneficial for health and longevity. In studies on rodents, 10% CR can effectively extend lifespan as much as 30%; but this is not true of all strains. In most, the lifespan gained is in proportion to the degree of restriction and the length of time the animal has been restricted. 

(translation of 'moneys years' to 'humans years' might not be exact; it's just a rough estimate).

HUMAN CR

At least 18 people practicing calorie restriction with optimal nutrition have been studied by Dr Luigi Fontana at Washington University in St Louis. In a study published in 2004, medical records were collected of the participants previous health data which included things such as: body weight, blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol etc to see what effect years of calorie restriction has had on health. Those doing calorie restriction were very lean with a BMI of 19.6 ± 1.9  vs  25. ± 3.2 kg/m2  for the western diet group. Average time on CR was 6 years ± 3 (range 3 to 15 years). 

Picture from Sept 2010 (25 years 11 months)

The study found that major risk factors for cardiovascular disease were reduced significantly in people on CR. The average Total cholesterol and LDL-C concentration for the CR group was in the lowest 10% for people in their age group (50 years). Also, even more dramatic, the levels of triglycerides in the CR group were lower than 95% of Americans who are in their 20s. And their HDL (good cholesterol) was higher than 85-90% of people in middle age. Fasting insulin was 65% lower than the western diet group and glucose was also significantly lower too. People on CR have also been found to have lower body temperature, lower thyroid hormone T3 as well, but people who exercise vigorously and maintained a similar BMI did not see these reductions. (29,31)  Participants of the study also had extremely low blood pressure, equivalent to that of a 10-year old. They had almost non-detectable or very low levels of inflammation measured by c-reactive protein. The IMT carotid artery thickness was measured and found to be 40% less in the CR group compared with the controls: 0.5 ± 0.1 mm in the CR and 0.8 ± 0.1 mm for controls. None of those eating a CR diet had any evidence of atherosclerotic plaque. To show the powerful effect  that CR had on their health, the researchers were able to gather medical records from 12 of the individuals in the CR group and show that just like the western diet group, values for the CR group were average (50th percentile) before embarking on the diet.

Possibly even more impressive was results showing that CR in humans might possibly slow down aging of the heart itself. They looked at the diastolic function of the heart and its ability to relax and fill the left ventricle, and found that people on CR had hearts that were similar to those who were 15 years younger.(17). And those on the diet also had the heart rate variability of a person 20 years younger. (18)  It looks as if CR must have had a rejuvenating effect on heart function and wasn't just merely slowing its decline in function and performance. 

Just recently participants from the CR society had their muscle biopsied and analysed to look at gene expression profiles compared to that of 30 year old controls and age-matched controls (58 years); and also they compared the molecular changes in rats on 40% CR. They hypothesised that CR in humans would have induced a down-regulation of the Insulin/IGF-1/FOXO pathway which has been linked with longevity in animals and humans (20-22). What they found was a very significant down-regulation of the Insulin/IGF-1/FOXO pathway at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional level. The key changes in skeletal muscle gene expression profile that are observed in long-lived rats are also observed in humans. So not only are humans responding at a physiological level to CR as animals do; but the molecular adaptations seem to mirror that of mice and rats. They also looked at SIRT 1 and AMPK: these two energy-sensing pathways were significantly up-regulated in people on CR. FOXO3A and FOXO-4 were significantly up-regulated: these are known to modify many 'longevity genes' in animals and increase activities such as DNA repair, antioxidant defenses, immunity, protein turn over, and cell death genes. (22). Autophagy, which helps remove dysfunctional cell components to recycle was also significantly up-regulated by CR. Looking at (Figure 1b (23)), it looks as if people on CR had more similar gene expression profiles to the younger individuals in the study. The 'gene expression' of people on CR is more like that of a 30 year old than the age-matched 58-year old control group. This is a very important finding to see if the same response to CR is conserved across species to humans. 

Conclusions

Looking at the data we have thus far from mice, rats, rhesus monkeys, and humans, we are able to make comparisons to see the differences between each species in how they react at a molecular level and at the physiological level to CR; and also how they react to the various degrees of calorie restriction. It's clear that people on calorie restriction do display a more CR-like state than either the NIA or Wisconsin rhesus monkey studies. Not only that, people in the CALERIE study who were overweight and merely reduced their body weight to a 'healthy' weight from a BMI of 27 to 24 with 25% CR, never exhibited several CR signatures, nor did they have as significant reductions or changes in total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, inflammation, thyroid hormone levels, testosterone, estrogen, IGF-1 and cortisol.(26-28).  All of these are strongly influenced in people studied at WUSTL who are from the CR Society and practice moderate-severe CR. (16-19, 23). Many of these signatures that were not observed in the CALERIE study were also either not observed in the CR primate studies, very inconsistent, or modest in their change or effect. (25-28). This indicates that the level of CR in the primate studies, as well as the CALERIE human study were insufficient to elicit the key changes that are responsible for the age-retarding effect of CR. Apart from the CR being insufficient to elicit these changes, another possibility could be that the declining difference between energy intakes of the NIA rhesus monkeys (20% less than ad lib for males and only 12% for females) could be the reason why little differences were seen. It was reported also that the calorie restricted monkeys did not exhibit much sign of hunger during the study either; another argument pointing to the fact that the CR group needed to be restricted further. Before embarking on this very long study, it may have been wise to restrict monkeys to various degrees to see if there is a 'cut-off point' to where CR does not improve their health further. If they display the CR-phenotype in a more consistent and powerful way, then establish this level of restriction for the CR group for a lifespan study, as long as the level of restriction was not inhmane and the animals did not display poor health from it. 

Fortunately we have a lot more control over our own diets, exercise and supplements than animals who are subjected to these diets. The interactions between all of these are only just now being discovered. It's only a matter of time before we'll have reliable markers of ageing which we can use to see if our diets are working. In response to the results we see with the diet, we are able to change accordingly to get into the most optimal and CR'd-like to have the best chance for living longer and healthier lives.

For a very in-depth analysis of the monkey studies, I highly recommend you go over here to read Michael Rae's post: www.sens.org/research/research-blog/cr-nonhuman-primates-muddle-monkeys-men-and-mimetics

References

1.  Caloric Restriction Delays Disease Onset and Mortality in Rhesus Monkeys

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/325/5937/201.full

2. Ricki J. Colman, T. Mark Beasley, Joseph W. Kemnitz, Sterling C. Johnson, Richard Weindruch & Rozalyn M. 

Anderson. Caloric restriction reduces age-related and all-cause mortality in rhesus monkeys 

Nature Communications 5, Article number: 3557 doi:10.1038/ncomms4557

http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/140401/ncomms4557/full/ncomms4557.html

3. Kemnitz JW1, Weindruch R, Roecker EB, Crawford K, Kaufman PL, Ershler WB.

J Gerontol. 1993 Jan;48(1):B17-26.

Dietary restriction of adult male rhesus monkeys: design, methodology, and preliminary findings from the first year of study.

http://www.physiology.wisc.edu/pubs/Kemnitz35.pdf

.

4. Diabetes prevelence in the UK (2013).

https://www.diabetes.org.uk/About_us/What-we-say/Statistics/Diabetes-prevalence-2012/

5. Solon-Biet SM1, McMahon AC2, Ballard JW3, Ruohonen K4, Wu LE5, Cogger VC2, Warren A2, Huang X2, Pichaud N3, Melvin RG6, Gokarn R7, Khalil M8, Turner N9, Cooney GJ9, Sinclair DA10, Raubenheimer D11, Le Couteur DG12, Simpson SJ13.

The ratio of macronutrients, not caloric intake, dictates cardiometabolic health, aging, and longevity in ad libitum-fed mice. Cell Metab. 2014 Mar 4;19(3):418-30. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2014.02.009.

http://download.cell.com/cell-metabolism/pdf/PIIS1550413114000655.pdf

6. Levine ME, Suarez JA, Brandhorst S, Balasubramanian P, Cheng CW, Madia F, Fontana L, Mirisola MG, Guevara-Aguirre J, Wan J, Passarino G, Kennedy BK, Wei M, Cohen P, Crimmins EM, Longo VD

Low Protein Intake Is Associated with a Major Reduction in IGF-1, Cancer, and Overall Mortality in the 65 and Younger but Not Older Population. Cell Metab. 2014 Mar 4;19(3):407-17. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2014.02.006.

PMID: 24606898

7. Lorenzini A1, Salmon AB, Lerner C, Torres C, Ikeno Y, Motch S, McCarter R, Sell C.

Mice Producing Reduced Levels of Insulin-Like Growth Factor Type 1 Display an Increase in Maximum, but not Mean, Life Span. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2014 Apr;69(4):410-9. doi: 10.1093/gerona/glt108. Epub 2013 Jul 20.

PMID: 23873963 

8. Milman S1, Atzmon G, Huffman DM, Wan J, Crandall JP, Cohen P, Barzilai N.

Low insulin-like growth factor-1 level predicts survival in humans with exceptional longevity.

Aging Cell. 2014 Mar 12. doi: 10.1111/acel.12213. 

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