Caloric restriction is one of the most fascinating concept being researched to date, and quite widely studied.
The concept is simple -> Eat less than what you need (but not in famine levels), Let your body get into some kind of a defense mode (regarding your mitochondrial work) and viola – you’re better suited and equipped to fight the good fight against entropy and aging.
As one review notes:
A diversified CR diet helps protect against the causes of aging and elderly diseases by slowing mitochondrial activity, quickly neutralizing free radicals, improving health and longevity. This situation can be controlled by the genes of longevity that induce the synthesis of sirtuins.
From here[1] , they also provided a nice summary regarding the underlying mechanisms:
Now, we have the mechanisms, or some of them. Mostly as can we see it has to do with some epigenetic changes that help the mitochondria to be more efficient, mostly surrounding the SIRT protein family and also, to some extent, stuff that has to do with ROS (free radicals) and their work/prevention. There are some works demonstrating that the body uses these ROSs in a different manner, but can’t find the citation right now.
Right here[2] there’s another review regarding the different mechanisms, which involves other factors that may help regarding cancer incidence, and other metabolic pathways and junctions.
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But mechanisms aside, what are the evidence regarding its true potential?
On the one hand, it is something learned from all the “blue zones”. Caloric restriction is associated with their lifestyles in general, so, perhaps?[3]
However, a meta analyses on the matter concluded that[4] :
“CR is a nutritional pattern linked to improved cardiometabolic status. However, evidence is limited on the multidimensional aspects of health and requires more studies of high quality to identify the precise impact of CR on health status and longevity.”
So, without getting into statistical details – we cannot say yet that there are strong evidence to support that clinically.
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So basically, there are some interesting possible mechanisms that link CR (caloric restriction) to longevity, the mechanisms are rather known but the effect size on humans is unknown; it has an impact on cardiometabolic health which is lovley.
So if you’re up to it, sure, why not. Don’t eat a lot, listen to your body and stomach, love yourself, use food as food and not as something to help you run away from troubles that often. Food is good. Food is friend. Great.
Footnotes[1] Caloric Restriction and Longevity[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6950657/[3] The Less We Eat, the Longer We Live: Can Caloric Restriction Help Us Become Centenarians?[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7468870/
