I was told by one of my friends that besides the healthy diet and exercising that some of us practice, limiting the calories (CR ) is the best other option. But what do experts say?

Thanks Prof Abdalla. I agree it's not just a longer life, the thing we all want is quality of life, less ailments, less dependence on others, more years of useful and healthy life...

@Miranda, regarding that I am not expert in the field, that I have about 10 kg more, but having in mind that You often ask for good reading, links, papers, sites,..., here is a good one "Can a Low-Calorie Diet Slow Aging?-New research suggests that fewer calories means more years of life, but not all scientists are convinced."

http://www.healthline.com/health-news/aging-low-calorie-diet-linked-to-longevity-090313

Thanks Prof Ljubomir, I will get into the link. I'm very interested in this, despite the fact that I didn't become a medical doctor...

But now, I go for my evening jog. But I will be back in about 1 hour or just slightly more. It's not going to rain today :))

I am not an expert but the following are claimed for calorie reduction diets:

CR Reduces DNA Damage

CR Beneficial Late in Life

Calorie Restriction Cleans Cells

CR Enhances DNA Repair

CR Protects Against Heart Aging

CR Slows Immune System Aging

CR Slows Alzheimer's Progression

CR Reduces Stem Cell Decline

CR Reduces Inflammation and Muscle Loss

https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2002/11/calorie-restriction-explained.php

I am expecting to answer some more serious questions! Sorry Miranda.

Dear friends, thanks for your links. Some of us take this seriously because we just don't like to be so frail and depend on others.

'Calorie restriction is still the only widely available tool in the longevity toolkit today, which, when you stop to think about it, is a rather sorry state of affairs. This will not always be the case, however, as medical science and biotechnology are advancing ever onwards.'

Thank you Abdalla El-Mowafy for the response. It is enlightening that fasting is really helpful in so many ways. In India we have a saying that “for fevers fasting is the best medicine”.

Thanks Prof Abdalla and Prof N.

Wonderful benefits of fasting. I have some gastric problems, so I must drink lots of water; but don't eat from sunrise to sunset. I just do this for a week before Christmas. BP is rather low around 98/62 and Pulse around 60.

My Muslim friends practice a total fast during fasting month, from sunrise to sunset. My Indian friends are often on a vegetarian diet... I think that once we are 30, we start to think hard about our health :)

Dear Miranda

This article may be useful for you:

Gerontologist. 2004 Jun;44(3):304-10.

Anti-aging medicine: can consumers be better protected?

Mehlman MJ1, Binstock RH, Juengst ET, Ponsaran RS, Whitehouse PJ

The fasting month is 1 1/2 month away Dr. Yeoh ;)

Dear Miranda

I agree with Nageswara. Would also like to add on fasting.

Mahatma Gandhi had firm belief in fasting for a better health. He used to go on fasts quite often. His longest fast was for 42 days.

When I was 26, I had developed some serious digestion problem, which would not go away with several sets of treatments. I fasted for 8 days continuously. Just to water with lemon. My problem was gone completely.

CR is a problem mainly linked to developed countries, where the obesity is largely diffuse even in children. Here, a diet with animal fats is the factor predisposing to many disorders such as cardiovascular accidents (hearth and brain ischaemia), liver fat deposition (steatosis and steatohepatitis until cirrhosis), insulin resistance until diabates with its systematic manifestations on vascular system, liver, kidney. All these disorders are the consequence of dietetic errors as well as of genetic predisposition and ageing. It is known that with the advance of the age, basal metabolism becomes very slow and caloric need of the organism consequently decreases. An effective dietetic approach must take into account all these factors. So basal metabolism and caloric intake should be calculated by appropriate formulae and instruments, fat distribution expecially in the perivisceral area must be considered and finally diet may be personalized according to these principles. However, empirically a diet rich in vegetables and fish and poor in glucose and fats is to be considered as beneficial (this is the period of the fashion of "mediterranean diet"). A caloric restriction which does not take into account the nutritional need of a subject may be dangerous for the possibility of a caloric-proteic malnutrition with destruction of muscular protein to balance the lack of proteic assumption and carential conditions due the lack of assumption of vitamins and salts which are necessary for a correct metabolism.

@Abdalla et al., what significant difference is there between amino acids in plants (soy, almond..) compared to amino acids in meat (beef, mutton)?

@Nelson, do you have a softcopy to share? I don't have research grant. But if you can't help, never mind.

@Fatimah, healthy and happy fasting soon, ahead :)

Caloric Restriction is not a tool for longevity, it's a growth-restriction method which helps upregulate autophagy and reduce lipid imbalance. Caloric restriction reduces your bodies ability to cope with high-energy stressors (such as the need to run long distances or fight other humans in hand to hand combat), and in the absence of high-energy stressors caloric restriction will lead to longer life.

Biphasic restriction (also called EOD, Every Other Day) also leads to increased lifespan by helping upregulate autophagy and optimize your lipid metabolism. I think EOD is a better method because it doesn't require you to starve yourself to exhaustion and lets you react to reality better than regular CR.

From what I've seen, humans participate in caloric restriction every single day, a phase of life called sleep. Sleep, from what I understand, occurred when the starvation response was attached to the circadian rhythm, thereby upregulating autophagy/proteolysis each night and breaking down damaged/aggregated proteins. I think sleep is vital to the brain moreso than any other part of the body because neurons are the only cells which cannot be directly replaced (otherwise you lose your memories). This is, again in my opinion, likely why selenium is preferentially moved to the brain during selenium deprivation - selenium participates in enhanced redox control mechanisms.

In order to live in a constantly changing and extremely dangerous universe, I think caloric restriction must be abandoned. We need to figure out how to be healthier overall, not just slow our growth rate down. We live in the real world, not the controlled conditions of a lab.

Thanks @Aaron. In CR, isn't the calories reduced by 10-20 %. What was the reduction in lab animals?

Please keep us posted on anti-aging issues, medicine and stuff :)

I read something on the benefit of CR in Enzo's paper. It was sent to me on another thread.

'Weight loss through caloric restriction (especially of lipids and glucids) appears to be beneficial in reducing GERD symptoms. These remarks as well as the recent experience of our group seem to support the relevance of eating habits and suggest a correction of lifestyle and diet as a primary therapeutic approach for GERD (Gastroesophageal reflux disease)'.

Enzo's paper is very interesting and informative. If you have comments, please post them. Thanks.

http://WJGP.pdf

There are different opinions on calorie restriction diet! Here is a good experience, very informative!

http://martinleadleypt.blogspot.com/2013/01/9-common-fat-loss-mistakes.html

Dear friends: I found one beautiful link, not on CR, but related to health and anti aging. To share with you:

http://www.truthaboutabs.com/foods-that-fight-aging.html

Dear Ljubomir, I stated in my previous comment: "A caloric restriction which does not take into account the nutritional need of a subject may be dangerous for the possibility of a caloric-proteic malnutrition with destruction of muscular protein to balance the lack of proteic assumption and carential conditions due the lack of assumption of vitamins and salts which are necessary for a correct metabolism." This sentence is reflected in a very efficacious way by the image you showed.

Dear Miranda, thank you for the interest in my paper.

As the world population continues to rise, researchers are grappling with the question of what we should eat to stay healthy and save the planet. A 2019 report from a consortium of nutritionists, ecologists and other experts recommended that people adopt a ‘flexitarian’ diet by eating plants on most days and occasionally a small amount of meat or fish. The commission estimates that this diet would save the lives of about 11 million people every year, but others question whether it is practical, affordable and nutritious enough. Scientists are now trying to test environmentally sustainable diets in local contexts, without compromising nutrition or damaging livelihoods...

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03565-5