It is Never Too Late to Improve Health by Reducing Calorie Intake

In this study, researchers looked specifically at male flies. Young flies switched from a high calorie to a low-calorie diet at 20 days old lived very long lives, similar to the flies fed a low-calorie diet from day one. What surprised the researchers was that switching the flies' diet to a low calorie one remained a reliable way to extend lifespan even for old flies in ill health. The older insects raised on the high calorie diet had more lipids in their bodies, and they expended more energy defending their bodies from reactive oxygen species. They also had a higher death rate than flies raised on the low-calorie diet. But when the surviving high calorie flies were switched to a low-calorie diet at 50 or even 60 days (when most of the high calorie flies had already died) their metabolisms changed, their death rate plummeted, and their lifespans lengthened. The team's results show that flies' metabolisms can adapt to a change in diet even in old age. Since many basic metabolic pathways in fruit flies are shared with humans, this study suggests that human metabolism may respond the same way, and individuals eating a high calorie diet could benefit from reducing their calorie intake at old age. The researchers are currently analyzing data from female fruit flies to see if there are any sex-related differences in response to diet shifting. Link: https://today.uconn.edu/2023/12/fat-flies-live-longer-on-a-diet-at-any-age/
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs