Reduced Calorie Intake and Periodic Fasting Independently Contribute to the Benefits of Calorie Restriction

Researchers here make the point that calorie restriction studies in animals are also introducing a strong component of time restricted feeding, as animals tend to be fed once a day. Studies of intermittent fasting without calorie reduction have shown that this can produce a similar set of metabolic responses to a reduced calorie intake. Intermittent fasting and calorie restriction have been shown to improve health and extend healthy life spans via two overlapping sets of mechanisms, as assessed by various omics approaches. Thus the details of the approach to feeding animals any given fixed amount of calories (delivery of food per a day versus the same caloric intake split between several deliveries spaced over the day) will likely bias the results of any study. Rodents are the most popular model to study caloric restriction (CR) in mammals. There are several ways to implement CR to rodents. One common method of food delivery is when a reduced amount of food (about 60%-80% of daily intake) is provided as a single meal once per day, usually, at the same time of the day. This type of CR induces strong food anticipation, and animals usually consume the food in a short (1-3 hr) period of time following a 21-hr period of fasting. Thus, CR is a self-imposed time-restricted (TR) feeding. TR feeding, when an unlimited amount of food is provided for a limited time frame, significantly improves metabolic health of mice on high-fat (HF) or high-sugar diets, and this impro...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs