The Secret To A Long Healthy Life

Results of a 20-year long study on monkeys could provide insight to one of the secrets of living a longer, healthy and disease-free life. According to researchers, a reduced calorie diet could be the key. Rhesus monkeys consuming a calorie restricted diet were 3x less likely to die from age-related diseases like heart disease, cancer and diabetes during the 20-year study as compared to monkeys that ate as they liked. Another interesting finding was that the calorie restricted monkeys also had more brain volume in some regions, suggesting diet may also improve brain health in aging as well. Researchers fed the calorie restricted monkeys 1/3 less than what their counterparts were eating at their leisure. Clearly humans are not primates. However, since similar findings have been reported in yeast, worms, flies and rodents, it wouldn't be that much of a stretch to speculate that humans might also benefit from certain calorie restriction. It should be noted that no studies of this nature have been conducted on humans and to restrict calories in this manner could be harmful and is in no way recommended. What we do hope readers take from this new study is the understanding on how going in the other direction, in other words overeating, can have devastating effects on one's health.