Just reducing calories by 12% can help people live longer
New research has shown that just a small change to your diet could make a big impact on your later life.
Cutting your calorie intake by just 12% is enough to boost a person’s energy and rejuvenate muscles, according to a study from the National Institute on Aging (NIH), a division of the US National Institutes of Health, shows the diet stimulates healthy ageing genes allowing us to live longer, healthier lives.
Calorie reduction has long been known to delay the progression of age-related illness in animals but the study, published in the journal Aging Cell, suggests this may also apply to humans.
For the study, scientists used thigh muscle biopsies from participants that were collected when individuals joined the study and at one-year and two-year follow ups. The group of volunteers studied by the NIH set out to cut their calorie intake by 25% across two years but only managed 12%.
But the researchers found even this slight reduction in calories was enough to activate most of the biological pathways that are important in healthy ageing.
Corresponding author and Scientific Director at the National Institute on Aging (NIA) Dr Luigi Ferrucci said: “A 12% reduction in calorie intake is very modest.”
“This kind of small reduction in calorie intake is doable and may make a big difference in your health.”
Previous studies have shown that when on a calories restriction diet people lose an average of 10kg in the first year and managed to maintain that weight for the second year. Also, despite losing significant muscle mass participants maintained all their muscle strength.
