“Penn State researchers are adding new compelling evidence that ties dieting to ageing 👵🏼. Their study looked at telomeres, the genetic 🧬 “end caps” which protect our chromosomes, and how calorie restriction affects them.
Publishing their findings in the journal Aging Cell, the team examined data from a two-year study of caloric restriction in humans, where the researchers found those who restricted their calories lost telomeres at different rates compared to the control group.
Despite this, both groups finished the study with telomeres at nearly the same length. According to previous findings, restricting calories by 20 to 60 per cent promoted longer life among several different animals.🐭🦄
Every time a person’s cells 🧬 divide, some telomeres are lost when chromosomes are copied to a new cell. Then, the overall length of the cell’s telomeres is shortened.
Over time, as cells continue to divide, the cap of telomeres completely goes away. The genetic 🧬 information in the chromosome is then more susceptible to damage, preventing future reproduction or proper function of the cell. This is called cellular senescence.
In other words, cells with longer telomeres work as if they were “younger” than cells with shorter telomeres. So, two people who are the same age could have different biological ages based on telomere length”.
> https://studyfinds.org/cutting-calories-slow-cell-aging/ <
My thoughts? 🤔
So, why does cutting the number of calories that we consume each day increase our longevity and lifespan 👵🏼?
Well, there will be a whole variety of factors which will play into this from age, sex 🙋🏼♂️🙋🏽, type of diet/foods 🥗 and genetics.🧬
Eating less will obviously result in a reduction of your metabolic rate, free radical and 🦠 oxidative stress buildup (damage caused to cells by chemically reactive molecules containing oxygen).
The second area, which I don’t really hear much debate on strangely, is that of the vitamin and minerals per calorie you consume.
In other words, calorie restriction without malnutrition, which will cause a whole host of health issues. As if your balance of vitamins/ minerals to every calorie you consume is low, then key metabolic processes will be affected.
Whereas if you are having nutrient-dense dense 🥗 meals, which are both high in micronutrients at the same time as being low in calories then this can only benefit your health.