Changing your diet abruptly may harm health, says study
◗ The researchers, including those from the University of Sheffield in the UK, provided new insight into why, as well as how, diets could benefit humans in terms of slowing ageing and the onset of agerelated disease.
London: Switching to a rich diet after eating a restricted one can decrease life expectancy, and have negative health effects, according to a study in fruit flies which says changing diet repeatedly or abruptly may be harmful.
The researchers, including those from the University of Sheffield in the UK, provided new insight into why, as well as how, diets could benefit humans in terms of slowing ageing and the onset of age-related disease.
In the study, published in the journal Science Advances, they fed fruit flies (Drosophilia melanogaster) a restricted diet and then returned them to a rich diet.
The scientists found that these flies were more likely to die, and laid less eggs compared to flies that spent their whole life on a rich diet.
The study authors believe that dietary restriction could be making the flies ill-prepared for rich diets. Until now, they said the existing theory was that dietary restriction — a reduction of particular, or total nutrient intake without causing malnutrition — triggered a survival strategy in humans and animals.
This theory, the scientists said, suggested that humans and animals invested in maintaining and repairing the body in times of low food availability, to await times when food availability increases again.
The findings of the current study, implied that rather than waiting for food availability to increase in the future, the flies were waiting to die on a restricted diet.
Instead of dietary restriction increasing repair and maintenance mechanisms, it could actually be an escape from the damaging effects of a rich diet, they said.