EATING LESS IS SECRET OF KEEPING YOUNG AND HEALTHY

EATING less could be the key to staying healthier and living longer, a study suggests.

The potential benefits of moderate food consumption were observed in tests on mice where researchers found those whose intake was slashed by a third were livelier, healthier, lived longer and remained younger than well fed rodents.

Scientists believe this is due to ribosomes, the body’s protein factory, which slow down when there is less to digest, meaning they age less quickly.

Energetic

The discovery came about after US researchers at Brigham Young University in Utah conducted a study on two groups of adolescent mice.

One was given unlimited access to food while the other was restricted to 35 per cent fewer calories.

Professor John Price, who led the study, said: “When you restrict calorie consumption there is almost a linear increase in life span. The calorie-restricted mice are more energetic and suffered fewer diseases. And it’s not just that they’re living longer, but because they’re better at maintaining their bodies, they’re younger for longer, as well.”

Catherine Collins of the British Dietetic Association said: “It’s been known that food, and so calorie, restriction in animals long term appears to aid healthy ageing.

“But we have no experiences in humans – bar the national diet of food rationing during and after the Second World War – which anyone over 75 will have endured.

“Has that helped our pensioners live longer now?

“We don’t really know and studies like this one on mice can’t add to answering that question.”

Meanwhile, where a person carries body fat could be a predictor for Type 2 diabetes, a study suggests. Experts from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in the US found having a genetic predisposition to “abdominal adiposity” – an apple-shaped body – was associated with a higher risk for Type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease.

Sekar Kathiresan, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the MGH Centre for Genomic Medicine, said: “We tested whether genetic predisposition to abdominal adiposity was associated with the risk for type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease. The answer was a firm ‘Yes’.”