New research from the University of Sheffield has found that switching to a rich diet after following a restricted diet can reduce life expectancy and have adverse health effects.
It has long been known that limiting food intake can extend lifespan, however researchers have now provided new insight into why diets could benefit humans in terms of slowing aging and onset. of age-related diseases.
Experts from the Healthy Lifespan Institute of the University of Sheffield and Brown University in the United States tested the current evolutionary theory that dietary restriction – a reduction in particular or total nutritional intake without causing malnutrition – initiates a strategy of survival in humans and animals. The theory suggests that this is due to the fact that humans and animals invest in maintaining and repairing the body in times of poor food availability, pending moments when food availability increases again.
However, the new findings have challenged this theory. Fruit flies (Drosophilia melanogaster) fed a restricted diet which were then brought back to a rich diet were more likely to die and laid fewer eggs than the flies who spent their life on a rich diet. This shows that instead of waiting for food availability to increase in the future, the flies were essentially waiting to die on a limited diet.
The researchers suggest that instead of limiting the diet by increasing the repair and maintenance mechanisms, it could actually be an escape from the harmful effects of a rich diet. This new interpretation can help us understand why and how diet can have such profound effects on health.
The results also suggest that changing your diet repeatedly or abruptly could be harmful to your health in certain situations.
Ph.D. student Andrew McCracken, of the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences of the University of Sheffield, who led the study, said: “Dietary restriction is an unusual paradox that has attracted great interest in the field of aging. Our results have now directed us towards a more refined explanation of why it occurs and have the potential to completely shift the focus of future research.
“Our most surprising finding was that under certain circumstances, limited diets may also be the origin of particular types of harm to the individual. This better understanding of the sanctions and benefits of certain types of diets will accelerate the search to identify pharmaceutical interventions that mimic dietary restrictions. “
Dr. Mirre Simons, of the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences of the University of Sheffield, said:
The health effects of the diet are enormous, but we understand little about the exact mechanisms. Our work has now discovered a surprising dietary restriction property, as it makes flies poorly prepared for rich diets. This was contrary to our expectations and contrary to current evolutionary theory. In the biology of the aging field, evolutionary biology has been very influential in guiding the interpretation of more mechanistic research. Our work therefore contributes to a wider understanding of dietary restriction and efforts to translate its benefits for humans. “
The research was funded by the National Environment Research Council (NERC), Wellcome, the American Federation of Aging Research and the National Institute on Aging.
The work is part of research by the Healthy Lifespan Institute of the University of Sheffield. The Institute brings together 120 world-class researchers from a wide range of disciplines with the aim of slowing down the aging process and addressing the global multimorbidity epidemic – the presence of two or more chronic conditions – in an attempt to help everyone live healthier, independent lives longer and reduce treatment costs.
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