A 20-year study of monkeys in the US has found that reducing the kilojoule intake slowed the ageing process and increased their lifespan.
The Wisconsin National Primate Research Center monitored 76 rhesus monkeys — 30 since 1989, and 46 since 1994 — to study what cutting their diet by 30 percent would do to them.
Since 1989, almost 40 percent of the monkeys in the regular diet group have died of age-related diseases in comparison to only 13 percent of the kilojoule-cut monkeys.
Other differences between the groups were in the incidence of cancerous tumours and heart disease. The kilojoule-reduced group had less than half that of the monkeys who remained on their regular diet.
Another finding, the researchers announced, was that the kilojoule-reduced group retained more muscle — another element that tends to shrink with age.
Dr David Finkelstein of the National Institute on Aging in America told MSNBC that undertaking a kilojoule cut on your own could do more harm than good if the wrong nutrients are cut out.
The first reports of the effect a kilojoule-cut diet can have was in 1935, when researchers first noticed that a nutritious but kilojoule-reduced diet seemed to be a Fountain of Youth for rodents.
Your say: Do you think this research has implications for humans? Would you be prepared to cut your diet by 30 percent?
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