If you’re one of those guys who are going around bragging and talking about how much they eat and how much calories they need, you’re following shit advice for health and longevity. As a matter of fact, it’s been known that taking in less calorie than what is supplied by the common Standard American Diet (SAD) is the key to good health.
Using results from the Comprehensive Assessment of Long-term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy, Yale researchers recently published a study in Science that shows the benefits of cutting calories on the thymus gland, and immunological and metabolic responses.
The trial involved more than 200 participants where baseline caloric intake was established in the beginning, of which a share of experimental cohort was asked to restrict their caloric intake by 14% and the rest were told to continue to eat as they normally do. The researchers analyzed several factors including MRI of the thymus and T-cell measurement at the beginning of the study then at the 1-year and 2-years time points.
Why? Because the thymus glands is one of the fastest aging organ in the body as by the age of forty, 70% of the thymus has degraded to just nonfunctional fat cells. Which is unfortunate because the thymus is a crucial organ in producing T-cells, an important part of the immune response. Such consequences lend itself to higher risks of developing infections and cancers as we age.
The researchers found that after restricting caloric intake for just two years, subjects had less fat and were more functional than the group that did not restrict their calories. Even more remarkable, in the caloric-restriction cohort, the participants were actually producing more T-cells than at the initial point, pointing out the rejuvenating ability of the thymus gland.
“As people age, their thymuses shrink and produce fewer T cells. As a result, older people have a harder time fighting off infections and certain cancers,” said Eric Ravussin, Ph.D., Associate Executive Director for Clinical Science at Pennington Biomedical Research Center. “Calorie restriction helps prevent the thymus from shrinking so the person generates more T cells.”
Researchers then turned their attention to PLA2G7 gene which plays in important role in inflammation. They found that caloric-restriction down regulated this gene, and thus the age-related inflammation that comes from it.
Getting the proper calories needed is important. However, it is important to know that the amount of calories in SAD is excessive and harmful to human health and societal attitudes and fads about calories is so harmful as well. Excessive intake in calories just to look bigger or more muscular at the expense of healthier life is stupid and irresponsible. While calorie counting is also not a sustainable way to live, we have to be mindful that our culture of food and attitudes towards is getting in our way of better health.
O Spadaro et al. Caloric restriction in humans reveals immunometabolic regulators of health span. Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.abg7292
