Starve while young

Reducing the amount of food helps animals and people improve their health in old age and can prolong life. But when exactly do you need to change your diet to achieve this goal?

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the Biology of Aging, the University of Cologne, the Babraham Institute in Cambridge and the University of California have shown that mice become healthier only if they begin to reduce the amount of food at an early stage of life, before they reach the age of aging. Scientists have concluded that healthy eating behavior should be established at earlier stages of life in order to improve health in old age and increase life expectancy.

Reducing food intake in old age does not have a positive effect

In an experiment on mice, young and old animals were put on a diet with a limited amount of food consumed. Mice lived longer and were healthier in old age if, after reaching adulthood, they were given 40% less food than animals who were allowed to eat as much as they want. The mice received food enriched with vitamins and minerals to compensate for malnutrition.

The restriction of food to which the old mice were subjected did not lead to a change in life expectancy. In addition, when mice on a special diet were allowed to eat as much as they want, their life expectancy also did not change. Thus, the reduction in food intake should begin at an early age and persist until the end of life in order to have a positive effect on health in old age.

Memory effect in adipose tissue

But why don't old mice react to a change in diet? The researchers evaluated the activity of genes in various organs. While the genes in the liver cells of old mice quickly adapted to changing the diet and reducing the amount of food, the so-called "memory effect" was observed in adipose tissue. Although the mice lost weight, the activity of genes in adipose tissue was the same as in mice that continued to eat as much as they wanted. In addition, the composition of fat in old mice does not change as much as in young mice. This memory effect mainly affects mitochondria, the energy centers of cells that play an important role in the aging process. Usually, a decrease in food intake leads to an increase in the formation of mitochondria in adipose tissue. But the study showed that this did not apply to older mice who were switched to a low-calorie diet. The inability to change at the genetic and metabolic levels could contribute to a reduction in the life expectancy of animals.

Combining data on lipid metabolism and gene expression in mice of different ages and diets made it possible to clearly demonstrate the importance of food memory for healthy aging.

Article by O. Hahn et al. A nutritional memory effect counters benefits of dietary restriction in old mice published in the journal Nature Metabolism.

Aminat Adzhieva, portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of Max Planck Gesellschaft: Health in old age is a lifelong affair.