Consuming Less Calories: Key to Longer Life

Wallstreet Journal reported on June 3rd that the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) finished its 15-year experiment of decreasing calories on monkeys and would start conducting the same experiment on a human body. MIT`s biologist Renard said, "We have found that all animals with less calories lived longer and it would be the same for a human." The journal reported that NIH attracted hundreds of volunteers for the experiment. Volunteers would have to eat only designated food and have two meals at an experiment restaurant a day. They will take 20 to 30 percent lower calories than usual. And researchers will record their body metabolism, blood-sugar level and body temperature. NIH will pour some 20 million dollars (some 25 billion won) in this experiment which will be continued for the next three years.

The volunteers will suffer a lot from decreased amount of meals. NIH compared a group which consumed 30 percent lower calories with a regular group. A woman volunteer will have to eat only 1120 kcal and a man volunteer 1540 kcal. A Mcdonalds hamburger, potato chips and a cup of coke already have 1450 kcal. But they will be compensated for the hunger. A monkey group that took in low calories for the past 15 years showed a low possibility (14 percent) to have such aging-related diseases as a cancer, heart disease, diabetes and kidney disease, compared to 32 percent of a regular group. The former`s mortality rate also stood at only 14 percent, much less than 22 percent of the latter. Among the former group, a monkey named C58 celebrated its 38 year birthday in January. This means a human can live to 114 years, considering a monkey`s average life span is only 25 years. In an experiment against mouses, a 30 percent less calories resulted in 30 percent increased life span, which means

50 more years for a human being.

Residents in Okinawa, one of Japan`s islands, also showed the same results. Some 34 out of 100,000 residents are over 100 years old, which is three times higher than an American average life span. They ate only 1800 kcal a day. But, we should not rush to the conclusion because some of the groups voluntarily having low-calorie meals get easily angry with decreased sexual desire and an osteoporosis symptom. There is no official theory yet confirming the connection between low-calorie meals and longevity. It might be thanks to declined potential toxicity coming out in a digestion process or minimized body operation for a survival or low body temperature.

Eun-Taek Hong euntack@donga.com