Cut Calories, Improve Memory!
There've been a ton of studies on "calorie restriction" as an anti-aging strategy. Cutting calories- even by 25%- 33%- has been shown to extend life of every life form tested so far, from fruit flies and yeast to monkeys. Now a new study (published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) shows that in addition to extending life, calorie cutting may also improve your memory.
Researchers took 50 men and women ages 50-72 who ranged from normal weight to overweight. One group was told to cut calories by 30 percent, mainly by eating smaller portions. A second group was told to leave their calories the same but change the proportion coming from fat, and a third group was told to make no dietary changes.
After three months, the subjects took tests involving memorizing words.
The calorie-cutting group averaged a respectable 20% improvement in memory performance. (The second and the third group showed no change whatsoever.)
Lead researcher Agnes Floel of the University of Munster in Germany said that the memory improvement might be linked to a decrease in insulin and inflammation in the reduced- calorie group.
Changes in insulin levels have also been postulated as one of the reasons calorie restriction may extend life. One 1992 study investigated people who were both mentally and physically fit and were at least 100 years old. The three factors they all had in common were: high HDL cholesterol, low triglycerides and… wait for it… low levels of fasting insulin!
Dr. Floel also said that lower insulin levels might "increase the sensitivity of receptors" in the brain and improve insulin signaling, allowing memories to be maintained longer. The reduced calorie diet also seemed to improve inflammation, a known robber of brain function and a contributing factor to every major disease.
In my DVD program The 7 Pillars of Longevity I talk about hara hachi bu, a saying in Okinawa inspired by Confucious. Okinawas believe hara hachi bu is one of the secrets to a long healthy life.
Want to know what it means?
"Eat until you are 80% full".
Wise advice, not only if you want to live long, but also if you want to keep your brain sharp and your memory intact!
Labels: anti aging, calories, cholesterol, insulin, longevity, memory, study, triglycerides
Jonny Bowden, PhD, C.N.S. is a nationally known expert on weight loss, nutrition and health and is the author of several best-selling books.
I get confused with these studies. Were any of the people overweight to begin with? How did they lower their caloric intake? By cutting refined carbs? Would the same effect occur for people like me who follow your healthy diet suggestions? I am not sure if the results would be a result of the lower calories or of what food substances were reduced from the diet.
Dr. Bowden, I have read several studies and abstracts claiming the benefits of CR and even intermittent fasting. Is there any evidence that this occurs in healthy, exercising individuals who already consume healthful diets? I run and lift weights most if not all days of the week and I consume more vegetables than a small family. I have tried weekly fasts for the past few months, but they seem to fatigue me and stress me out more than anything else.
actually in this study they just reduced portions.
You make a great point- how relevant the results of any study are going to be to a specific person (say, YOU) depends entirely on what you're already doing. Someone who is ALREADY practicing "hara hachi bu" and eating well to begin with probably wouldn't notice much improvement. When we tell people the huge benefits they'll get from eating less sugar, that probably won't apply as much to someone who's already cut sugar out of their diet (for example)
thanks for your comment! great point
warmly
jb
Austin-
actually a lot of what i said to SalGal also applies here. However, even in healthy people, intermittent fasting (like a day every so often, or even a REDUCED input for a day) may help simply by reducing insulin. We just don't know. My guess is that if you're doing everything else right as you obviously are, the benefits will be less (but there still might be some!)
Understand that we're guessing- only because a study in which food was withheld from rats one day a week may tell us something about what happens in the system in general, but not necessarily what happens in YOUR system when you're already accomplishing a lot of what was accomplished for the rats by withholding food.
Still, i'd say a day or so every season of just juices and broths- a kind of seasonal "detox" to use an overused word- couldn't hurt!
warmly
jb
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