Calorie restriction theory - disproved!

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I knew there must have been something dodgy about Calorie Restriction theory!  It turns out they badly messed up the original  2009 Wisconsin study by overloading monkeys with sugar!  Not surprizingly - the less of that feed the monkeys ate the better they did!  Gross incompetence! Too bad for those who believed in that theory! Too late for Dr. Roy Walford and probably for many many others like him!

Rhesus macaque (wiki)

In contrast to that, the new just published study in "Nature" used a healthier diet over 25 years. The result was that the calorie restricted monkeys had more disease, by about 40% more (see the graph below)  than the control group!

Calorie restriction falters in the long run.
Genetics and healthy diets matter more for longevity.

Quotes [green comments inserted by me]:

The verdict, from a 25-year study [NIA study] in rhesus monkeys fed 30% less than control animals, represents another setback for the notion that a simple, diet-triggered switch can slow ageing. Instead, the findings, published this week in Nature[1], suggest that genetics and dietary composition matter more for longevity than a simple calorie count.
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One reason for that difference could be that the WNPRC [an older study that supposedly  "proved" less calories = live longer] monkeys were fed an unhealthy diet, which made the calorie-restricted monkeys seem healthier by comparison simply because they ate less of it. The WNPRC monkeys’ diets contained 28.5% sucrose, compared with 3.9% sucrose at the NIA. Meanwhile, the NIA meals included fish oil and antioxidants, whereas the WNPRC meals did not. Rick Weindruch, a gerontologist at the WNPRC who led the study, admits: "Overall, our diet was probably not as healthy."
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Observational studies have found that people of average weight tend to live longest[3]. Nir Barzilai, a gerontologist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, says that the centenarians he studies have led him to believe that genetics is more important than diet and lifestyle. "They’re a chubby bunch," he says.

Fig 3. Incidence and estimated proportions of three major age-related diseases.
 Red=Caloric Restriction Group [more disease], Blue=Control Group[less disease]

Another article:

Severe Diet Doesn’t Prolong Life, at Least in Monkeys, by Gina Kolata

Low-energy diets render motor neurons vulnerable to degeneration

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This paper is a bit old but I am posting it to keep it in focus for a discussion.   Please notice that low fat vegan diets often tend to be "low energy"!

Mattson MP, Cutler RG, Camandola S. Energy intake and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Neuromolecular Med. 2007;9(1):17-20

Abstract

Roy Walford, a physician and scientist who pioneered research on the anti-aging effects of caloric restriction and subjected himself to a low-energy diet, recently died from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Information from his case, epidemiological findings, and recent controlled studies in mouse models of ALS suggest that low-energy diets might render motor neurons vulnerable to degeneration, whereas high-energy diets are ameliorative. This contrasts with the effects of low-energy diets on various neuronal populations in the brain that respond adaptively, activating pathways that promote plasticity and resistance to disease. One reason that motor neurons might be selectively vulnerable to low-energy diets is that they are unable to engage neuroprotective responses to energetic stress response involving the protein chaperones, such as, heat-shock protein-70 [*].


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*) In addition to that, ketone bodies (often very low on low-energy diets) would have been protective against neural damage caused by the stress response, see:
Ketone bodies protect neurons from stress hormone-induced damage

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This video  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-PzhyTlODc illustrates what kind of diet did Dr. Walford followed for about 10 years before his death (see around 7m into video).