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Thursday, May 23, 2019

How Carbohydrates and Not Protein Promote Aging

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Interesting article:

How Carbohydrates and Not Protein Promote Aging

4 comments :

Gyan said...

Protein restriction, to my mind, means a diet that is not more than say 15 percent protein.
This ketogenic diets ARE protein restricted.
If it is shown that a 25-30 percent protein diet is not detrimental to longevity than it would be something
I did happen to read recently that calorie restriction does not work in humans as it worked in simpler organisms

John said...

The conclusion that protein restriction retards aging is pretty shallow in my opinion. There is quite a bit of counter evidence, or at least evidence that implies more complexity. One, methionine restriction alone works quite well: metabolic rate is increased; fat oxidation is increased; longevity is increased (tryptophan restriction I've seen also has some reduced aging markers, though maybe not increased longevity itself). Two, not all protein restriction studies have the same results. I've even seen calorie restriction with *high* protein (maybe 35% of calories if I remember correctly) in rats leading to several reduced markers of aging, better muscle mass, lower fat mass, better grip strength...lifespan wasn't measured though. Three, protein restriction can lead to other health issues even if maximum potential longevity is increased, like reduced immunity, muscle mass, and general "virility."

To be fair, I think the results on glucose restriction are also mixed. For example, there are plenty of negative outcomes (no life extension) from glucose restriction. However, there could easily be problems with the diets, and the theoretical arguments/overall evidence supporting glucose restriction is much stronger. It seems like the most important factors revolve around insulin, unsaturated fats, iron--probably interrelated too.

Just a personal, "unscientific" observation: I've read several examples of long-living groups or individuals having dairy-based diets. It's an easy way to achieve complete nutrition with pretty low carbohydrate, pufa, iron intake. Of course most of those articles somehow spin it into a politically correct low meat, high vegetable diet, even though dairy is obviously rich in saturated fat.

Stan Bleszynski said...

There is a shortage of research into longevity versus diet type. Perhaps there is not enough incentives for the medical scientists to get be curious enough. There are some partial studies on long lived communities. for example Okinawa - high pork consumption and frying everything in pork fat, pastoral communities in the mountainous regions of the world. Or a percentage of vegetarians among centenarians is rather small (about 0.5%) much smaller than the general average (about 5%). Calories restriction may work but it is hard to separate the effect of caloric restriction from the effect of carbohydrate restriction, since if you lower calories then you lower consumption of everything including carbohydrates, usually. The last study on CR on monkeys did not show positive results because they feed the poor animals an absolutely attrocious artificially concocted monkey chow feed, rather than a real food. In addition, the "scientist" have not yet fully discovered that the primate monkeys are all omnivores not herbivores and _must_ eat some (usually a small) amount of animal meat, to remail healthy, which they often catch in form of small reptiles, insects etc.

John said...

Yes, it's such a shame that the research is clearly lacking. I would guess Okinawan pork is different than American/industrial by being lower in pufa (and higher in most micros), since animals have been increasing pufa content for about 100 years now. Grassfedtraditions uses coconut pulp feed for chickens and pigs I think, but they won't ship to California any more.

I actually think my health improved quite a bit from removing pork products like cured meats and also eggs, which I often had for breakfast out. Maybe if I bought and made my own eggs from a better source, it'd be okay. When I tested my blood fatty acids, my arachidonic was above normal. I do a lot of weightlifting and dance, and when my breakfast is consistently dairy-based or fish cooked in coconut oil, I felt so much better (for other meals something similar or beef or whatever).

One trait that you almost always see in animals that live exceptionally long is higher fatty acid oxidation at rest, along with robust mitochondria. If nothing else, that is pretty supportive of glucose/carb restriction.