Proteins, Not Calories, the 'Key' to Longevity

According to new study on fruit flies, a diet of the right mix of proteins may be more important than reducing calories for a long and healthy life.

According to researchers, the study could help explain why 'dietary restriction' (also known as calorie restriction) - reducing food intake whilst maintaining sufficient quantities of vitamins, minerals and other important nutrients - appears to have health benefits.

Health Benefits of Fish
Fish is one of the staple food of coastal inhabitants. Nutrition in fish includes protein, calcium and omega-3 fatty acids. Fish is considered to be beneficial for heart and brain.

In many organisms, such as the fruit fly (drosophila), mice, rats, and the Rhesus monkey, these benefits include living longer.

Previous studies have shown that dietary restriction can have health benefits for humans, too, though it is unclear whether it can increase longevity.

However, dietary restriction can have potentially negative side effects - diminished fertility.

Bacteria Stimulated to Produce Useful Proteins
The bacterium Caulobacter crescentus has been turned into a protein production factory by Wresearchers at the University of British Columbia.

For example, the female fruit fly reproduces less frequently on a low calorie diet and its litter size is reduced, though its reproductive span lasts longer.

To understand whether the health benefits of dietary restriction stem from a reduction in specific nutrients or in calorie intake in general, researchers at the Institute of Healthy Ageing, UCL (University College London), measured the effects of manipulating the diet of female fruit flies.

New Technology Reveals Proteins Responsible for Diseases
A new technology is revealing biochemical processes responsible for diseases such as cystic fibrosis and could one day pave the way for pharmaceutical applications

The fruit flies were fed a diet of yeast, sugar and water, but with differing amounts of key nutrients, such as vitamins, lipids and amino acids.

Amino acids are the building blocks of life as they form the basis of proteins. Methionine is one of the most important amino acids at it is essential to the formation of all proteins.

US Professors Develop Fusion Protein to Fight Cancer
Two Oklahoma University professors say they have successfully developed a cancer-fighting protein that could target cancer cells, leaving healthy cells intact.

The researchers found that varying the amount of amino acids in the mixture affected lifespan and fertility; varying the amount of the other nutrients had little or no effect.

In fact, when the researchers studied the effect further, they found that levels of a particular amino acid known as methionine were crucial to maximising lifespan without decreasing fertility.

Adding methionine to a low calorie diet boosted fertility without reducing lifespan; likewise, reducing methionine content in a high calorie diet prolonged lifespan.

"By carefully manipulating the balance of amino acids in the diet, we have been able to maximise both lifespan and fertility," said Dr Matthew Piper, one of the study's authors.

The results of the study are published today in the journal Nature.

Source-ANI
TRI

Proteins, Not Calories, the 'key' to Longevity