Dieting won't add many years to life

Scientists have found severely cutting calories for decades may add a few years to a human life span, but won't enable humans to live to 125 years or more.

Evolutionary biologists at the University of California said suffering years of misery to remain super-skinny is not going to have a big payoff in terms of a longer life.

UCLA biologist John Phelan said mice will live longer if their caloric intake is reduced by 10 percent, compared with mice that have unlimited access to food.

"If you restrict their intake by 20 percent, they live even longer, and restrict them to 50 percent, they live longer still. But restrict their intake by 60 percent and they starve to death," Phelan said.

"Humans, in contrast, will not have rodent-like results from dramatically restricting calories," he said. "Caloric restriction is not a panacea. While caloric restriction is likely to be almost universal in its beneficial effects on longevity, the benefit to humans is going to be small, even if humans restrict their caloric intake substantially and over long periods of time."

The study is detailed in the August issue of the peer-reviewed journal Ageing Research Reviews.

Copyright 2005 by United Press International