Calorie Restriction Diets

Calorie Restriction Diets

Calorie restriction diets continue to be controversial.  An article in Cell Metabolism showed that during extreme calorie restriction, the levels of fatty acids begin to rapidly rise in the blood as the body begins breaking down stored fat for energy.  These newly released fatty acids from the fat cells can then enter into the brain (the hypothalamus to be exact) and cause the self-digestion of cells in the hunger neurons.  This self-digestion of the cells in the hunger neurons produces a rise in the very powerful hunger hormone (AgRP) from the same bundle of neurons. Not surprisingly, the urge to eat becomes almost overpowering.  This begins to explain why very low calorie diets can cause rapid weight loss, but are rarely successful in keeping the weight off.

Alternatively, there have been multiple clinical studies that show animals (monkeys, mice, fruit flies, roundworm) fed a calorie restricted diet versus a regular diet have up to a 40% longer lifespan as well as visibly younger physical features and less “diseases of age”.  These studies have concluded that the practice has been shown to switch biochemical pathways on or off, resulting in higher insulin sensitivity, decreased inflammation, enhanced cardiovascular functioning, reduced muscle-wasting with age and improved resistance to cellular stress.  There have also been studies that contradict this information, so as with most diets, calorie restriction diets appear to have pros and cons.