New research suggests that seniors may be able to keep mentally sharp for longer if they eat a low-calorie diet. Professor Christiaan Leeuwenburgh and colleagues at the University of Florida found that rats fed diets containing 40% less-than-normal calories produced twice the normal amount of a protein thought to protect brain cells from being destroyed. Results showed that levels of a protein called cytochrome c, which plays a role in killing cells that have become damaged, increased with age in rats fed a normal diet. However, in the calorie-restricted rats cytochrome c levels remained stable. Furthermore, levels of another protein called ARC, which prevents the release of cytochrome c, in the calorie-restricted rats were twice as high in those fed a normal diet. Leeuwenburgh also found evidence suggesting that brain cell death was at a higher level in the rats with a normal diet.
SOURCE/REFERENCE: FASEB 2003; 17:494-496.
