#1

Comparing someone who eat at a caloric deficit, who eats “unhealthy”, with someone at maintenance calories, how much of the value does CR capture or is it even better? Does unprocessed food chow for mice cause a larger lifespan increase than a 10 or 20% CR with processed food but controlled for macronutrients?

#2

There’s no comparison here. What are they eating? What’s the negative?

#3

They are eating “healthy”, that is the comparison.

#4

My belief is that if you are eating unhealthy the CR helps a lot. If you are eating “healthy” CR does not do so much. This is my understanding from a PA interview. My brain is not working well enough to remember his name right now.

Was that the question?

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#5

What are the unhealthy eaters eating? Reduced calories but low protein? High saturated fat? Low vitamins and minerals?

#6

No, the same macro- and microvitamins.

#7

There was a caloric restriction trial on marmosets where one group was fed a healthy diet and caloric restriction. No longevity benefits were found versus the control group.

They then fed another group of marmosets a typical American diet, and caloric restriction provided a large longevity benefit was found versus the control group.

I believe it all comes down to the quality of the diet determining the magnitude of effect from a caloric restrictive diet.

I can’t do calorie restriction, but I can eat healthier.

#8

My question is about an ‘unhealthy’ diet with CR, and with the same macro- and micronutrients, vs. a ‘healthy’ diet, with no CR.

#9

All that the researcher said was that the unhealthy diet mimicked a typical American diet. It was a YouTube video talking about the study. I believe it was with Dr Kaeberlein before the Optispan series.

I remember it so well as it is my primary justification for not doing CR. :wink:

It also mentioned that CR is a U-shaped curve, but that’s common sense. But it does make it more dangerous as you may overshoot and get a longevity detriment.

#10

I don’t understand what you meant, was it that CR + healthy diet had no longevity benefits against control, but American diet + CR was better than control?

#11

Yes. That is what the researcher meant. Each pair of marmosets were given a different diet. One set a healthy diet where CR seemed to have no effect and another pair a typical American diet where CR had a significant effect.

#12

That doesn’t make any sense, then wouldn’t CR+American diet would be better than CR+Healthy?

#13

The comparisons are against a control group with the same diet. The other difference was that the studies were at two different zoos in the USA. The healthy diet used marmosets of a similar age. The unhealthy diet groups were marmosets of varied ages. I wish I could find the study…

My takeaway was to eat a healthy diet and not worry about caloric restriction.

#14

If they compared CR+American diet vs. Healthy then that would answer my question better, however they would still have to make sure the macro and micronutrients are controlled for.

#15

Your question is analogous to whether one can out-exercise a bad diet, just you replace exercise with CR. The answer I think is quite similar, too. There are perhaps five effects that are balanced, such as blood pressure, but three that are not, such as AGE accumulation.

So, the question is too general. If it is a bunch of heavy metals as the unhealthy option, the answer is obvious. People disagree widely on what macronutrient profile is “unhealthy”.