Eat until you are 70% full: In addition to helping you lose weight, it is also a secret to anti-aging

After returning from the Spring Festival holiday, I believe many people have gained three pounds during the holidays, so weight management should be put on the agenda now.

The main source of energy for the human body is carbohydrates, which we call "calories"; vitamins, minerals, etc. are called "nutrition"; proteins and fats, which not only provide energy, but are also components of cells, are both nutrients and calories. Under the premise of ensuring nutrition, controlling calorie intake is academically called "calorie restriction." Knowing this, we can scientifically and reasonably control our weight.

The scientific basis for "eating until 70% full" has been found

Why do you say that? Recently, two articles published in Nature magazine by the team of Lin Shengcai, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a professor at Xiamen University, revealed the tip of the iceberg. They used heat inactivation to exclude the role of protein, and then started from the serum of calorie-restricted mice. After metabolomics identification and subsequent one-by-one investigation, they finally found the calorie restriction mimic - lithocholic acid, and verified the role of lithocholic acid in delaying aging and prolonging life in nematodes, fruit flies and mice.

This is the scientific basis for the saying "If you want to live to old age, eat until you are 70% full". The "70% full" here refers to a method widely recognized in the field of aging research to prolong life and delay aging, which is the calorie restriction mentioned above. Specifically, we can understand it as a diet that reduces food intake to about 70% of the original amount without causing nutritional deficiencies.

The power of calorie restriction is that it is the only anti-aging approach that has been observed in all experimental animals studied so far, including nematodes, fruit flies, mice and primates.

In recent years, researchers have also observed in retrospective and experimental studies on the population that calorie restriction can improve symptoms such as obesity, insulin resistance, muscle degeneration, and dyslipidemia without affecting the quality of life of the subjects.

Whether lithocholic acid is truly edible has yet to be clinically verified

However, despite the widespread benefits of calorie restriction, this long-term dietary control method is difficult to promote among the population, especially among the elderly who really need to extend their lifespan. Restricted diet may also cause malnutrition and muscle atrophy.

Therefore, the goal pursued by scientists is to explore the "good side" of calorie restriction in anti-aging, that is, its specific mechanism of delaying aging, and to simulate calorie restriction on this basis, so that people can achieve the effect of prolonging their life without controlling their diet.

At present, there are a large number of drugs that can simulate calorie restriction, such as metformin, resveratrol and rapamycin. Their common feature is that they target key proteins and pathways downstream of calorie restriction to achieve anti-aging purposes.

However, what changes occur in the body during actual calorie restriction, what signals these changes generate, and how they are transmitted to the above-mentioned pathways and exert anti-aging effects have not yet been fully explained.

The research conducted by Academician Lin Shengcai's team analyzed the specific anti-aging mechanism of lithocholic acid. This discovery fills the gap in how the body perceives the metabolic signals caused by calorie restriction and plays an anti-aging role.

Next, as a new edible longevity drug, lithocholic acid needs to undergo further clinical verification; analyzing the mechanism of lithocholic acid in extending life span to provide targets for the development of new longevity drugs.

It may sound unfriendly to foodies, but the secret to long-term youth and health is ultimately calorie restriction. It is the most effective and easiest way to delay aging so far. Finally, I would like to remind everyone that although cholic acid can simulate calorie restriction, do not buy cholic acid for consumption easily. After all, there is still a long way to go from original discovery to clinical use (determining the dosage form and dosage for human use).

(The author Ren Shengquan is a third-level health manager and academic secretary of the Anhui Science Writers Association)