Eat Like a King and Die Young or Eat Like a Pauper to Live Long

What do rats, monkeys, and humans have in common?

It turns out that all three groups live longer when they eat less. For instance, studies show that lab rats live 10-33% longer when fed low-calorie diets, and tend to suffer from fewer late-life disease. Ditto with monkeys, who have fewer problems with glucose and insulin balance when on a low-calorie diet. The same goes for people.

In fact, studies show low-calorie diets that are rich in vitamins, minerals, proteins, and essential fatty acids can postpone a variety of diseases associated with aging, such as cancer, immune system impairment, and gastro-intestinal problems.

The moral of the story is:

Eat like a king if you want to die young or eat like a pauper on healthy low-calorie diet to live long.

How to Eat Like a Pauper to Slow Aging
Eating like a pauper means more than just eating fewer calories. Having a low-calorie diet is important, but at the same time, to slow the signs of aging, you body needs access to a rich array of vitamins, minerals, trace minerals, and essential fatty acids. You need these nutrients because while decreasing your caloric intake puts less pressure on your body and slows the process of aging, you still need these essential nutrients to prevent aging caused by the stresses of living a modern life.

One of the areas of the body most damaged by the stress and toxicity of modern living is the mitochondria that live in every single cell in your body. In case it's been a long time since you sat in your high school biology class, the mitochondria is the part of the cell that generates the fuel for our cells.

When the mitochondria in cells become damaged by free radicals, our bodies suffer because the mitochondria are producing less energy. In addition, as cells try to repair the mitochondria that have been damaged, they use up even more energy. This process means that we have less and less fuel for our bodies everyday, and so we eventually wind down like a tired clock. This is the process of aging.

The good news is that we can add supplements to our diet to protect our cellular mitochondria from free radical damage. Antioxidants and foods rich in the nucleic acids necessary to repair mitochondria can help a great deal. Supplements rich in these substances include highly-concentrated wheat sprouts, blue-green algae, and coenzyme Q10.

These substances help protect the cellular mitochondria from breaking down as we age, and thus slow the process of aging. Combined with a low-calorie diet, these substances can definitely help you live a longer and healthier life.

If you are not sure what constitutes a low-calorie diet, consult a physician to discover the right caloric intake for your height and weight. The National Weight Control Registry, a group of 4,000 women who lost 30 pounds and kept it off for more than a year, ate an average of 1,400 calories a day. This might be a handy guideline for a low-calorie yardstick, especially if you need to lose weight. As always, though, a healthcare professional can give you an individual assessment to suit your needs.

So what do you think? Is it more prosperous to eat like a king or a pauper? I'm going the pauper route, personally!

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