LESS FOOD MAY MEAN LONGER LIFE.Byline: Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire Laboratory experiments are piling up evidence that, within limits, less food means a longer, healthier life for animals - and probably for humans. Scientists have long known this to be true for low-level organisms, but they are now finding that a restricted diet is also good for primates Primates The mammalian order to which humans belong. Primates are generally arboreal mammals with a geographic distribution largely restricted to the Tropics. , our cousins on the evolutionary tree. ``Hunger may not be a bad thing,'' said George Roth, director of monkey monkey, any of a large and varied group of mammals of the primate order. The term monkey includes all primates that do not belong to the categories human, ape, or prosimian; however, monkeys do have certain common features. studies at the National Institute of Aging. ``There's a proverb proverb, short statement of wisdom or advice that has passed into general use. More homely than aphorisms, proverbs generally refer to common experience and are often expressed in metaphor, alliteration, or rhyme, e.g. : You should push away from the table when you're 80 percent full.'' Although it is too soon to say for sure, Roth speculated that people who cut back their food intake could add 20 to 30 years to their lives. It's not the amount of fat or protein that is important, he said, but the total number of calories consumed. In a discussion on aging at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), private organization devoted to furthering the work of scientists and improving the effectiveness of science in the promotion of human welfare. in Seattle, Roth reported on his work with 200 rhesus and squirrel monkeys squirrel monkey Any of several species (genus Saimiri, family Cebidae) of arboreal New World monkeys, found in groups of up to several hundred during the day in riverside forests of Central and South America. They eat fruit, insects, and small animals. . Half are fed a normal ration ration a fixed allowance of total feed for an animal for one day. Usually specifies the individual ingredients and their amounts and the amounts of the specific nutriments such as carbohydrate, fiber, individual minerals and vitamins. ; half get 30 percent less food. Both sets receive the same amount of vitamins and minerals. The hungrier monkeys show many beneficial effects, Roth said. Their weight and temperature are lower. They are more active than their well-fed playmates. They are less susceptible to disease. Since monkeys normally live 30 to 40 years, it is too soon to measure the effect of lower food intake on their life span, Roth said. But biological ``markers,'' such as a certain chemical compound in the skin, indicate that they are aging more slowly. |
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