The Health Benefits of a Low Calorie Diet

It is only common sense that low calorie diets are beneficial to weight loss and that as a consequence are healthy because obesity is directly linked to many known diseases that have proven to be life threatening. In other words, if we stay within normal healthy weight ranges we are less likely to be prone to such risks as high cholesterol, certain forms of cancer, type 2 diabetes, strokes and a number of other conditions that are directly attributed to obesity. Because of this, you could say that a low calorie diets help to maintain optimum health by promoting a healthy weight range.

There is something really exciting in relation to low calorie diets that has only come to light in recent years. It is by no stretch of the imagination the final word on the subject, but scientists are on the threshold of understanding what it is about low calorie diets that promotes longevity.

Researchers from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified two enzymes that are instrumental in prolonging the lifespan. During studies they found that depriving subjects on a calorie restricted diet of one or the other of those enzymes did not significantly alter the life span.

However, when both enzymes were present the life span was significantly increased. This leads to the theory that those two enzymes need to trigger a receptor that prolongs life. And those two enzymes need to be in conjunction with a low calorie diet. Although there has been no testing in human subjects for obvious reasons, it is promising nonetheless and shows a direct relationship between low calorie diets and longevity.