Can eating a calorie-restricting diet be the answer to most of our health issues? According to some of the recent studies, diets with fewer calories have proven to be beneficial in lowering the risks of heart diseases, hypertension, blood pressure and strokes. Adding more to this, a new study conducted by New York University (NYU) Langone Medical Center in Manhattan explains that low calorie diets can also assist in delaying ageing and age-related disorders such as memory loss.The study was presented at the annual meeting of Society for Neuroscience held in Washington, DC and states that low-calorie diets - specifically low in carbohydrates - may help slowing down ageing by regulating the behaviour of hundreds of genes. It was found that diets low in calories check the activity levels of genes that are associated with ageing and brain functions linked to memory.The team attempted at analyzing the effect of a calorie-reduced diet on about 900 different genes that are linked to the ageing process as well as memory formation in brain. For the study, female mice were fed food pellets that had 30 percent fewer calories than those fed to other mice. These mice were then tested to assess any difference in gene expression over time."Our study shows how calorie restriction practically arrests gene expression levels involved in the aging phenotype - how some genes determine the behaviour of mice, people and other mammals as they get old," said senior study investigator Stephen Ginsberg, Neuroscientist, New York University (NYU) Langone Medical Center in Manhattan."The study does not indicate that calorie restriction can stop the ageing process altogether but it does show that our diet can play a role in delaying the effects of aging and age-related diseases", Ginsberg concludes.Inputs from IANS
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