LOWER CALORIES = LONGER LIFE

Some will see this and say, this is news? Well, it is on this blog, where I've largely ignored the preliminary tests, because they only showed that lifespan could be increased in organism such as mice and fruit flies. But the longer-life phenomenon has now been confirmed in humans: A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found "profound and sustained beneficial effects" in 18 people from the United States and Canada who had been eating very low calorie diets for three to 15 years. Those on low-calorie diets had much lower levels of "bad" cholesterol, much higher levels of "good" cholesterol, lower levels of triglycerides and very low blood pressure. Tests of their arteries showed they looked more like those of children than middle-age adults. In addition, their blood sugar levels were very low and their body's response to insulin was extremely high, indicating they were at very low risk for diabetes. So what's this got to do with meat vs. vegetables? Well, if you're going to go lo-cal, you still need vital nutrients, so you want to get the best nutritional bang for your calorie buck. And guess what that means.