Could Calorie Restriction and Fat-Loss Actually Be Worse for Your Health?

United States Department of Agriculture

Well, according to researchers from UT Health Science Center San Antonio’s Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies and the University of Colorado, they answer this question with a definitive maybe.

Normally animal studies are performed on a singular, relatively homogenous species.  It is this reason why we might observe incredible scientific findings in one lab, but another lab performing a similar experiment observes something completely different.

The reasons for this is that generalizations do not work in biology and they definitely do not work for human health.  Everyone is different and reacts to thing differently, whether it is a diet or medication.  Take my wife and I for example, she likes Allegra for her allergies, but it makes my heart race uncontrollably.  The opposite is true with Claratin, it works for me, but makes her heart race.

These researchers, looking at fat and dietary restriction of over 41 genetically different mouse strains, found an interesting effect, when fat-loss was combined with calorie restriction, the lifespan was significantly decreased.

While this may seem surprising, especially living in a society that is completely obsessed with ridiculous health fads like eggs are bad, fat is bad, sugar is bad, let's only eat grapefruit, let's drink nothing but lemonade, maple syrup and cayenne pepper, lets only eat protein, but fat is a necessary part of our diet.  True you don't want to overdo it, but it is a necessity.

The reasoning that the scientists gave was that the mice with less fat, simply did not have enough energy reserves to survive the calorie restrictive diet.  There research also shows, as I mentioned above, nothing will work for every person, and life is about the spice of variety.

Mouse study turns fat-loss/longevity link on its head