In the mid-‘90s it became known to the general public that laboratory animals given a restricted caloric diet were living far longer and healthier lives than their mates in the buffet line. These were lab mice and lower forms of life (worms), but we were forewarned that the results on primates weren’t in—don’t do anything radical yet.

Now the results are in—the monkeys are showing the same health benefits and longevity as the mice when eating about 30 percent fewer calories than a normal diet. Several studies have been published in the past year that report calorie-restricted diets affect molecular pathways in ways than inhibit Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson’s disease, and cancers.

Reduced calories reduces disease
Not only are the various animals living longer, but they’re livelier and have far fewer of the usual diseases associated with aging. Researchers in one study, the New York Times reports, went so far as to propose that calorie restriction may be more effective than exercise in optimizing health.

Of course, research results that point to such dramatic improvements in health send all of us, particularly scientists whose job it is, to find short-cuts to obtaining the benefits without the torture of giving up one of life’s pleasures (maybe two, if decreased sex drive is a consequence of the metabolic rerouting).

Enter the French. It’s long been regarded as a paradox that the French smoke heavily, the cuisine is laden with rich sauces, and desserts are piled high with cream. Yet they suffer far less heart disease than Americans, and obesity is unusual (they’ve only recently noted—or admitted—to any bulging midriffs). The secret to their indulgences without the consequences, it’s been suspected, is another indulgence—all the wonderful wine the French drink!

Isolate an ingredient—create a drug
This month’s edition of Nature reports that a natural substance in red wine, known as resveratrol, has been found to offset the bad effects of a high-calorie diet in mice and significantly extend their lifespan. Researchers at the Harvard Medical School and the National Institute on Aging report that the mice taking very large daily doses of resveratrol grew as rotund as the control group on a high-fat diet, but high levels of glucose and insulin in the bloodstream (signals of diabetes) and an enlarged liver were averted.

Lest you think of stocking the wine cellar (or building one), the dosage the tubby-but-healthy mice took to live a longer life would require a 150-pound individual to drink 1,500 to 3,000 bottles of red wine a day! Obviously, this isn’t the route to longevity.

But as consumers, middle-aged and spreading, we’re forever seeking a silver bullet to longer, healthier lives, especially if we can remain in the buffet line. And scientists are preparing a red-bullet, of sorts. A synthesized form of resveratrol, the antioxidant in red wine, is already being tested in humans, and it may be the first of a new class of anti-aging drugs.

A pill mimicking the effects of calorie restriction might increase human life span to about 112 healthy years, an optimistic projection perhaps. And life extension of Americans has become a national priority. Such a drug, according to a Rand Corporation report, would be a most cost-effective breakthrough in medicine, providing more healthy years at less expense as the population ages.

Dangers of Isolates
The last time I was hopeful for a breakthrough in the pharma industry was the promise to isolate and treat the cause of asthma at the cellular level, a blocker for cysteinyl leukotrienes to reduce inflammation. However, the resulting drug has so many dire side-effects that I wouldn’t even consider pharma’s solution. Taking Chinese herbs daily cleanses the lungs and averts asthmatic symptoms—far cheaper and far, far safer.

Whenever a plant ingredient is isolated from the whole plant, the side-effects are often severe. It’s the whole plant that mollifies the dire effects of an isolated ingredient.

So while the chemists are busy in their labs and calculating $$$, stay away from buffets, walk instead of driving or taking the elevator, and have another glass of wine with dinner– red and organic (no sulfites)! Bon Appetit!
Beverly A. Jensen, Ph.D.
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