The word “calorie” comes from the Latin root “calor”, meaning hot and that’s what a calorie is: a unit of heat. More calories mean more heat, and therein lies the rationale for the anti-aging benefits of eating less food and going low-cal. The human body is a machine. Like any machine, like your computer’s hard drive or your car’s engine, it runs best when it runs cool.
Not only does calorie restriction lower heat, but ingesting less food also reduces the work the digestive system has to do to conserve nutrients for growth and repair. Because digestion of even quality foods produces free radical toxins that accelerate aging, less food can reduce the overall toxicity that the body has to deal with. Calories also induce inflammation.
So, if you’re dealing with a chronic disease, arthritis, autoimmune issues or skin problems, dropping calories can help improve symptoms and promote healing. Calorie restriction has even been shown to lower the risks of cancer and improve the benefits and side effects of chemotherapy. All these reasons are why in the book “Blue Zones”, author Dan Buettner found that in places around the world with the happiest and the healthiest older folks, Okinawa Japan, Loma Linda California and Sardinia Italy, less food means living longer.
