DIETARY RESTRICTION

Dietary restriction (DR) slows the rate of actuarial aging of rats and mice and in addition retards and/or delays many phenotypic characteristics of aging such as the age-associated deterioration of physiological systems and the occurrence and progression of age-associated disease. These antiaging actions result from a reduction of energy intake by the animal but are not due to a decrease in metabolic rate per unit of lean body mass. However, there is evidence that altered characteristics of fuel use (but not the intensity of fuel use) may underlie the antiaging action of DR. There is also evidence that DR has a general protective action in regard to damage caused by acute stressors; possibly a similar protective action in regard to damage caused by prolonged, low intensity aging processes plays a major role in the antiaging action of DR.