In order to slow down aging, only the feeling of hunger may be enough without its real onset. Reported by the University of Michigan.
Scientists have long noticed that hunger is somehow associated with slowing aging. However, scientists aren’t clear on what exactly matters: a lack of calories, certain substances, or the subjective sensation itself. Some studies have shown that even the taste and smell of food can reverse the beneficial effects of fasting.
In this context, Christy Weaver and her colleagues set out to find out whether changes in the brain that lead to foraging could be the cause of the increase in life expectancy. To do this, they caused starvation in flies in various ways. In the first, the authors varied the amount of branched-chain amino acids, or BCAAs, in a test diet and then allowed the flies to freely feed on yeast or sugary foods. Flies fed a low BCAA snack consumed more yeast than sugar compared to flies fed a high BCAA diet. This yeast preference for sugar is an indicator of hunger.
The authors note that this behavior is not related to the calorie content of the low BCAA diet, in fact, these flies consume more food and more calories. When the flies were fed a low BCAA diet throughout their lives, they lived significantly longer than the flies fed a high BCAA diet, regardless of calorie content.
The scientists then directly acted on the flies’ brains, activating neurons associated with hunger. For this, these neurons were made sensitive to light by genetic methods. As a result, these flies consumed twice as much food than insects that were not exposed to light. However, insects that experienced a false sense of hunger also lived significantly longer than the control group.
The authors caution that their findings are preliminary and should not be used by nutritionists to inform nutritional prescriptions.
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