Eat little, reducing by 20-40% the calories introduced with the diet in a narrow time window. This, according to the experts of the Italian Society of Internal Medicine (Simi), is the true elixir of life.
"At the table you do not grow old", as a popular saying goes, is true only if you eat less: "limiting the intake of food, in fact, makes the cells enter 'protection' mode and this - they observe - allows them to better resist external attacks; At the same time, 'dieting' cells meet their needs through a sort of auto-cannibalism (autophagy) of the aged and poorly functional components. In practice, therefore, calorie restriction activates a sort of 'internal cleaning' (like the one that is periodically done on the computer's hard drive) which, in addition to removing deteriorated and potentially dangerous components, also stimulates cell regeneration".
Calorie restriction, explains Professor Giorgio Sesti, president of Simi, "can be implemented according to different approaches, to be adapted to the needs of the individual and his possibilities".
For none of these approaches, Sesti points out, "there is scientific proof that definitively documents their effectiveness in extending healthy life, because the results of ongoing studies will be observed only in a few decades".
The proposed methods are the selective restriction of 'ultra-refined' foods (white flour, sugar, etc.), associated with increased risk of developing chronic-degenerative diseases and early cognitive decline. Then there is intermittent fasting, currently all the rage for weight loss. In view of anti-aging calorie restriction, an effective approach could be to alternate days of almost fasting, to days in which you eat in normal quantities.
The fasting-mimicking diet consists instead of carrying out every 3-4 months, 5-day cycles of a low-calorie diet, formulated in such a way as to reproduce the metabolic effects of fasting. This would facilitate adherence to dietary prescription. Among the emerging proposals, finally, there is time-restricted eating, which suggests restricting the time window in which you can feed to less than 12 hours, preferably to 8-10 hours, synchronizing it with sunlight (a sort of 'from dawn to dusk'). All at least 5 days a week. "It should be emphasized, however," warns Professor Sesti, "that changing one's diet and body weight can also have opposite effects and negatively affect one's biological age. This is why these approaches must always be adopted on the recommendation of the doctor and monitored by him to have a global view of the risks and benefits".