Plant-based diet can increase your healthy and youthful life expectancy

 

For some time now, in health science circles, a distinction has been made between the term lifespan , which means life expectancy or longevity, and a term that is derived from it: Healthspan, which would mean healthy life expectancy or quality of life without specifying how many years that is. Furthermore, youthspan refers to the time interval in which an organism remains young, healthy and fully functional.

Science has established that the primary anti-aging and longevity mechanism is caloric restriction.  However, scientists, trainers, influencers and fitness gurus are all looking for ways to help maintain youth and its benefits without causing food deprivation. 

Updated scientific publications are revealing, as we have already noted above, that the way the body stays youthful is by not allowing it to adapt to a routine.  This premise is valid both in nutritional and sporting aspects.

Your health and quality of life begins with how much, when and what goes into your mouth.  In this order of ideas, certain concepts such as fasting, intermittent fasting, plant-based diet and protein or amino acids should be part of your anti-aging protocol, but with strategy, let's see why.

 

Fast

The practice of fasting activates important anti-aging mechanisms such as autophagy, where cells digest waste material within them to carry out cellular renewal and improve their functioning. Consequently, fasting can reduce chronic inflammation and improve blood sugar control, mainly.

The liver is the main storehouse of glucose, which is stored as glycogen. In humans, depending on their level of physical activity, fasting for 12–24 hours usually results in a decrease in serum glucose and depletion of liver glycogen, accompanied by a shift to a metabolic mode in which glycogen, fat-derived ketone bodies, and free fatty acids are used as energy sources.

 

Calorie restriction

According to an article by macromo.org for Insider magazine,

“A Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) study led by Joseph Takahashi and colleagues has shown that caloric restriction (CR) extends life by 10%. The big finding, however, was that the key to longevity is not just cutting calories, but also eating at the right time. Mice that were fed only during the hours when they were most active (nighttime for mice) lived 35% longer. The research results support dietary plans based on eating only at certain times of the day, Takahashi says.”

According to a publication by the National Library of Medicine in the United States, a 15% CR in humans reduces markers or risk factors for a number of age-related diseases, such as diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease, but also causes side effects, including a low or very low body mass index (BMI) when applied chronically. In addition, it may increase susceptibility to certain pathogens, such as influenza virus and intestinal parasites .

 

Protein restriction

The same publication indicates that protein restriction (PR) regardless of caloric intake also extends life in mice and improves the health of young and middle-aged mice and humans, but moderate to severe PR can lead to frailty and/or disease in old mice or in individuals older than 65 years.

In animal products, proteins are coated with inflammatory molecules such as heme iron, heterocyclic amines, endotoxins, AGEs or advanced glycation end products, TMAO or Trimethyl amine N-oxide and NEU5GC or N-Glycolyl neuraminic acid. It also alters the microbiome and bacterial species that promote increased inflammation.

However, severe caloric restriction (CR), in which calories from protein are less than 5% of the total, could also have detrimental effects, including weight loss in younger organisms, as has been shown in mice.

To better understand how the mechanisms of caloric restriction and protein restriction work, we must know that the signaling pathways by which CR and PR prolong lifespan include those activated by growth hormone, insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), and insulin, and involve downstream factors such as phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K), mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1), protein kinase A (PKA), AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1 alpha (PGC-1α), sirtuins, and forkhead transcription factors (FOXOs), which have been shown to regulate or affect aging and longevity.

In fact, chronic protein restriction, without caloric restriction, has been shown to prolong longevity and lifespan . In particular, intermittent fasting and periodic fasting, similarly to chronic caloric restriction, delay the incidence of disease, but also reduce the proportion of animals that develop some type of disease over their lifetime, and in particular cancer. ( study ) ( study )

In this way, both RC and RP can have important effects on nutrient signaling pathways and aging. With these tools, each person can identify which dietary regimen, specific to the stage of life they are experiencing, can be effective in delaying, and even partially reversing, aging and age-related diseases.

 

Is the solution then to eliminate protein from your diet?

Of course not.  According to the aforementioned study , animal protein versus plant protein may influence aging and disease. In fact, a high protein intake in adulthood (up to age 65) is associated with a higher risk of overall mortality and cancer-related death; however, this association is attenuated or eliminated when the highest protein intake comes from plant sources.

 

Plant-based diet vs. animal protein-based diet

A plant-based diet builds new tissue in tendons and muscles; and stimulates the immune system to fight off infections. At almost every level, eating the right foods will speed up your recovery process, whether from a workout, an injury, an illness, or simply from years of feeding your body the wrong foods because the same bio-markers that affect athletes' performance affect the health of a normal person.

On the other hand, several amino acids and other nutrients naturally present in animal protein are of key importance for global health, among other things because they must be considered crucial for the human brain: iron, zinc and vitamin B12, as well as long-chain omega-3 fatty acids. In addition, meat contains a number of other B vitamins, such as thiamine and niacin, which may be limited in micronutrient-poor diets based on unfortified cereal-based foods or those without the addition of other foods to form complete proteins.

Animal protein vs. plant protein: “Which will allow your body to overcome inflammation and recover better, whether from a workout, an injury, an illness, or poor eating habits throughout life , or simply losing excess weight ?”

Perhaps you know better than anyone if you need to lose weight, do a detox, overcome an illness or strengthen your muscles today.

Below you will find the different alternatives that will help you make the decision about which approach to follow.

 

Raw vegan diet

Raw veganism consists of foods that are mostly or entirely raw and unprocessed.

The diet allows for several alternative preparation methods, including juicing, smoothies, dehydrating, soaking, and sprouting.  Like veganism, the raw food diet is typically plant-based, consisting primarily of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds.

This type of diet is useful if you want to enter a period to detoxify your body, or as an adjuvant treatment if you are recovering from an autoimmune disease, for example.

 

The different types of fasting

Calorie restriction (CR): Dietary regimen with a 20-40% reduction in normal daily caloric intake without malnutrition.

Dietary restriction (DR). A diet that involves the restriction of one or more macronutrients. Caloric intake may be normal or restricted.

Fasting mimicking diet (FMD). A diet designed to achieve fasting-like effects on serum levels of IGF-1, IGFBP-1, glucose, and ketone bodies, while providing macro- and micronutrients to minimize the burden and adverse effects of water-only fasting.

Intermittent fasting (IF): Eating pattern in which short periods of fasting (16-48 hours) and periods of eating (8-12 hours) alternate.

Protein restriction (PR): Diet with a reduction in total protein intake or a reduction in specific amino acids.

Periodic fasting (PF). A period of extreme dietary restriction characterized by complete food restriction (water only) or a severely calorie-restricted diet (SRD) for a prolonged duration (more than two days), followed by a non-prolonged ad libitum refeeding period. PF may be repeated, but infrequently.

Time-restricted feeding (TRF): A daily eating pattern in which all nutrient intake occurs within a limited number of hours (typically ≤12 hours).

Prolonged intermittent, non-chronic fasting may benefit heart health, reduce oxidative stress and chronic inflammation, lose excess weight, reduce insulin resistance, prevent cancer, and improve cognitive health,

 

Diet with higher protein intake

Protein consumption is crucial to repair and maintain the health of muscles, bones, skin and hair.

Many proteins are actually enzymes that drive thousands of chemical reactions in the body.  Certain proteins act as intermediaries in communication between cells and organs, or by transporting molecules to the places where they are needed. 

Animal products are considered "complete proteins" because they contain all essential amino acids in the optimal amounts needed by the body. These include eggs, dairy products, meat, fish and poultry.

Plant proteins do not provide adequate amounts of all essential amino acids, but can be combined with other plant sources to obtain complete proteins.

Scientific research shows that high protein intake has effects on your appetite, metabolic rate, weight and body composition. It also helps you increase muscle mass, strengthens your bones, improves healing and can help prevent muscle deterioration due to aging.

 

 

Conclusion

These are the tools you have to achieve your nutritional goals. As you can see, you don't have to enroll in any of these schools, but rather use them cyclically or according to your current needs.  The same applies to physical activity, which we will discuss soon.