Researchers have found that changing your yeast diet may lead to healthy aging without calorie restriction. The researchers found that switching the yeast diet from glucose to galactose early on could slow cellular aging and improve overall health, suggesting that dietary adjustments rather than calorie restriction could be more beneficial after a suggested that it could promote longevity and health.
Is it possible to age healthily through diet? Yeast research points the way to ensuring better health in our golden age.
Scientists at the Babraham Institute suggest another connection between diet and aging, based on yeast studies. Dr. John Houseley and his team have published an experiment showing that healthy aging can be achieved through unlimited dietary changes, potentially by optimizing diet, and that ill health is an avoidable part of the aging process. Proved that there is no part.
Scientists have long known that calorie restriction—the intentional intake of far fewer calories than normal without becoming malnourished—may improve health later in life and even extend life. was However, studies in mice have shown that calorie restriction must actually be maintained throughout life to achieve this effect, and the health benefits are lost when a normal diet is resumed. New research conducted by Dr. Houseley with yeast suggests that alternatives to calorie restriction may lead to improved health throughout the life cycle.
A plate of yeast-grown agar is placed under a microscope to allow scientists to observe individual yeast cells.Credit: Babraham Institute
“We show that early childhood diet can switch yeast to a healthier trajectory. , was able to suppress the decline in fitness of aging cells,” said lead investigator of the study, Dr. Drottiya Hokai.
Instead of growing the yeast on a normal glucose-rich diet, the researchers observed that when the diet was switched to galactose, many of the molecular changes normally associated with aging did not occur. Cells grown on galactose remained as healthy as young cells in later life, even though they were no longer alive, and the period of unhealthiness decreased dramatically towards the end of life. is shown.
Researchers select yeast colonies from an agar plate.Credit: Babraham Institute
“Importantly, dietary changes only work when the cells are young, and diet actually has little effect on old yeast. What does youth mean between yeast and humans?” It’s hard to explain why, but all these studies point to the same trend: healthy eating from an early age makes all the difference in living a longer, healthier life,” explains Dr. Houseley. To do.
Yeast are excellent model organisms for studying aging because they share many of the same cellular mechanisms as animals and humans. This research area of yeast will help explore more feasible ways to improve healthy aging through diet compared to continuous and stringent calorie restriction, but further research is needed.
Reference: “Non-caloric restriction dietary modification maintains youthful profile of aging yeast,” Drottya Horkai, hanane Hadj-Moussa, Alex J. Whale, Jonathan Houseley, 29 Aug 2023, Available here. PLOS biology.
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002245
This research was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), part of the Wellcome Trust and UKRI.
