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If a 20-year study on rhesus monkeys is any indication, a long-term low-calorie diet could be the key to a longer, healthier life.

Half the rhesus monkeys in the study were fed a regular nutritious diet and the other half were fed a diet that was 30% less in calories (but contained all the nutrition they needed). So far, 37% of the monkeys fed the regular diet have died of age-related disease in comparison to only 13% of the low-calorie monkeys. That's a substantial difference.

But it's not the only one. Monkeys on the low-cal diet had less than half the cancerous tumors and heart disease of the regular diet monkeys, less age-related brain shrinkage and less loss of muscle mass.


"All these pieces put together provide rather convincing evidence in our view that caloric restriction can slow the aging process in a primate species," said lead researcher Dr. Richard Weindruch, a University of Wisconsin professor heading the NIA-funded study.

Researchers say that if you cut calories, check with your doctor and be sure to maintain adequate nutrition. In other words, eat more fruits, vegetables and protein and less junk food.

"What we would really like is not so much that people should live longer but that people should live healthier," said Dr. David Finkelstein of the National Institute on Aging. The Wisconsin monkeys seemed to do both. "The fact that there's less disease in these animals is striking," Finkelstein said.