Diet is not always given the importance it really has, and many times a drug is valued more than a dietary guideline, perhaps for convenience or because of the influence of marketing. However, a study carried out by the Charles Perkins Center at the University of Sydney (Australia) has found that what we eat has a much greater impact on improving health and aging than what drugs can achieve.
Specifically, the findings published in the journal Cell Metabolism indicated that the composition of the diet is more powerful against aging and in protecting metabolic health than three of the most widely used drugs to treat or prevent strokes, diabetes or heart disease .
The research has been carried out on mice that were subjected to 40 different treatments, with varying levels of fats, proteins, carbohydrates, calories and drug content. What the study sought was to analyze the impact of three anti-aging drugs on the liver, a very important organ in metabolic regulation.
Protein and calorie intake interfered with metabolic pathways, but also with processes that control cell function
“We found that diet composition had a much more powerful effect than drugs, largely dampening responses to diet rather than reshaping them. Since humans share essentially the same nutrient signaling pathways as mice, the research suggests that people would derive greater value from changing their diet to improve metabolic health rather than taking the drugs we studied.” , lead author of the research.
What we eat is related to how we age
The study shows that what we eat is linked to how we age. Thus, they observed that the intake of calories and the balance of fats, proteins and carbohydrates (macronutrients) interfered intensely with the liver. The intake of protein and total calories had an important effect on metabolic pathways, but also on the fundamental processes that control the functioning of cells.
The proteins that the mice ingested had an effect on the activity of the mitochondria, which are responsible for creating energy inside the cells. This has a knock-on effect, as the amount of dietary protein and energy intake influences how accurately cells translate their genes into the different proteins needed to help cells function properly and produce new cells, two processes related to growth. aging.
On the other hand, the drugs only dampened the metabolic response of cells on the diet, rather than remodeling it. One of the antiaging drugs had a greater effect on changes in cells due to dietary fats and carbohydrates, while an anticancer drug and another used for diabetes blocked the effects of dietary protein on energy-generating mitochondria.
David Le Couteur, another of the researchers, has stressed that “this approach is the only way we can get an overview of the interaction between diet, our health and physiology. We all know that what we eat influences our health, but this study showed how food can drastically influence many of the processes that operate in our cells. This gives us insight into how diet affects health and aging.”
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