Chapter 1 - Overview

Abstract

This chapter highlights the historical background of caloric restriction (CR) paradigm and its anti-aging action and dietary factor. From the 1940s through the 1960s, research on CR focused on the age-associated diseases of rats and mice. The study concluded that the reduction in caloric intake increased longevity and retarded disease. In 1960, when Berg and Simms undertook similar studies with rats, they proposed that reduction in body fat is responsible for the life extension and the inhibition of age-associated diseases seen with CR. CR is commonly said to slow the aging processes, that is, to slow those deteriorative changes that result in an increasing vulnerability to challenges, thereby decreasing the ability of an organism to survive as adult chronological age increases. CR delays the occurrence and/or slows the progression in severity of most of the age-associated diseases of rats and mice, including those unique to specific genotypes. Because age-associated diseases must be considered an integral aspect of aging, this action also indicates that CR has an anti-aging action. Many studies lead to the conclusion that reducing caloric intake is by far the major, if not the sole, dietary factor responsible for CR's anti-aging and life-prolonging actions.