ABSTRACT
Dietary interventions, which typically involve changes in energy intake and/or macronutrient composition, are common strategies to improve health. For example, a hypocaloric low-fat diet is an integral part of lifestyle modications to achieve weight loss and to prevent or delay diabetes in high-risk populations (Knowler et al. 2002, 2009). The dietary fatty acid prole is known to modify cardiovascular disease risks, with saturated fat being deleterious whereas long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids appear to be neutral or even benecial (Baum et al. 2012). By reducing total energy consumption (20%–50%) without compromising nutritional adequacy, calorie restriction is perhaps the dietary intervention with the strongest evidence to confer overall health benets. Calorie restriction has been shown to improve cardiovascular risk (Sung and Dyck 2012). The literature also largely supports its effect on delaying aging and extending average and maximal lifespan in many species, including nonhuman primates (Weindruch and Walford 1982; Anderson et al. 2003; Colman et al. 2009), although it has recently been reported otherwise (Mattison et al. 2012).
