A recent letter in the Journal Nature outlined the results of a long-term study on the effects of calorie restriction (CR) on longevity in rhesus monkeys.  Click to read.

You have probably already heard about the supposed benefits of restricting calories on length of life. Some animal studies, mainly in mice and rats, have clearly shown the benefits of CR on longevity, but this study is unique because was done on a species that is much closer to humans. Because rhesus monkeys live so long, this study took decades and the results are finally available.

What did they find? The group of monkeys who were fed up to 40% less calories did not live longer than the control group who ate a normal amount of calories. Although they were able to demonstrate some health benefits of CR, such as a reduced risk of cancer, the monkeys in the CR group also had an increased risk of certain medical problems. Several of them developed type II diabetes, a surprising finding in monkeys who were under-eating and not overweight.

Of course there were headlines around the world stating that restricting calories offers no significant health benefits. That’s good news for those of us who like to eat! After carefully reading the study, I noticed that there were some significant findings that didn’t make it into the headlines.

I first wanted to know what type of diet the monkeys were eating. As it turns out, they were fed “a natural ingredient diet containing 56.9% carbohydrate, 17.3% protein and 5% fat”. Standard monkey chow is loaded with grains and sugar, and if you read the label it looks similar to any highly processed food label in your local grocery store. In essence they were eating a high carbohydrate, low fat diet loaded with grains and added sugars. Does this diet sound familiar? It should, because it is identical to the typical American diet of highly processed foods.

Although they probably didn’t know it in 1987 when the study started, excessive fructose from sugar and high glycemic carbohydrates from grains are the driving force behind our current epidemic of insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, obesity, and type II diabetes.  It now appears that these dietary elements are chronic toxins that damage your health over years and decades.

We now believe that these same toxic food elements can also eventually trigger a chronic brain disorder called Carbohydrate Associated Reversible Brain syndrome or CARB syndrome. People with CARB syndrome can develop up to 22 brain dysfunction symptoms that can interfere with your ability to function in multiple settings. People with CARB syndrome are often misdiagnosed with traditional brain disorders such as depression, ADHD, PTSD, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, autism, bipolar II, irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia and similar conditions.

As it turns out, both groups of monkeys were eating a toxic diet for decades. The group that ate less of this toxic diet came out ahead on a few parameters, but overall there wasn’t a lot of benefit to eating less of this food. Should we be surprised? In my opinion, all this study really shows is that eating a toxic diet, regardless of the amount, is unlikely to improve your health.

I see exactly the same thing in the patients that I treat every day. People with anorexia clearly under-eat, but when they do eat they tend to eat food loaded with sugar, HFCS and high glycemic carbohydrates. They have some of the same metabolic disorders that large people develop when they eat this type of food. That’s because the cardinal symptom of CARB syndrome is craving sweet and starchy food, pushing people to eat more of the very food that is destroying their health and frying their brain. It really doesn’t matter how much of this food you eat because any amount seems to have adverse health effects for your metabolism and brain.

I’d like to see a similar study where they feed rhesus monkeys their traditional evolutionary diet of tubers, fruits, insects, sees, bark and small animals. As it turns out, rhesus monkeys are omnivores just like us. Now that I think about it, I’d also like to see this type of study in humans. But I won’t wait decades for the results to be available. I think we already have enough evidence that this type of processed food diet is bad for both humans and monkeys. Resent research suggests that low carbohydrate, moderate protein, high fat diets have many health benefits, especially when you eliminate vegetable oils, partially hydrogenated fats and other unhealthy fats. If find it ironic that this is just the opposite of what our current government recommends when it comes to a healthy diet. They want us to eat monkey chow.

We evolved eating meat, fish, seafood, vegetables, fruit nuts and berries. Perhaps we should respect Mother Nature and move back in time to an era where humans ate real food. After all, I’d like to think that we’re as smart as rhesus monkeys who seem to have no trouble eating real food when they are in their natural environment.