CALORIE RESTRICTION & LONGEVITY: Eat Less, Live Longer? ONE/ON/ONE w Dr. Akash Bajaj

Can you actually live longer and live better with restricting your calories? That is the topic of today's conversation. Is there really a link between the calories you take in and your overall longevity as well as your potential for optimization? This is what we're going to talk about today on today's episode of one-on-one with Dr. Bajaj. Now that's me. I'm a triple board certified physician and I'm here to bring you rituals and routines that you can apply immediately after our conversation today that are either free or very inexpensive to truly help you propagate along your optimization and longevity journey. But before we get into this, make sure you like this video, subscribe to the channel, and definitely share this with people that you want to keep around in your life for a long time. People that you feel can make a small tweak in their lifestyle and really change the quality of their life. That's what we're all about here. To go ahead and like this now, subscribe to the channel and share the video. Now let's get into it. Unlocking the secrets of longevity, wellness, and peak performance. Dive deep into the world of cutting-edge health. Explore groundbreaking medical advances and uncover the keys to living your best life at any age. This is one-on-one with Dr. Bajaj where science meets life and vitality knows no limits. Now when we start to talk about food and nutrition and macros and all that, inevitably the word diet comes up. The word diet unfortunately has such strong negative connotations to it. I mean what do you really think about when you hear the word diet? I'll tell you what I think about. I think about taking the joy out of eating. I have to track what I eat. I have to time what I eat. It really just kind of neuters the whole process of enjoying a good meal and ultimately the art of enjoying a good meal either socially or for yourself or with the ones you love. It's such a large part of our society and our culture. There has got to be a better way where you can enjoy the food that you eat, not feel weird or guilty about it, but still move forward in your optimization and longevity journey. Now I'm here to tell you that there certainly is a way. Now before I get into this, let's take a step back and understand what are the three major ways that we can change our dietary habits to promote longevity and optimization. I'm going to break this down to you very simply. Method number one, caloric restriction. This basically means we're going to decrease the amount of calories we take in, just like the name says. Caloric restriction typically is the more scientific term. In us humans, we typically call this calorie counting. I'm going to talk in deep detail about this particular number in today's episode. Number two is dietary restriction. Now dietary restriction simply means you avoid one or a couple different types of food. This could be like a low carb diet or a no sugar diet or whatever the case may be there, where you are specifically attempting to avoid intake of certain types of food. And then finally number three is time restricted eating. This is now very kind of fashionably known as intermittent fasting. This basically means you only eat during a given time period and you eat nothing either before or after that time period. Most of the research out there guys have shown these three methods of diet and we'll call it nutrition modification are going to be the most successful to get you optimized and improve your longevity, in addition to everything else that you can do. Today's episode I'm going to focus exclusively on caloric restriction and then in future episodes I will also be discussing time restricted eating as well as dietary restriction. They're episodes in and of themselves. So let's talk about caloric restriction. The real benefits of caloric restriction or CR for the sake of this conversation is it's very agnostic to the types of food that you eat. You can eat many different types of food and many different quantities of food as long as you really stay within the caloric target you've set for yourself. In addition if you look at the research out there this is by far the winner as far as efficacy is concerned with the different nutrition options or nutritional intake options we've discussed. So definitely most likely to be the most efficacious and it gives you potentially the most choice in what you choose to eat. Two very big wins. Now before we get into this like why you know why do we really care so much about this? Why is it important to really restrict what you eat? Isn't it okay to be just a little bit overweight or maybe that dad bod or just a little bit obese? There's so much emphasis on fitness these days and on staying fit especially in the circles that you're probably part of if you're watching this video. Sometimes you got to stop and ask the question is it really harmful if I have a little bit of extra weight on me? If I'm carrying a few pounds what's the big deal right? Well here's the situation with that. Ultimately at the end of the day if you're taking in more calories than you're burning or using you begin to develop a surplus of those calories. The problem really comes in when that surplus of calories now gets converted. Initially some of it converts to something called glycogen and glycogen really is a kind of a reservoir for glucose that you can use when you need it. You can break down that glycogen pretty quickly, you get some energy in the form of glucose and you're off to the races. But once you fill those glycogen stores now the excess calories that you've taken in convert to fats. Now the fat gets stored right? Fat is ultimately a storage of energy avenue that's what it is. Fat is basically there so you can store energy for long-term use if and when you need it down the road. But the problem is if you take in more calories than you're burning on a regular basis every single day you're developing a little bit of a surplus and every single day you're increasing your fat deposition. So it's not like it plateaus at some point you're just kind of like mildly overweight and you're just staying at that level. You're increasing a little bit every single day if you choose to you know eat in this way and that results in major major problems. What are the problems? Well ultimately what happens guys is the fat once you fill up your fat stores it still has to go somewhere because there's still a surplus coming in and the problem arises when this surplus now goes into places like your liver like your muscles and visceral regions or visceral fat. Now visceral fat basically means the fat gets stored in between the organs and this what we call visceral fat has a very significant correlation with significant disease states that are catastrophic and certainly don't promote your optimization and longevity journey. So really taking a step back the problem with fat and the problem with excess calorie intake on a regular basis is it doesn't have anywhere to go. Then it starts going in unnatural places like muscle, liver and the visceral regions that I just discussed. That's when it becomes problematic. In addition excess fat once you start to hit high levels of visceral fat or liver fat or just general fat overall it tends to be strongly correlated guys with significant disease processes not just metabolic disease states like diabetes and insulin resistance which in and of themselves can prove to be very chronic fatal degenerative and just very very dangerous as far as not only your mortality but your quality of life plummets. There's also a strong association with cardiovascular disease your heart there's a strong correlation with cognitive disease like Alzheimer's disease as well and then the big one guys cancer. There's a strong correlation with being obese and cancer. So basically if you choose to intake calories in a way on a regular basis where you develop a surplus ongoing and you start to tap out all of your stores now you're storing your muscle your liver the visceral region you're basically increasing your likelihood of getting cancer you're increasing the likelihood of developing Alzheimer's disease you're increasing the likelihood of cardiovascular disease this could be heart attack and stroke. Think about that it's not just a vanity thing it's not just about the way you look or maybe your clothes feel tight or whatever the case may be you are truly taking years off of your life and you're taking life off of your years. So I want to talk a little bit of the science associated with this. In 2009 in the journal science there was a very prominent study completed with 26 monkeys and the study was conducted over a course of 20 years and ultimately the result of this demonstrated that decreased caloric intake definitely improved longevity and optimization. There was a control group of these monkeys that were allowed to eat just as much as they wanted to they could eat whenever they felt like it. Then there was a study group of these monkeys that were restricted to eat 25 to 30 approximately less calories than the control group. Over the course of these studies take a look at this picture here. Here's a comparison of two of the monkeys and you can tell here 27 year old Kanto who was the monkey that was associated with the restricted diet on the left hand side here was on your left hand side was significantly optimized compared to 29 year old Owen basically the same age on the opposite side. Not only does Owen look larger and just in general less healthy but the monkey was much more frail and much less active. This is proof in the pudding take a look at this picture it's remarkable. In addition the study group lived longer than the control group in general. So here we go we have proof caloric restriction decreases chronic disease and increases longevity and lifespan right but in 2012 just a few years later another study was done almost identical this to this study to replicate the results. This study was an NIH study and the results of this study were actually completely the opposite. This study demonstrated no appreciable difference between the control group and the study group. Now what gives here what does this really mean right? Wow when you dig deeper into the research and into the way the studies were conducted the biggest difference not accounted for between these two studies was the type of food that they ate. As a matter of fact the 2009 study they ate kind of a standardized monkey chow just a generalized almost over-the-counter chow made for monkeys that they could eat versus the NIH group which had a primate nutritionist literally bespoke their diets create a customized diet made of natural organic whole grains all good stuff whole foods for those monkeys. Now check this out the first study in 2009 where they ate basically the monkey chow that particular diet had 28.5% sucrose. What does this mean? This is more sugar in the diet than what you see in a typical Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream. Think about that this is more sugar than vanilla ice cream compared to the other study. So really kind of dissecting this these two studies deeper what we begin to understand is it's not just how much you eat but it's what you're eating right. So much so where factually these studies demonstrated in the first study where they were eating monkey chow we'll just call this the was in Wisconsin we'll call this the Wisconsin monkey chow study. In the Wisconsin monkey chow study there was a greater than 40 percent incidence of diabetes and insulin resistance in the control group monkeys that were allowed to eat whatever they wanted to of the monkey chow and there was an increased incidence of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer. Now in the NIH study where they had the kind of bespoke whole food diet created for them only one in seven monkeys actually had any sort of diabetes or insulin resistance. So what are the takeaways here guys? Yeah this is great all this information about the monkeys is great but how does it apply to my life? How does it apply to your life? What do you need to do after this video? Here are the quick takeaways okay. Number one caloric restriction certainly a very strong link between optimization and longevity there. Restricting your calories in these two studies demonstrates clear improvement in optimization and longevity but not just restricting your calories but the quality of the food that you choose to consume is arguably equally as important. So whole foods on unprocessed foods to the best of our ability and the biggest difference there was that sugar that sucrose that sugar that is spike sugar in the Wisconsin monkey chow study directly related and directly demonstrated an increase in chronic metabolic disease like diabetes as well as insulin resistance. So the quantity of food is important but the quality of food is very important also with a focus on minimizing sugars. Takeaway point number two there is a strong link between excess calorie consumption and cancer. In both control groups of the studies I mentioned where they were allowed to eat whatever they wanted regardless of the kinds of food that they ate the groups that just ate whatever they wanted the control groups they had a greater incidence of cancer on both studies. As a matter of fact cancer was the leading cause of death in the monkeys in the control group on both studies and the study group the groups that were looked at with caloric restriction had a 50 percent lower incidence of cancer than the other groups. So takeaway point number two very strong link between excess calorie consumption and cancer. We're all fighting the same battle guys and that is we love to eat. I love to eat most of you guys love to eat. I really enjoy a good meal breaking bread with friends and family and loved ones. Nothing beats it right but if you understand what we've talked about today you can integrate this knowledge so you can still have a fantastic meal guilt-free and eat what you want. How do you do this? Keep these points in mind caloric restriction is very very important. If you know you have a big dinner with a friend or family or a loved one or whatever understand if you restrict your calories through the day so you can enjoy that meal at night overall you're still going to do fine for that day and you can eat what you want. Number two the quality of the food that you choose to eat. If you're going to go out to eat or if you're going to indulge or you're going to enjoy a great meal select items that are more whole food not processed and really number three minimize the sugars. Minimizing the sugars keep in mind carbohydrates are basically sugars in disguise so enjoy the breads of course it's part of eating it's part of life but don't overdo it and be mindful of the fact that it that is indeed also sugar. So in conclusion rituals and routines caloric restriction as well as the quality of food very important like I stated earlier tracking your diet I know it's a drag for most of us but it can be very illuminating and not necessarily something you have to do forever. So guys I hope you enjoyed this video in future videos I'm going to talk to you next about time restricted eating as well as dietary restricted eating and remember the best time to start something was yesterday the second best time is today don't look back with regret take one small step today to get yourself maximally optimized. Thanks for tuning into this episode of one-on-one with Dr. Bajaj. If you find any value in these episodes any value in the show please like and subscribe and share these episodes specifically the ones you feel may help some of your friends and family.