A new study suggests that cutting calorie intake by just 10 percent can make a person live longer and reduce the chance of disease.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin found the results from analyzing monkeys for the past 25 years and studying their diets, according to PerezHilton.
Monkeys who were allowed to eat whatever they wanted were 3 times more likely to contract a serious disease. Other monkeys received a diet that cut their calorie intake by 30 percent.
The monkeys who ate what they wanted were also three times more likely to die early, Daily Mail reported. The study follows previous research that was done on rodents and flies, which found that taking in less calories while taking in important nutrients can increase lifespan by about 40 percent.
Researchers say that as a result of the study, new drugs can be created that can have the same effect on the body as calorie reduction.
"We study caloric restriction because it has such a robust effect on ageing and the incidence and timing of age-related disease," said Rozalyn Anderson, study author and assistant professor of geriatrics. "Already, people are studying drugs that affect the mechanisms that are active in caloric restriction. There is enormous private-sector interest in some of these drugs."
While the study contradicts a 2012 study, which shows the health of monkeys' didn't improve with reducing calories, the Wisconsin researchers said the old study was flawed. They said the monkeys in the 2012 study were put on a restricted diet, causing all of their results to be similar. They added that since the monkeys in the old study ended up living longer, it's possible that decreasing calorie intake by just 10 percent can have a big positive effect on life expectancy, PerezHilton reported.
Despite the results, the researchers say that people shouldn't cut their calorie intake below the recommended level, Daily Mail reported. They say they were looking for the causes of people being susceptible to age-related disease.
"We are not studying it so people can go out and do it, but to delve into the underlying causes of age-related disease susceptibility," Anderson said. "It's a research tool, not a lifestyle recommendation, but some people get caught up: 'What if I did caloric restriction?'"
