Who wouldn’t give money to be younger, more energetic, healthier, and live a longer life? As consumers, we spend countless dollars each year on vitamins, pills, face creams, botox, facelifts, liposurgery and other products and procedures in the hopes that we will appear younger. It almost seems that looking younger and healthier is preferred over actually living longer, healthier lives.

Researchers are continually studying anti-aging techniques and among leading researchers there is already an accepted method for extending the human lifespan. Yes, it is generally accepted as a life extension technique and it doesn’t come in a pill form, requires no surgery, and is not only free, but actually saves you money. The answer to life extension: calorie restriction.

While American food portions tend to get larger and more supersized, the answer to a healthier life, looking younger, and living longer, is simply eating less. Even scientists are agreeing that calorie restriction will make you look younger, live longer, and actually cuts your risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, cancer and other common diseases.

Some experts are saying a good rule of thumb is to eat 15 to 20 percent less. If you are eating 2,000 calories, perhaps you should go down to 1,700 or 1,600.

It has been said that starting this lower calorie way of life by age 25 could add 4 or 5 years to your life.

Most of the studies have been done using animals such as rats and dogs. Current studies are being done with monkeys, and some preliminary human studies have been done.

One human study involved men and women who were healthy, 50-60 years old, non-smokers, who were not obese. The men and women were divided into 3 groups: a calorie-restriction group, an exercise group, and a control group. The calorie restricted group did not exercise, but simply cut their calories by 300-500 calories per day, and the exercise group ate their normal diet and exercised regularly. Both groups lost weight, but the calorie restricted group experienced a decrease in triiodothyronine, a thyroid hormone that slows tissue aging and metabolism. The study was published in Rejuvenation Research.

Calorie restriction does slow aging, but researchers are not sure exactly how it works yet. As of now, they think it lowers the metabolic rate and reduces the amount of ‘free radicals’ that are generated; in essence, they are hypothesizing that calorie restriction slows tissue aging. More research is needed to solidify these hypotheses.

The author of this article is Tim Moore, who publishes a website on Vitamins, Nutrition, and Alternative Medicine.