Caloric Restriction, the Traditional Okinawan Diet, and Healthy Aging The Diet of the World's Longest-Lived People and Its Potential Impact on Morbidity and Life Span

Long-term caloric restriction (CR) is a robust means of re- ducing age-related diseases and extending life span in multiple species, but the effects in humans are unknown. The low caloric intake, long life expectancy, and the high prevalence of centenariansin Okinawa have been used as an argument to support the CR hypothesis in humans. However, no long-term, epidemiologic analysis has been conducted on traditional dietary patterns, energy balance, and potential CR pheno- types for the specific cohort of Okinawans who are purported to have had a calorically restricted diet. Nor has this cohort's subsequent mor- tality experience been rigorously studied. Therefore, we investigated six decades of archived population data on the elderly cohort of Okinawans (aged 65-plus) for evidence of CR. Analyses included traditional diet composition, energy intake, energy expenditure, anthropometry, plasma DHEA, mortality from age-related diseases, and current survival pat- terns. Findings include low caloric intake and negative energybalance at younger ages, little weight gain with age, life-long low BMI, relatively