Source: www.nytimes.com

USA, July 10, 2009: A long-awaited study of aging in rhesus monkeys suggests that people may be able to fend off the usual diseases of old age and considerably extend their life span by following a caloric restriction diet — one containing all the normal healthy ingredients, but with 30 percent fewer calories than usual.

Results reported Thursday in Science, show that now, 20 years after the experiment began, the monkeys (whose average life span is 27 years) are showing many beneficial signs of caloric restriction, including significantly less diabetes, cancer, and heart and brain disease. Of the dieting group, only 13 percent have died in ways judged to be due to old age, vs. 37 percent of the comparison group.

Some critics say that applying these conclusions to humans at this time is premature; but one of the study leaders affirmed, “It says much of the biology of caloric restriction is translatable into primates–which makes it more likely it would apply to humans.”

[HPI notes: Modern Science may think it is too early to conclude, but Hindu sages have long held that control of appetite, mitahara, and control of breath, pranayama, are the keys to longevity and health. Hinduism Today's founder Sivaya Subramuniyaswami wrote, "Mitahara is a restraint that we must all obey. The body knows no wisdom; it would eat and drink itself to death if it had its way."

According to ayurveda, not eating too much is the greatest thing you can do for health if you want a long life and a balanced, happy mind.

Over 2,000 years ago, South Indian saint Tiruvalluvar wrote in the Tirukural:

The body requires no medicine if you eat only after the food you have already eaten is digested. --Kural 942
Once digestion is complete, eat with moderation; that is the way to prolong the life of the body. --Kural 943
Life remains unharmed when one eats with restraint, refraining from foods that have proven disagreeable. --Kural 945
The pleasures of health abide in the man who eats moderately. The pains of disease dwell wth him who eats excessively. --Kural 946 ]