Research Perspective|Volume 1, Issue 10|pp 875—880

Macronutrient balance and lifespan

Stephen J. Simpson¹, David Raubenheimer²

¹School of Biological Sciences, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
²Institute of Natural Sciences, Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

Received: September 17, 2009Accepted: October 20, 2009Published: October 22, 2009

Copyright: © 2009 Simpson et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Dietary restriction (DR) without malnutrition is widely regarded to be a universal mechanism for prolonging lifespan. It is generally believed that the benefits of DR arise from eating fewer calories (termed caloric restriction, CR). Here we argue that, rather than calories, the key determinant of the relationship between diet and longevity is the balance of protein to non-protein energy ingested. This ratio affects not only lifespan, but also total energy intake, metabolism, immunity and the likelihood of developing obesity and associated metabolic disorders. Among various possible mechanisms linking macronutrient balance to lifespan, the nexus between the TOR and AMPK signaling pathways is emerging as a central coordinator.