198 | Nutritional Cognitive Neuroscience – A Conversation With Dr. Aron Barbey

A topic that I'd like to touch on is caloric restriction in health and longevity.

This is one of the many areas that there's a lot of interest in and chatter about.

Of course, I don't want to over or misstate any of the literature, mostly just give you the chance to speak to it, but to prime our listeners.

Some investigators think that benefits of caloric restriction go further than simply reductions in rates of overweight and obesity.

There's animal work in this area.

And I've heard advice that if we're getting the nutrients needed by our brains and bodies, the next best suggestion is to eat as little as possible, that restricting our calories will increase longevity.

We want to be, just like with everything, careful about what we can extrapolate from the data so far.

So what are your thoughts?

I think this is one of those areas, Ryan, where, as you say, there can be kind of misleading conclusions that the general public would draw about this.

So my conclusion would be no, I don't think caloric restriction is well supported in the human literature.

Even if your nutritional needs are met, eating as little as possible is not optimal for because energy intake is a fundamental part of nutrition.

Nutrition, as we know, is not just about getting enough vitamins and minerals, it also includes total energy intake.

Calories, as you say, provide the energy that are required for basic functions like brain activity, things like metabolism and hormonal regulation.

And energy intake will directly affect body weight and body composition.

It will directly affect hormones like insulin and leptin.

It will directly affect our metabolic rate and our energy levels.

So if intake is too low, these systems can become disrupted, even when nutrient intake is, strictly speaking, sufficient.

So research on caloric restriction can show that reducing intake may have effects on health, but in humans, these effects are tied to broader changes like weight loss or maybe changes in metabolism.

And so it's not, so they're not just simply studying, you know, eating less in isolation.

And so I think the goal is not, at least from my perspective, to minimize food intake, but to maintain an appropriate level of energy intake alongside adequate nutrients to support, you know, long-term metabolic and brain health goals.

But, you know, this clearly is one of those areas that's evolving.

And I think the evidence is, you know, this is a topic that's been, I think, of increasing interest, both in the scientific community and more broadly.

So I anticipate that, you know, as the evidence accumulates, the way that one approaches this topic will accordingly evolve.

I think this is one example of how people extrapolate too much and too rapidly from the rodent literature, from animal models, speaking as somebody who has done work in rodent models.

It does not translate directly.