Until about two years ago, the story went something like this: calorie restriction extends lifespan in yeast, worms, flies, and rodents. Lifespan extension by calorie restriction appears to be biologically universal, therefore it's probably only a matter of time until it's demonstrated in humans as well. More than 20 years ago, independent teams of researchers set out to demonstrate the phenomenon in macaque monkeys, a primate model closer to humans than any lifespan model previously tested.
Recent findings have caused me to seriously question this narrative. One of the first challenges was the finding that genetically wild mice (as opposed to inbred laboratory strains) do not live longer when their calorie intake is restricted, despite showing hormonal changes associated with longevity in other strains, although the restricted animals do develop less cancer (1). One of the biggest blows came in 2009, when researchers published the results of a study that analyzed the effect of calorie restriction on lifespan in 41 different strains of mice, both male and female (2). They found that calorie restriction extends lifespan in a subset of strains, but actually shortens lifespan in an even larger subset. Below is a graph of the effect of calorie restriction on lifespan in the 41 strains. Positive numbers indicate that calorie restriction extended life, while negative numbers indicate that it shortened life:
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