Back to Methionine

[Guest guest]

Rodney,

Since vegetarian diets are naturally lower in methionine than more

omnivorous diets, it seems to me that if just restricting methionine

resulted in increased longevity, we would already have many examples

of vegetarian centenarians.

The fact that we don't see too many Buddhist monks achieve centenarian

status is a strong indicator that methionine restriction is not likely

to be the best path to longevity.

Do you have any statistics about vegetarian/vegan longevity or mortality?

Tony

>

>

> Hi folks:

>

> This dated June 2008:

>

> " ........................ This suggests that the lowered intake of

> methionine is responsible for the decrease in oxidative stress observed

> in DR. "

>

> Biogerontology. 2008 Jun;9(3):183-96.

>

> " Forty percent and eighty percent methionine restriction decrease

> mitochondrial ROS generation and oxidative stress in rat liver. "

>

> Departamento de Fisiología Animal-II, Facultad de Ciencias

> Biológicas, Complutense University, c/ Novais-2, Madrid

> 28040, Spain.

>

> " Dietary restriction (DR) lowers mitochondrial reactive oxygen species

> (ROS) generation and oxidative damage and increases maximum longevity in

> rodents. Protein restriction (PR) or methionine restriction (MetR), but

> not lipid or carbohydrate restriction, also cause those kinds of

> changes. However, previous experiments of MetR were performed only at

> 80% MetR, and substituting dietary methionine with glutamate in the

> diet. In order to clarify if MetR can be responsible for the lowered ROS

> production and oxidative stress induced by standard (40%) DR, Wistar

> rats were subjected to 40% or 80% MetR without changing other dietary

> components. It was found that both 40% and 80% MetR decrease

> mitochondrial ROS generation and percent free radical leak in rat liver

> mitochondria, similarly to what has been previously observed in 40% PR

> and 40% DR. The concentration of complexes I and III, apoptosis inducing

> factor, oxidative damage to mitochondrial DNA, five different markers of

> protein oxidation, glycoxidation or lipoxidation and fatty acid

> unsaturation were also lowered. The results show that 40% isocaloric

> MetR is enough to decrease ROS production and oxidative stress in rat

> liver. This suggests that the lowered intake of methionine is

> responsible for the decrease in oxidative stress observed in DR. "

>

> PMID: 18283555

>

> Rodney.

>