own biochemical liposuction.”
You Age at the Rate You Produce Insulin
Almost any dieter will benefit from an initial period of
drastic carbohydrate restriction. In fact, a very-low-
carbohydrate diet will, on average, halve the amount of total
insulin secreted by the pancreas and increase a person’s
insulin sensitivity after just one day.^6 While this is no doubt
good news for our beer bellies, muffin tops, and saddlebags,
it may also be key to slowing down the aging process.
Aside from contributing to adiposity, the scientific word
for fatness, chronically elevated insulin is thought to speed
up the underlying processes of aging. MIT and Harvard
lecturer Josh Mitteldorf made no bones about it in his book
Cracking the Aging Code: “Every bowl of pasta sends a
message to the body to put on body fat and accelerate the
aging process.” During a caloric surplus, easily enabled with
hyper-palatable carbohydrates, the long-term picture fades
from view, and cellular repair projects go on hiatus.^7 After
all, why go through the effort of repairing old cells when
you can just create new ones from the bounty of available
energy?
On the other hand, when the body perceives that food is
in short supply, gene pathways involved in repairing and
restoring become active so that the body will still be healthy
come tomorrow when the famine is over. These pathways
are like little biological “apps” hard-coded into our genome
that become active in a low-insulin environment.