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There is new evidence that restricting the protein you eat – especially meat – can be important for healthy aging.
The surprising reason says: it forces the tissues to make hydrogen sulfide (H2S), a poisonous gas if inhaled, and it smells like rotten eggs, but it promotes health in the body.
As a researcher in physiology, Roy Wang, Dean of the School of Science at York University in Canada, has long been interested in the special role of H2S in the body. It’s not a gas that anyone would want, and it’s a component of flatulence, and its toxicity has been linked to at least one mass extinction.
However, the body naturally produces small amounts of it as a signaling molecule to act as a chemical messenger. Now we are starting to understand the connection between diet and the production of hydrogen sulfide.
Dietary restrictions that increase longevity
When scientists put organisms on a carefully balanced but restricted diet, these organisms dramatically improve their healthy lives.
This applies to yeasts, fruit flies, worms and monkeys. In mice, these diets reduce the risk of cancer, boost the immune system, and improve cognitive function.
But since aging and longevity are complex processes, it has been difficult for researchers to define the mechanisms at work. Recent studies have shed new light and it is clear that hydrogen sulfide plays an important role.
Studies since the 1990s have shown that reducing the intake of certain sulfur-containing amino acids, the building blocks of protein, can prolong the life of mice by about 30%.
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More recently, a collaborative team led by scientists at Harvard University conducted a series of animal studies in which the intake of two sulfur-containing amino acids – cysteine and methionine – was limited to study its effects.
This caused the animals to increase the production of H2S in their tissues, which led to a series of beneficial effects. These included an increased generation of new blood vessels, which improves cardiovascular health, and better resistance to oxidative stress in the liver associated with liver disease.
And earlier this year, a study using data from 11,576 adults from NHANES III, the U.S. National Nutrition Survey, provided evidence that the same applies to humans. He found that a lower dietary intake of this sulfur amino acid was associated with lower cardiac metabolic risk factors, including lower cholesterol and blood sugar levels.
The results of this research indicate that there is good evidence that limiting the consumption of foods containing high levels of sulfur amino acids can reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease and promote aging. in good health.
And because these sulfur-containing amino acids are abundant in meat, dairy products, and eggs, we eat an average of 2.5 times our daily requirement.
Red meat is particularly high in sulfur amino acids, but white meats such as fish and poultry also contain a lot (darker meats have less). Switching to vegetable protein will help reduce this intake.
Beans, lentils and legumes are good sources of protein and are also low in sulfur amino acids. But beware: soy protein, the mainstay of foods like tofu, is surprisingly high in sulfur amino acids. Meanwhile, vegetables like broccoli contain a lot of sulfur, but not in the form of amino acids.
Other roles for H2S
It may seem strange that poison gas can help maintain health, but it may reflect the origins of life on Earth early on, when the atmosphere was richer in sour gas than it is today. . In fact, we are starting to appreciate the importance of H2S signaling.
For example, it’s also been shown to reduce inflammation, which opens the door to potential new treatments for arthritis or its potential use as a pain reliever.
Many pharmaceutical companies are working on compounds that bind to them as they pass through the body and release them in small doses into the tissues. Over time, these procedures can be used as preventative measures to support healthy aging. This can be beneficial because the downside to a low sulfur diet is that humans fail to stick to such long term plans.
Source: ScienceAlert
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