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A TV documentary in 2002 said they studied 2 groups of rats. The control group had a steady supply of food and could eat whenever they want. The other group was

A TV documentary in 2002 said they studied 2 groups of rats. The control group had a steady supply of food and could eat whenever they want. The other group was on a diet. After 2 years, the control group all sat in a corner of their cage being fat and lazy. The other group continued powering their ferris wheel generators and were not being lazy at all. They hypothesized that too much food made the body more prone to free radicals and the damage was more difficult to repair in the control group. Effectively making them age faster than the diet group.

Plankaluel 2y ago
Not sure a TV documentary from 22 years ago is the source to get scientific explanations from ...
- bubblesnort 2y ago
  TV documentaries today are arguably worse. Dumbed down to "here's someone who knows science stuff" and "here's a startup that does science stuff" over and over again. The point I was trying to make is that many "news" articles aren't really new. It's not unheard of that the publisher just wants your attention so they'll keep rehasing old stuff.
amanaplanacanal 2y ago
I'm pretty sure the free radical theory of aging is not mainstream any more. Too many studies of antioxidants have shown that they don't help, out even make things worse
kelipso 2y ago
Reminds me of the rat park experiment on drug addiction. Put the rats in small cages and give them morphine, they get addicted. Put them in the rat park where they have lots of things to do and they don’t get addicted. Food overindulgence is probably result of similar effects too. This longer life experiment probably has issues too. Like the rats might be getting fed some crappy food in a cage where they can’t do anything and so just sit there and get fat. As opposed to getting not enough food and go into some kind of hibernation stage where they don’t do anything and just sit there and not get fat. What a life for either of these rats. What a life for a human to emulate.

Plankaluel 2y ago

Not sure a TV documentary from 22 years ago is the source to get scientific explanations from ...

bubblesnort 2y ago
TV documentaries today are arguably worse. Dumbed down to "here's someone who knows science stuff" and "here's a startup that does science stuff" over and over again. The point I was trying to make is that many "news" articles aren't really new. It's not unheard of that the publisher just wants your attention so they'll keep rehasing old stuff.

amanaplanacanal 2y ago

I'm pretty sure the free radical theory of aging is not mainstream any more. Too many studies of antioxidants have shown that they don't help, out even make things worse

kelipso 2y ago

Reminds me of the rat park experiment on drug addiction. Put the rats in small cages and give them morphine, they get addicted. Put them in the rat park where they have lots of things to do and they don’t get addicted. Food overindulgence is probably result of similar effects too. This longer life experiment probably has issues too. Like the rats might be getting fed some crappy food in a cage where they can’t do anything and so just sit there and get fat. As opposed to getting not enough food and go into some kind of hibernation stage where they don’t do anything and just sit there and not get fat. What a life for either of these rats. What a life for a human to emulate.