A Lower Calorie Diet Helps Strengthen Your Immune System

It seems that low calorie diets don’t only help you lose weight. A recent 6 month study made by the Agricultural Research Service proved that a low calorie diet helps strengthen the immune system. The volunteers who followed the low calorie diet had a better immune response at the end of the study.

For the first time there has been established a clear link between cutting calories and the immune system of us humans. This is great news for all those who are looking to lose weight. Now you have more motives to go through with your weight loss plan. Who doesn’t want a better health. By losing weigh you don’t only get to look hot, you also get to drastically cut your health bills.

Simin Nikbin is the lead researcher of the study and the director of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University in Boston, Mass. This study is just a small part of a bigger one on the long-term effects of lowering calorie intake in humans. The purpose of the study is that of finding ways to reduce the decline rate of the human immune system as we age.

The inspiration for this study come from observing a boost in the immune response of animals who were on a low calorie diet. From that to doing research on the effects of a low calorie diet on humans was just a step.

46 volunteers were used in the study, all of them being overweight, not obese. They were aged between 20 and 40 years. The study split them into two groups, one following a diet with 30% less calories and the other a diet with 10% less calories.

The scientist monitored many immune markers, the most important of which is the DTH skin test. The DTH skin test offers a good measurement of the immune response in humans at a whole body level. In both groups there was recorded an increased response in the proliferation of T-cells and DTH test.

The conclusion of this short term study was that by following a lower calorie diet you get a better functioning of the T-cells of the body. For more details you should check out the Journal of Gerontology, Biological Sciences.