Another win for the practice of calorie restriction: "According to the "mitochondrial theory of aging" the lifelong accumulation of various kinds of damage to mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has been related to the age-dependent mitochondrial bioenergetic dysfunction. Caloric restriction (CR) diet is able to prevent or delay the onset of several age-related damages to mtDNA. The effects of aging and CR on the presence of abasic sites and single-strand breaks of the sugar-phosphate backbone in mtDNA have been analyzed [in a] region of brain mtDNA from young and old ad libitum-fed and old CR-treated rats. The region [is] is highly damaged in the old ad libitum-fed animals with respect to the young ones, whereas in the CR rats it shows a much lower extent of damage. The data confirm, at single nucleotide resolution, the protective effect of CR on the age-related mtDNA damage." Damage to mitochondrial DNA appears to provide an important contribution to degenerative aging - we would expect this process to be slowed in calorie restriction, and here is confirmation.

Link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18946734