Starving not going to contribute to long life

Starving - officially known as caloric restriction - will not help humans live super-long lives, two biologists have said.

University of California's John Phelan and Michael Rose said a mathematical model showed that a lifetime of dieting would extend human life span by about only 7 per cent, The lifespans of smaller animals have been extended by up to 50 per cent by starvation.

"Suffering years of misery to remain super-skinny is not going to have a big payoff in terms of a longer life," said Phelan.