Recent study revealed that low calorie diet can lead to a healthy and longer life. American scientists found that a specially tailored diet, probably made from milk protein and corn oil involving numerous vitamin and mineral supplements can improve the quality of life along with addition of 25 years.

University of Wisconsin researchers found that reducing calories by as much as 30 per cent can decrease risks of developing heart disease or cancer by half and increase lifetimes by nearly a third.

Researchers reached the findings by analyzing data collected from an ongoing 20-year-long study of monkeys. Researchers studied the effects a calorie-restricted (CR) diet on the health and lifespan of the 76 macaques. The average life span of these monkeys is about 27 years.

Half of animal subjects were allowed to eat freely however other half were put on diet containing 30 percent less calories. Data analysis revealed that CR monkeys lived three times longer as compared to that of their normally fed primates. Data also showed that the incidence of cancerous tumours and cardiovascular disease was less than half in CR animals.

Professor Richard Weindruch, of the University of Wisconsin said: "We have been able to show that caloric restriction can slow the ageing process in a primate species".