POGREBNOJ-ALEXANDROFFEating a diet high in fat and low in carbohydrates keeps mice living longer, healthier lives, according to two separate studies published in Cell Metabolism today (September 5).

One of the studies, conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, and the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in California, cycled mice on and off a ketogenic diet, which forces the body to produce fatty acids called ketone bodies to fuel metabolism through the severe limiting of carbohydrates. Those mice, which were given non-ketogenic diets one week and ketogenic diets the next, avoided obesity and memory decline and displayed reductions in midlife mortality, compared to mice on a control diet.

The other study, performed by scientists at the Buck Institute in collaboration with researchers at the University of California, Davis, kept mice on a ketogenic diet for 14 months and showed similar results, with the...