So I just wanted to start a separate thread dedicated to this Methionine Restriction Diet, of which I've only recently learned.
As pointed out, Methionine is a limiting reagent, due to the fact that it's the sole amino which corresponds to the start-codon.
Uptil now, the we've been talking mainly about Caloric Restriction, which is a much broader brute-force approach, and which works by limiting your entire diet, to constrain metabolic activity across the board.
The Methionine Restriction diet focuses on methionine as a particular limiting reagent, to achieve approximately the same effect as CR, but with less effort. It was further pointed out that methionine also creates specific ROS that damage the mitochondria.
But I was reading that methionine deficiency could also make you vulnerable to cancer and other illnesses.
And this is of course because gene expression, which MR reduces, is also necessary to help you fight off cancer and other illnesses.
So I would like to ask what ways can be devised to get around these problems?
For instance, regarding Methionine-produced ROS, are there any anti-oxidants in particular that might work particularly well against them?
Maybe that way you wouldn't need to resort to MR in order to reduce the negative effects of Methionine-produced ROS.
Alternatively, could we forcibly categorize any and all proteins into one of 2 categories: Pro-Senescence or Anti-Aging
(Neutrality is not accepted! In the war on aging, any protein is either with us or against us!)
Evaluation is based on net contribution in either direction.
Once we have our dividing line drawn between good and evil, then we can proceed to look for limiting reagents that constrain evil more than they constrain good.
Your target diet is then based on minimizing those limiting reagents, while maximizing the useful stuff.
Mathematically, perhaps a vector-weighting approach is better. (ie. some proteins/pathways are more evil than others in terms of senescence cost, and some are more beneficial than others in terms of longevity benefits)
Nextly, I'm wondering if Methionine restriction helps to trigger recycle activity in the body. Anything that helps to recycle the Mitochondria in particular would probably be a good thing.
Other things that might be useful: occasional oral doses of large/complex molecules that are hard to synthesize, such as Glycosaminoglycans (eg. Chondroitin), which are useful for maintaining the joints. This would save your body the metabolic overhead of having to create these molecules, while it runs in high-efficiency/austerity mode.
Any other suggestions?
