That 30-year-old idea that dieting makes you live longer might be completely wrong.
bioRxiv · March 13, 2026 · 10.64898/2026.03.11.711062
Why it matters
The 'eat-2' mutant worm is a cornerstone of aging research used to study dietary restriction. This paper reveals that these worms don't live longer because they eat less, but because their mouth defect prevents them from swallowing the bacteria that usually cause lethal infections in old age.
From the abstract
Dietary restriction (DR) extends lifespan in many animal species. In C. elegans, Eat mutants with pharyngeal defects that impair feeding exhibit reduced growth rate and fertility and are typically long-lived, suggesting a DR effect. We report that Eat mutant longevity is largely or wholly a consequence of suppression of feeding activity-dependent infection of the pharynx by their E. coli food source. eat-2 mutants, widely used as a DR model, were among only 2/8 Eat mutants tested whose longevity