In this essay, Gary Taubes uses a new longevity drug for dogs to explore how mainstream aging research is increasingly converging on ideas long associated with the carbohydrate-insulin model of metabolic disease. The drug targets insulin and IGF-1 signaling pathways tied to aging and lifespan regulation. So if suppressing these pathways extends life, what role does diet play in driving these regulators in the first place?

Taubes revisits research from molecular biologist Cynthia Kenyon, whose experiments extended worm lifespan by altering insulin-related genes. Feeding the worms glucose later shortened lifespan significantly, supporting the theory that chronically elevated insulin signaling from high-carbohydrate diets may accelerate aging and disease.

The article argues that ideas once dismissed as fringe—particularly the role of carbohydrates and insulin in obesity, diabetes, and aging—are increasingly reappearing in mainstream science under the banner of longevity medicine and metabolic health, often without acknowledgment of the decades-long controversies surrounding those ideas.

https://uncertaintyprinciples.substack.com/p/diet-or-drugs-calories-or-carbohydrates