(Note: This article does not constitute medical advice. Please consult your doctor or physician before embarking on a new diet or supplementation or both).
For all you durian lovers out there, there’s a bit of good news to give us even more motivation to keep devouring this wonderful king of fruits. I know Malaysians are hardly de-motivated when it comes to our XOs’, Golden Phoenixes’, Musang Kings’, D24s’ and so on but apparently durians also help in promoting that oh-so-desired quality of human biology: Longevity.
You read that right.
It appears that durians produce this molecule called spermidine (yes I know what that sounds like) which is important because it promotes autophagy.
If you google that word you’ll see that it’s the name given to a process by which our bodies perform a clean-up of weak or dying cells. Meaning “self-eating” or “self-devouring”, longevity expert Peter Attia explains that autophagy represents:
“…the catabolic side of metabolism, when the cell stops producing new proteins and instead begins to break down old proteins and other cellular structures into their amino acid components, using the scavenged materials to build new ones. It’s a form of cellular recycling, cleaning out the accumulated junk in the cell and repurposing it or disposing of it.”
It’s like, instead of going to Mr DIY to get more fixtures to fix up our bodily house, the contractor digs through the debris from our house and tears down spare materials which he can reuse to build new parts. One of the materials our biological ‘contractor’ rips apart are the so-called zombie cells i.e. old proteins and/or damaged cellular structures.
One of the best ways of attaining autophagy is via fasting. By restricting the production of glucose and thus cutting off their supply to these cells, prevents their further growth and invites their eventual destruction and repurposing. Voila! Our zombies cells die!
But back to durians.
It seems our beloved Black Thorns, Red Prawns and Green Bamboos also help in boosting autophagy and rejuvenating our cells because they contain — surprise surprise! — spermidine which, according to Madeo et al, is a, “natural polyamine that stimulates cytoprotective macroautophagy/autophagy.” They also note that spermidine is critically involved in the maintenance of cellular homeostasis and demonstrate anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties as well as other beneficial functions.
Nicklas Brendborg, in his book Jellyfish Age Backwards, reemphasizes the value of spermidine towards longevity and also highlights some foods that are relevant:
“Spermidine is found in many foods, and studies even show that a higher spermidine intake is associated with a lower risk of death. If you want to increase your spermidine intake, the best bet is wheatgerm…Besides that, other spermidine-containing foods include soy beans, certain mushrooms, sunflower seeds, corn and cauliflower. If you’re more adventurous, you can also try eel liver, adzuki beans or durian fruit.”
I don’t know about most Malaysians but I don’t eat eel liver and I hardly know what an adzuki bean is. But I’m very glad that durian (and mushrooms and corn and cauliflower!) is included in that list.
Finally, apart from promoting the self-recycling of cells, spermidine is also associated with improved cognitive function. Schroeder at all sounds very optimistic when they say that:
“(Dietary) spermidine may be protective against cognitive decline in humans. Elevated intake of SPD has recently been shown to be safe in healthy, elderly humans. We herein propose that dietary SPD acts in a neuroprotective manner during normal aging. Accordingly, the straightforward and inexpensive availability of nutritional spermidine in the human diet may provide a potent strategy to prevent the course of age-related or disease-driven cognitive decline in the general population.”
Spermidine is also contained in bread, salad, cheese, potatoes, noodles, meat, fish, and most fruits and vegetables. This is surely good news for those of us who are not fond of Musang King.
For those who are, well, you’re welcome.
References:
Attia, P (2023) Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity, New York: Harmony
Brendborg, N. (2022). Jellyfish Age Backwards: Nature’s Secrets to Longevity. Hachette UK.
Madeo, F., Bauer, M. A., Carmona-Gutierrez, D., & Kroemer, G. (2019). Spermidine: a physiological autophagy inducer acting as an anti-aging vitamin in humans?. Autophagy, 15(1), 165–168.
Schroeder, S., Hofer, S. J., Zimmermann, A., Pechlaner, R., Dammbrueck, C., Pendl, T., … & Madeo, F. (2021). Dietary spermidine improves cognitive function. Cell reports, 35(2).
