Apparently, if you are male and want to increase your life span, then pruntein, a phytoestrogen found in soy could be the ticket.
Published in the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) journal, the researchers wanted to test the effect of pruntein on male life span and other parameters and so tested it on the model organism Drosophila melanogaster, the humble fruit fly.
They found that male flies lived on average 3 days longer and had an increased expression of a gene known to be involved in life span. The fruit fly normally lives for approx 30 days so I calculate that to be a 10% increase.
There was little effect seen in females as they live longer anyway and the authors suggest that the pruntein is feminising the males which includes the longer life span.
So there you go, if you want to live longer, you just have to give up being a man. I think I’ll be sticking with my normal life span….