吃七八分饱有助于延年益寿的假说最早是由美国康奈尔大学的动物营养学家马凯(Clive McCay)提出的。他在1935年发表了一篇论文,提出限制小鼠的食量可以让小鼠的寿命延长20%～40%,原因在于,限食即限制了生物新陈代谢的速率。这个假说在此后的几十年中通过一些实验得到或大或小的证实,而且此后的研究也提供了吃七八分饱可以延寿的其他一些原因。 The hypothesis that eating at least seven or eight full years helps longevity was first proposed by animal nutritionist Clive McCay at Cornell University in the United States. In a paper published in 1935, he argued that limiting food intake in mice could prolong the lifespan of mice by 20% to 40% because food restriction limits the rate of biological metabolism. This hypothesis was confirmed by some experiments in the next few decades, large and small, and subsequent studies also provided some other reasons for eating for seven or eight full years.