Caloric Restriction
Dr. Linda Partridge, the professor in charge of the research asked "What is killing them when they eat too much?"
(Note that "too much" is actually more than 2/3 calorific RDA)
The presupposition here is that eating "too much" is the main cause of death of these flies. Consequently, it is probably a major cause of death in human beings.
The other thing that is really noticeable in CR experiments is that the CR animals remain don't get ill.
Now this is really interesting.
"What is killing them when they eat too much?" might be the wrong question.
What is making us ill when we eat too much?
The only possible answer is the way our bodies respond to the excess food.
Assuming 100,000 meals in a lifetime, what if each time you overeat had a 1 in 1000 chance of making yourself ill? And each illness, depending on the strength of your immune system, might have had a 0.1 to 1% chance of killing you?
Of course, the telomere problem still kills off everyone eventually. And some people have found other innovative ways of dying: smoking, becoming a gang-member etc.