I don't doubt your first link. As I noted above, the evidence points to reducing protein or methionine significantly, but not so far as to induce sarcopenia (the term of art for geriatric muscle wasting). One of my favorite studies of the two years also went into this issue,
Levine ME et al. 2014. Low protein intake is associated with a major reduction in IGF-1, cancer, and overall mortality in the 65 and younger but not older population. Cell metabolism, 19(3), pp.407-417.
Low protein diets (<10% of E) markedly improve survival up to age 65-70, especially compared to high intake (>20% of E), but thereafter, at least moderate protein (> 10%) seems optimal. Muscle wasting probably doesn't play a causal role here. I suspect that as people grow more sedentary with age, and lower calorie intake, that <10% protein diets start to impinge upon immune system response. It should be noted that its near impossible to design a whole foods diet with <10% E as protein. The common starchy staples are > 10% E as protein, while vegetables (usually a marginal calorie source) have more protein / calorie than most animal products
However, I've got some decades to go before I reach that 65-70 threshold. At my age, benefits of protein (or more realistically, methionine) restriction seem to outweigh the harms. which are mostly limited to more difficulty achieving satiety or bulking muscle. There are low-calorie density/volumetrics dietary alternatives to hypothatlamic mTOR activation by leucine, and so long as I can heft steel scuba doubles, my lean mass is perfectly adequate to my desires.
As for nuts, for the most part they appear to benefit survival less through any fundamental aging mechanisms, than through (1) reducing sudden cardiac death via magnesium intake 2) reducing cholesterol levels via phytosterol content interfering with cholesterol reuptake, 3) providing fiber and polyphenols that beneficially modulate gut microbiota. That said, many nuts have very high Gly/Met ratios, and a popular thread here has looked into glycine supplementation, and high Gly/Met or (Gly+Ser)/(Met+Cys) ratio diets, as a means of achieving effective methionine restriction, otherwise impossible on a whole food, non junk food diet.
AGEs are formed in food through the Maillard reaction, which requires 1) protein, lysine residues specifically, 2) carbohydrates, especially fructose,which forms reactive carbonyl species at ten times the rate of glucose, and 3) high broiling/frying heat. It happens on the surface of roasted meats because they, too include enough sugars.
The most cited food AGE content reference is
Uribarri J. et al, 2010. Advanced glycation end products in foods and a practical guide to their reduction in the diet. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 110(6), pp.911-916.
Carboxymethyllysine content is not a perfect measure of total AGE content and there are issues with the methodology (AGE, in vegetable oils?), but it offers some comparisons in broad strokes. You'll find that starchy foods aren't major culprits, unless deep fried. The worst offenders are fried and roasted meats.I'll take my Potato, white, boiled 25 min (17 AGE kU/serving) over ketogenic bacon, fried 5 min no added oil (11,905 AGE kU/serving) any day of the week.
Given the low AGE content of my diet, I'm more concerned with endogenous AGE formation. Pretty much all the complications of diebetes are due to too many monosaccharide-derived reactive carbonyls floating about. You can give any lab animal diebetic complications (cataracts, neuropathy, skin collagen cross-linking, kidney disorders) by feeding it enough fructose, so my fructose intake is limited to whole dark berries. I also try to keep my insulin sensitivity high and my fasting glucose low with a low long-chain saturated fat intake. Glucose 72 mg/dL in my EOY blood workup, so potatoes, bean torillas, and salads seem to be working.
> even if it means spreading lies through studies
Stop it. You're going to make me laugh demonically and start lovingly stroking my mustache.