Nowadays, along with the development of economy and rising of the living standards, the status of population aging gets more and more severe in China. Since the incidence of age-related diseases straights up, more and more attention was paid to the search for effective anti-aging methods and prevention of geriatric diseases. In recent researches, dietary restriction (DR) is confirmed to prolong the lifespan in mammal effectively, and to prevent the age-related diseases. In the context of avoiding malnutrition, proper DR has been a hot topic in anti-aging research. This article reviewed the roles and possible mechanisms of DR in anti-aging.