The Curious Case Of Caloric Restriction

[BoBoGuy]

Reversing aging was once only fiction, but a special diet might add years to the human life span.

Scientists have known for decades that caloric restriction—reducing calorie intake without malnutrition—slows aging and extends life span in model organisms ranging from yeast to mice. Exactly why and how it confers these benefits in animals, and whether similar effects could be attained in humans, have been a mystery. Now, a flood of recent discoveries has brought scientists closer than ever before to the elusive Fountain of Youth.

The Curious Case Of Caloric Restriction | Science & Technology | Chemical & Engineering News

Bo

[Dreamline]

I recently read an article, maybe on Science Daily, that it's not just calorie restriction that does the trick but its when and how often you calorie restrict. The best survivers weren't regular restricters but were doing days on/days off with restricting. Not necessarily binge eaters on the off days but more irregular. Interesting concept though.

Jennifer

[aggie]

yes, i have heard of that...i know a doctor who is consciously doing that...a plastic surgeon...no sun either i guess...he looks kinda pasty and puny...not to poke fun...but honestly....just not a healthy look.

i think not indulging in too many calories may be the way to go...i can't much see the point in looking younger, but unhealthy and maybe not really with much strength or stamina...i don't really know that much about it.

i am told i look much younger than my 57 years...i have always been careful and never weighed very much....but people say i look strong and healthy.

and i just put away a dinner of salmon, salad and a half a bottle of pinot

oh, i just remembered i read an article about this and it was about a group of much older people that looked a little younger...but a bit skeletal , and apparently they did this low calorie thing....

[BoBoGuy]

Live Longer Meal Plan

As part of Joe's life extension program, he monitors every morsel of food that passes through his system. See why he believes that by eating less and restricting his caloric intake, he will trigger a genetic switch that slows down the aging process.

Live Longer Meal Plan - Video - Oprah.com

Bo

[Savage]

Originally Posted by BoBoGuy

Live Longer Meal Plan

As part of Joe's life extension program, he monitors every morsel of food that passes through his system. See why he believes that by eating less and restricting his caloric intake, he will trigger a genetic switch that slows down the aging process.

Live Longer Meal Plan - Video - Oprah.com

Bo

His first two meals look like they come from my diet as well.

Many raw foodists end up doing calorie restriction after a few years. Their bodies naturally begin to crave less food. A friend of mine who's been 100% raw for about 5 years eats very little and looks a lot younger than her age. I'm not at that point yet, but I can see myself heading in that direction just by continuing to eat lots of raw food.

[ginkgo]

Decades ago, I would read all the books on health and nutrition. Back then there was no world wide web. They disagreed on many things, but they all agreed that the less you ate, the longer you lived.

This was based on the experiments that they did with rats and other animals. So that appears to show that aging is in the working of the digestive system.

Now when I was a boy I would play with the electric locks and electric window in my grandfather's fancy car. Now he used to say a strange thing about this. He would say that every time you use it is one less time it will be able to be used.

But it is also like this with breathing and heart beat. If you exercise-- not all day but only an hour or less of the day, you increase heart beat and breathing. But this exercise means that during the rest of the day and over time, your heart can beat less and you can tale less breaths since these have become more efficient.

Technically your left ventricle in your heart gets bigger and so it can pump more blood with every heart beat. Also the happier a person is, the less they eat since people eat for enjoyment and entertainment. Also they eat less but eat more nutrient dense like the nutritarian diet teaches.

[ginkgo]

Originally Posted by aggie

yes, i have heard of that...i know a doctor who is consciously doing that...a plastic surgeon...no sun either i guess...he looks kinda pasty and puny...not to poke fun...but honestly....just not a healthy look.

i think not indulging in too many calories may be the way to go...i can't much see the point in looking younger, but unhealthy and maybe not really with much strength or stamina...i don't really know that much about it.

i am told i look much younger than my 57 years...i have always been careful and never weighed very much....but people say i look strong and healthy.

and i just put away a dinner of salmon, salad and a half a bottle of pinot

oh, i just remembered i read an article about this and it was about a group of much older people that looked a little younger...but a bit skeletal , and apparently they did this low calorie thing....

You are mixing up 2 different things. Child rapists say that molesting children is healthy for you but they have an ulterior motive for saying this. Sunlight is good for you but they say the opposite so the people making money from this fear will not be sued for billions of dollars.

See this article on Sunlight being good for you to get the full story on it. Humans have been enjoying sunlight for 3 million years.

The unhealthiest group of humans on the planet are the African-Americans. Their skin was made to get sunlight that is much brighter than most of the sunlight in the U.S. Of course over thousand of years they will adapt and become lighter. They need 4 times the sunlight to get the same vitamin D that white people get.

There have been famous fasters that would get a lot of sunlight. One is Mahatma Gandhi. The most famous one was the guy who coined the phrase the "mucusless diet." It was Arnold Ehret. Wikipedia says "Professor Arnold Ehret, revered as the original father of naturopathy."

Food has little vitamin D since it is the most toxic vitamin, but the skin can store non-toxic pre-vitamin D from the sunlight. Ehret experimented on super-health. He fasted for 42 days where he only consumed water. Fasting the most powerful anti-aging thing that there is.

But he did this while staying on a tropical island and he sunbathed around noon for 2 to 3 hours a day. He felt that sunbathing helped the cleansing process that fasting performed. The skin is the largest of the 4 excretory organs that also include lungs, kidneys and liver.

[stanmrak]

Although calorie restriction has been shown to work, eating is one of the true pleasures of being human. Denying yourself this pleasure for the sake of living longer is an exercise in futility. Unless you enjoy calorie restriction, what's the point? I'm told that death is really not all that bad anyway, and that there's no reason to avoid it.

BTW, a nutritional supplement called resveratrol (found in red wine, and extracted from Japanese knotweed) seems to be able to activate a longevity gene that creates this benefit without your having to go on a calorie-restricted diet.

[BoBoGuy]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

His first two meals look like they come from my diet as well.

Many raw foodists end up doing calorie restriction after a few years. Their bodies naturally begin to crave less food. A friend of mine who's been 100% raw for about 5 years eats very little and looks a lot younger than her age. I'm not at that point yet, but I can see myself heading in that direction just by continuing to eat lots of raw food.

David Murdock's Diet and Fitness Routine

Another inspiring show from Oprah was when she featured a number of people who are living healthy and reaping the benefits of this lifestyle. One of them is David Murdock, a billionaire businessman who claims to do 50 push ups without a break, at the age of 85. He sure deserves applause from the audience. With his hectic job as a businessman, how does he remain fit and energized up until his age now? David actually said that he hopes to live up to 125 years old. How can he make this possible? Well, taking a look at his diet and healthy living will explain how.

He is a living proof that the classic lifestyle of having a healthy diet and regular exercise is the best way of keeping oneself fit and assured of a longer life. By simply looking at him, you can tell he is telling the truth.

David Murdock's Diet and Fitness Routine - Video - Oprah.com

Steve, as much as I admire Joe Cordell’s dietary lifestyle, while very similar, I prefer David Murdock’s no calorie counting or food weighing lifestyle.

Bo

[ginkgo]

Originally Posted by stanmrak

Although calorie restriction seems to work, eating is one of the true pleasures of being human. Denying yourself this pleasure for the sake of living longer is a mixed blessing. I try to balance healthy eating while still keeping it pleasurable and fun. BTW, a nutritional supplement called resveratrol (found in wine, and extracted from Japanese knotwood) seems to mimic this antiaging effect.

You are dealing with a major topic of psychology, religion and philosophy. Animals get their greatest enjoyment from performing survival actions (of self and species) of eating and sex. The governor of NY even paid $80,000 to spend an hour with an attractive hooker.

But in religion you find strange things. Like talk about a divine soul that animals do not posses. Then you have stuff like vows of poverty and fasting. The idea is that humans can enjoy sex and eating just like Adolf Hitler did.

But due the immortal and Divine soul of the human, he can feel something much more enjoyable-- the perfect peace and limitless bliss of the Divine and eternal soul or as Indians call it, the supersoul (meaning that the soul was one with God).

Now Jesus came to prove to people that the human being was Divine. He was human and showed that He was divine. Note that before healing or preaching to anyone, He fasted for 40 days.

The human can deny himself the pleasure of eating and get luck and Divine blessings from doing it. Jesus, Moses and Mahatma [means "great soul"] Gandhi fasted and were worshiped. Then if you watch the movie Dune, they test the young prince out to see if he is an animal or a human. The main teaching of Socrates was that man was an immortal soul and that was the priority in life, not women and wine. Psychologists have even discovered this feeling that is much better than enjoyment and have named it the reverse wolf experience. Read what they have learned about the purpose of human life on this page with quotes about it from many famous people life Freud.

[openeyes]

Originally Posted by stanmrak

Although calorie restriction seems to work, eating is one of the true pleasures of being human. Denying yourself this pleasure for the sake of living longer is a mixed blessing.

With appetite being one of the most powerful spices for food, I don't see how eating smaller quantities would necessarily destroy the pleasure of eating.

[stanmrak]

If eating less food is just as pleasurable, then, by that logic, having a shorter lifespan is just as desirable as a longer one. So, restrict your calories if you enjoy that, but don't expect a better life necessarily. You can enjoy great health and long life (and enlightenment), without undereating.

It may be a foolhardy human belief than a longer life is better than a shorter one. The afterlife may be way better than this.

[aggie]

i guess for some of us it is all about balance.

i guess ideally for me to be able to emulate Jesus or Ghandi and there path to enlightenment, but not necessarily a longer physicial life, would be the way to go in a spiritual sense, where food was basically meaningless except to nourish the physical body enough to stay alive.

everyone is different and some of info i have seen on this caloric restriction depicts longer lived people...but not quite sure of the quality...

back to balance...i feel that at 57 i am in better health and strength and stamina that some 20 years younger than me. all my life i have been aware of ramifications of diet and exercise and lifetstye on the body and health.
i always lived the opposite that those around me did: i lived like there WAS a tomorrow

so i have been careful, i believe with balance and disipline without deprivation or compromise to what i enjoy.

for those of us that still must or by choice live a life with demands on us from jobs, family, relationships and the myriad of other responsibilities that go with it...the time and dedication and maybe tweaking on our lifestyle, is not practical...not to say it is not something to aspire to.

it all depends on how you want to exist or how you are able to exist in this physical world for a longer time...i have been told i am going to be around till a least a hundred and i am planning on it!

[Dreamline]

Rather than look at calorie restriction as "restriction" try considering that out of habit, out of decades of societal training, we as humans have been simply overconsuming.

If I do an experiment where I go to the cafeteria and attack the salad bar and take what my brain tells me to take--my normal concept of the amount of food I think I need---and do that for a week, when I put a fraction of those foods on my plate the following week, I literally never feel hungry that week that I am reducing my portion size. (My mantra on the way to the cafeteria is "Less is more...less is more...")

Just because it can fit in there doesn't mean your body needs all that.

I believe calorie restriction is not really restriction but an overall return to normalcy. Digestion, assimilation of nutrients and expulsion of the resulting waste, takes more energy than anything else your body can do. It's very hard work made even worse when you overconsume.

By returning to normalcy, your body's energy is freed up for things that it can do to maintain itself, rather than those resources always being taxed for digestion.

Now if I could convince my chef, the hubby, to give me tiny portions.

Jennifer

[aggie]

i agree with all of that...maybe restriction is too strong a word.

as i said, i use disipline...in a lot of things in life....and unfortunately for many over indulgers, laziness, inconsideration for others and the planet itself...disipline is a dirty word

i guess in my "underindulgence" in food and many other things and making some heathy choices a HABIT, i have done pretty well...by far not as advanced as i probably should be...in all honestly, i know one must WANT to achieve certain things

i just feel i am not deprived and still enjoying.

unfortunately, i think some of the people partaking in this low cal lifestyle have not learned or embraced it to the extent more learned people on this forum have....and they just appear like tortoises that are older than most, but not moving too fast...

[ShinyGlass]

I'm doing CR, via Tonya Zavasta's Quantum Eating. Once you adjust, it is not a problem at all, nor are their cravings, provided that the food you eat is packed with minerals (which is important whether or not you're doing calorie restriction).

I have to revise it a little though, because if I don't have a few bites to eat before I go to bed, I wake up in the middle of the night (blood sugar and adrenal issues).

Tonya says not to eat between 5 and 7pm, because that's when the kidneys are clearing. The liver clears between midnight and 3 am, I think? Quantum Eating is basically designing eating around your body's natural, rythmic processes, and to not give your body more work to do (digesting) when it is busy clearing and detoxifying.

With QE, ideally there would be two meals per day, one between 7 and 9 am, and the second one at 2 or 3 pm.

If you image google Tonya Zavasta, you can see what the results have been for her. She's like no other 50-something woman I've ever seen.

[aggie]

sounds interesting...definitely have to check that out....as a woman, even tho' slightly built...i enjoy working out and a little muscle...

i guess i just wonder how you get enough nutrition to sustain that or does the body compensate and evolve to where the low caloric intake can still provide enough energy for workouts and muscle building?

i too have a metabolism that needs several small meals/snacks a day (healthy ones)

[aggie]

i am 57 and except for short hair, i could give tonya a run for her money

[Dreamline]

Originally Posted by BoBoGuy

David Murdock's Diet and Fitness Routine

Another inspiring show from Oprah was when she featured a number of people who are living healthy and reaping the benefits of this lifestyle. One of them is David Murdock, a billionaire businessman who claims to do 50 push ups without a break, at the age of 85. He sure deserves applause from the audience. With his hectic job as a businessman, how does he remain fit and energized up until his age now? David actually said that he hopes to live up to 125 years old. How can he make this possible? Well, taking a look at his diet and healthy living will explain how.

He is a living proof that the classic lifestyle of having a healthy diet and regular exercise is the best way of keeping oneself fit and assured of a longer life. By simply looking at him, you can tell he is telling the truth.

David Murdock's Diet and Fitness Routine - Video - Oprah.com

Steve, as much as I admire Joe Cordell’s dietary lifestyle, while very similar, I prefer David Murdock’s no calorie counting or food weighing lifestyle.

Bo

Wow. What a weird sync. I just now closed an online news article on David Murdock's efforts in Kannapolis, NC..about three hours from here, where he is working on a huge biotech center for research to study, not drugs, like everyone else in NC, but effects of diet on health.

Jennifer

[KazeCraven]

Originally Posted by stanmrak

Although calorie restriction has been shown to work, eating is one of the true pleasures of being human. Denying yourself this pleasure for the sake of living longer is an exercise in futility. Unless you enjoy calorie restriction, what's the point? I'm told that death is really not all that bad anyway, and that there's no reason to avoid it.

I neither like food nor care for longevity, as I feel that 50yrs is more than enough. Am I the only one that wouldn't eat if we didn't have to?

[aggie]

ya know what's weird and i don't know why....when i was younger, i didn't really eat much more than to sustain me and did not care when i died...now that i am older....god, according to kazecraven, i should be dead...i enjoy food much more and i want to live forever

[bman]

I notice that 1 out of 3 americans are obesed.

Before even considering calorie restriction... try eating the right food in the right amount first, and change lifestyle.

There's no way calorie restriction is even within reach. It is not in the equation. Americans... are waaaaaaaaayyyyyyy too fat.

[BoBoGuy]

Hunger motivates people to find food. Hunger is a conscious feeling associated with an organism’s need for raw material needed to support metabolism. At a cellular level, hunger arises because cell’s demand for nutrition outstrips supply of those nutrients in the blood. In response to certain molecular stimuli the sensation of hunger eventually leads the individual to develop a plan for obtaining food.

People, it seems, eat mainly due to reasons that are not based on an actual physical need of nutrients. This is why we have a huge amount of eating health damaging foods, foods such as drugs, white sugar, alcohol and white bread!

The main purpose of consuming food is to give our body nutrients which are fuel for our body so it can function properly. When we eat foods with other than optimal nutritional value and the body does not receive the minerals, fats, vitamins and fibers that it needs, it will send out a hunger signal to let you know that it still needs some nutrients. This is why a person that eats an other than optimal diet can continue to experience hunger even though they have just had a meal. This may also trigger cravings of certain foods that the body needs more of for the nutritional value. A person who eats an optimal diet will require far less food than a person who consumes a Standard American Diet (SAD) because all of the food they put into their systems gives the body the necessary nutrients for optimal functioning.

Hunger is your body’s cry for nutrition. What we call ‘being hungry’ is your brains way of telling you, you need NUTRIENTS to run your body. If the brain’s cry for nutrition is answered with calorie rich, nutritionally bankrupt fast food, junk food, candy, sweets, and so on; calories are added, but nutrients are not supplied, which means you feel hungry again very soon, regardless of how full your stomach may be.

You must consume enough nutrients in your food for your body to meet its biological need to thrive. Even if you have adequate volume, if it’s from low-nutrient food, your body will have a nutrient deficit, and you will feel you require more food.

Hunger is the bodies request for nutrients, not simply for food. Consume an Optimal Nutrient Dense Diet to supply the requested/required nutrients and all hunger sensations disappear. So simple, yet so misunderstood.

Whoever said "Eat to live, Don't live to eat" did indeed hit the nail on the head.

Bo

[KazeCraven]

Originally Posted by aggie

ya know what's weird and i don't know why....when i was younger, i didn't really eat much more than to sustain me and did not care when i died...now that i am older....god, according to kazecraven, i should be dead...i enjoy food much more and i want to live forever

Oh, I was just speaking for me personally. But I'm sure I'll get to 50 and say, "Oh just a few more years please." And my dislike for food is probably an exaggeration, but I do dislike it nonetheless. Occasionally I'll get a food that is actually good though, so it's not ALL that bad.

[openeyes]

Originally Posted by KazeCraven

Oh, I was just speaking for me personally. But I'm sure I'll get to 50 and say, "Oh just a few more years please."

How old are you now? A lot of the baby boomers that are now health nuts didn't think they wanted to live past 30.

I see myself wanting to live as long as I have energy and something worthwhile to do. Some people don't have that at 20, while others keep it into their 90s. To me, even a couple centuries is a rather brief span of time.

[ginkgo]

One woman figured out that the average person in America eats 7 times as much food as the average person in China. A woman from Japan told me that they eat a lot less food than Americans. Maybe people eat 10 times more food than they need.

Joel Fuhrman, M.D. coined the term nutritarian. It means eating nutrient dense foods. Americans eat too much food and calories and not enough nutrition. Digesting food requires a lot of life energy.

[Dreamline]

I've been eating half as much at lunch than I normally do and my appetite has no idea I have changed.

Jennifer

[openeyes]

Originally Posted by bman

I notice that 1 out of 3 americans are obesed.

Before even considering calorie restriction... try eating the right food in the right amount first, and change lifestyle.

There's no way calorie restriction is even within reach. It is not in the equation. Americans... are waaaaaaaaayyyyyyy too fat.

One issue with caloric restriction is that the animal studies use animals that have been bred over generations to be genetically very similar, one group is allowed to eat however much it wants, often gaining weight over time, and the other group is fed a certain amount, such as 30%, less than the ad lib group, rather than taking skinny and fit animals and having them reduce their personal intake by 30%. If someone makes a point of maintaining a steady, healthy weight throughout their lifespan (without lots of execise burning calories), in comparison to their peers who become obese, they may actually be following some degree of caloric restriction.

[BoBoGuy]

Originally Posted by ginkgo

One woman figured out that the average person in America eats 7 times as much food as the average person in China. A woman from Japan told me that they eat a lot less food than Americans. Maybe people eat 10 times more food than they need.

Joel Fuhrman, M.D. coined the term nutritarian. It means eating nutrient dense foods. Americans eat too much food and calories and not enough nutrition. Digesting food requires a lot of life energy.

Ginkgo, thanks for the introduction to the term Nutritarian. It was a shock to find that I am indeed a Nutritarian and didn’t realize it.

I Googled the term and found tons of information on Dr. Fuhrman’s web site and also many informative videos on You Tube.

Nutritarian much better describes my dietary lifestyle than Flexitarianism.

Much appreciated and thanks again.

Bo

[Andrew Brunelle]

I've been restricting calories for years ever since I started eating healthier. I found I didn't need as much as I did before when I ate the SAD. I find 1500 or so calories, maybe less or more some days, works well for me and I haven't lost or gained any significant amount of weight in more than 4 years. It's stayed in the 170-178 range for 4 years just eating when I am hungry and choosing good foods to eat.