Some people call it the death-defying diet, but does severely restricting your calorie intake really let you cheat death (or at least postpone it for a while)?Or is this just another way of searching for the impossible -- eternal youth with no strings attached?Well, there is no such thing as something for nothing...
* Do you want to live in good health for more than a 100 years? * Do you want to be permanently hungry? * Do you want to feel cold all the time? Most people would answer 'yes', 'no' and 'no' to these questions, and I'm no exception.
According to the advocates of calorie restriction you can live an unusually long life -- if you are happy to be cold and hungry most of the time.
Personally, I would rather eat healthy but filling meals and do some exercise -- you'll lose weight but you won't feel deprived.
But for those of you who want to know more -- what IS calorie restriction (or CR)?Well, it's a system of deliberately eating far fewer calories than your body really needs while maintaining nutrient levels.
Keeping an adequate intake of vitamins and minerals is very important for general health, and vital if you are following a very strict regime of eating (or not, actually).
It's not a new idea, in fact it's been around since the 1930s, but the best-known promoter of CR was Dr Roy Walford.
He showed that CR can fight many of the serious diseases that tend to strike in middle age, and he claimed that it would be possible to live to 120.
And yet Dr Walford died at 79 -- from one of the diseases (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, for those who need to know) that are accelerated by CR.
Followers of CR also have to deal with feeling the cold -- they don't experience the insulating effect of body fat to keep them warm and instead have to rely on layers of clothing.
Another side-effect is the effect on your libido.
For women CR may increase it -- yippee -- but before you throw away every chocolate biscuit in the house, be warned that CR can decrease men's sex drive! Then there's the problem of your eating habits.
In our food-obsessed society, someone who says no to food is automatically viewed with suspicion, or worse as a crank.
You probably know someone who is allergic to nuts, or can't eat wheat, and -- go on, admit it -- you find their restricted eating can be difficult, especially when you're trying to feed them.
Imagine how much more tricky it would be if you needed to weigh all your food using super-accurate postal scales just to make sure you weren't eating a gram too much of anything! And while you're doing all this measuring, calculating and weighing -- not to mention thinking about what foods you can actually eat -- and taking vitamin and mineral supplements, you're feeling constantly hungry as well.
Doesn't sound like much fun to me.
And we all know what happens when we're not supposed to be eating a particular food: there's nothing we crave more -- be it chocolate, cheese, ciabatta or even celery! I love to eat.
Most of us do.
I'm not fat, my body mass index is in the low half of the normal range and I've managed to survive into my forties without starving myself at all.
In fact I weigh less now than I did in my twenties; and I wasn't plump then.
I enjoy a glass of wine -- usually among the first casualties of any diet.
The secret is knowing what's in what you're eating...
Start cooking at home, make smart choices when eating out and keep portions reasonable.
That's it.
Easy -- anyone can do it -- even me.
* Do you want to live in good health for more than a 100 years? * Do you want to be permanently hungry? * Do you want to feel cold all the time? Most people would answer 'yes', 'no' and 'no' to these questions, and I'm no exception.
According to the advocates of calorie restriction you can live an unusually long life -- if you are happy to be cold and hungry most of the time.
Personally, I would rather eat healthy but filling meals and do some exercise -- you'll lose weight but you won't feel deprived.
But for those of you who want to know more -- what IS calorie restriction (or CR)?Well, it's a system of deliberately eating far fewer calories than your body really needs while maintaining nutrient levels.
Keeping an adequate intake of vitamins and minerals is very important for general health, and vital if you are following a very strict regime of eating (or not, actually).
It's not a new idea, in fact it's been around since the 1930s, but the best-known promoter of CR was Dr Roy Walford.
He showed that CR can fight many of the serious diseases that tend to strike in middle age, and he claimed that it would be possible to live to 120.
And yet Dr Walford died at 79 -- from one of the diseases (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, for those who need to know) that are accelerated by CR.
Followers of CR also have to deal with feeling the cold -- they don't experience the insulating effect of body fat to keep them warm and instead have to rely on layers of clothing.
Another side-effect is the effect on your libido.
For women CR may increase it -- yippee -- but before you throw away every chocolate biscuit in the house, be warned that CR can decrease men's sex drive! Then there's the problem of your eating habits.
In our food-obsessed society, someone who says no to food is automatically viewed with suspicion, or worse as a crank.
You probably know someone who is allergic to nuts, or can't eat wheat, and -- go on, admit it -- you find their restricted eating can be difficult, especially when you're trying to feed them.
Imagine how much more tricky it would be if you needed to weigh all your food using super-accurate postal scales just to make sure you weren't eating a gram too much of anything! And while you're doing all this measuring, calculating and weighing -- not to mention thinking about what foods you can actually eat -- and taking vitamin and mineral supplements, you're feeling constantly hungry as well.
Doesn't sound like much fun to me.
And we all know what happens when we're not supposed to be eating a particular food: there's nothing we crave more -- be it chocolate, cheese, ciabatta or even celery! I love to eat.
Most of us do.
I'm not fat, my body mass index is in the low half of the normal range and I've managed to survive into my forties without starving myself at all.
In fact I weigh less now than I did in my twenties; and I wasn't plump then.
I enjoy a glass of wine -- usually among the first casualties of any diet.
The secret is knowing what's in what you're eating...
Start cooking at home, make smart choices when eating out and keep portions reasonable.
That's it.
Easy -- anyone can do it -- even me.
Source...