WANT TO LIVE A LONGER HEALTHIER LIFE?
EAT LESS
“Since the 1930s, investigators have consistently found that laboratory rats and mice live up to 40 percent longer than usual and also appear to be more resistant to age-related diseases when fed a diet that has at least 30 percent fewer calories than they would normally consume. Now researchers are exploring whether and how caloric restriction will affect aging in monkeys and other nonhuman primates. NIA has also begun preliminary studies of calorie restriction in people. A pilot study tested 6 months of calorie restriction on 48 people and provided the basis for the 5-year CALERIE study. This study involves 250 healthy volunteers ages 25 to 45 and is being conducted at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Tufts University in Boston, and Washington University in St. Louis.”taken from the website of the government’s own NIH National Institute on Aging (Topics of Interest: Calorie Restriction)
In my LAST BLOG POST I once again confirmed that when it comes to health, Blood Sugar rules the roost. What I mean is that in some form or fashion, virtually all diseases can be tied back to Blood Sugar Dysregulation and LIVING THE HIGH CARB LIFESTYLE — even when your blood work is “normal”. The CALERIE Team (Comprehensive Assessment of Long-term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy) made up of 13 doctors and Ph.D researchers, is back for the attack with a study published in last week’s edition of JAMA Internal Medicine called Effect of Calorie Restriction on Mood, Quality of Life, Sleep, and Sexual Function in Healthy Nonobese Adults.
Just like the study’s name would imply, the authors took a look at still more of the effects of Calorie Restriction on human health — this time in non-obese individuals without DIABETES. 220 healthy people from three different universities were followed to see how much food they normally consumed. Then for the next two years, they were only allowed to eat 75% of that amount. In other words, the researchers cut the experimental group’s customary energy intake by 25%. Here are the cherry-picked conclusions of this research.
“Calorie restriction (CR) increases longevity in many species and reduces risk factors for chronic diseases. The CR and AL groups [Ad Libitum — eating as much as you want] lost an average of 16.7 pounds compared with <1 pound respectively at month 24. Compared with the AL group, the CR group had significantly improved mood, reduced tension, improved general health and sexual drive and relationship at month 24 as well as improved sleep duration at month 12.”
Here’s what’s wild. This study was absolutely not an attempt to lose weight, as these people already had “normal” BMI’s (INTERESTING PHENOMENON concerning normal BMI’s and weight loss). What’s fascinating (but not surprising in light of the quote from the top of the page) is that everything else improved as well — MOOD, SEXUAL FUNCTION, STRESS, and OVERALL HEALTH were all significantly improved over the eat-as-much-as-you-want group; even though all indications (blood work, BMI, PHYSICAL EXAMINATION, etc) showed the AL group to be normal / healthy. Firstly, I believe this is an indication of the skyrocketing number of Americans who are MONW. Secondly, it is more proof that everything comes back to BLOOD SUGAR. And here’s what you need to take to the bank concerning what we learned from this study.
The PALEO DIET, which I strongly advocate for THOSE PATIENTS (or HERE & HERE) with CHRONIC INFLAMMATORY DEGENERATIVE DISEASES and AUTOIMMUNITY, knocks it out of the park as far as real life results are concerned. Although some of you might need to ratchet things up to the next level (HERE), a Paleo Diet (modified according to an ELIMINATION DIET) is going solve the majority of health problems of the majority of the people who stick with it. Doubters need only look at the links. This is because the Paleo Diet not only controls Blood Sugar extremely well, it also cuts out the most potentially immuno-reactive foods. And once more we are given living, breathing proof that we can all (self included) eat less — some of us much less — than we are currently eating. The cool thing about Paleo is that most people have no need to count calories (HERE — at the end of this link).
But I already know what you’re thinking. You feel you can’t do this because you are ADDICTED TO SUGAR AND JUNK CARBS. Believe me when I tell you that I have seen people much worse off than yourself get their lives back on track simply by learning to control what they eat. There are a million ways to motivate yourself to succeed for one week. One week? That’s right. If you can find a way to make it through the first week, things get easier — much easier. For more information on Calorie Restriction as a way of life (not to mention tons and tons of peer-review), visit the website of the CR SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL.
