Bare-minimum diet: Is long life the payoff?

[Lifterforlife]

I am reading Dr. Weil's latest book "Healthy Aging". He spends quite a bit of time on the concept of prolonged life through healthy lifestyles.

The people of Okinawa have the most precisely documented aging records and seem to live the longest, and happiest, of all people.

Their diet is full and rich with proteins, carbs and fats. They are free of obesity and "Western" diseases. Their environment is clean and their family/support system is strong.

Their only competition for longevity seems to be one other isolated group of people in Sardinia who have the same clean environment with the "Mediterranean Diet".

I've read nothing so far about the bare minimum diet in this book, but I understand the concept and its supposed success with lab rats. I've also seen one person practicing it after a cancer scare and she is not a pretty picture ... skin and bones.

Good luck and good health whoa.

I was going to respond to this post, up until I read this response. Couldn't have said it better myself. Great post.

 

[whoa182]

Yeah Okinawans eat less food... Infact they are eating around 30% less food than the rest of japan and their diet is a very healthy one. They have very little disease in old age and have the most centarians in the world.

We do Calorie Restriction a bit better in that we track nutrients and make sure we get enough or of each and have regular blood tests 2-3 times a year. Obviously okinawans are not garanteed to get all required nutrition but I'm sure they are not to bad! But as shown with mice, if you don't get adequate amounts of certain nutrients than life span can be affected. It's proven that its not just about how healthy you eat, but how many calories consumed...

In a study what was noted was CR'd Mice who lived far past the Control group ended up consuming around the same amount of calories by the end of their life as the control mice consumed, just over a longer period.

Heres a really good article explaining calorie restriciton better and the evidence for it. If anyone is interesting in reading a really good book then Roy Walford 120 diet is a brilliant read.

Heres are some links

Calorie Restriction Drastically Reduces Risk of Heart Attack, Stroke and Diabetes

http://mednewsarchive.wustl.edu/medadmin/PAnews.nsf/0/F76B2638BDB6CAE786256E76005D51F6

Eating less may mean a longer life if you can stand the hunger pangs

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/science/20041124-9999-lz1c24cr.html

Good luck and good health whoa

Thanks

 

[fergie]

enjoy life, eat lots

 

[whoa182]

enjoy life, eat lots

I do eat lots, just not calorie dense food...

Sometimes i have as much as 15-20 different foods a day and they are tasty!!!

For example, this is one of my meals the other day:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v141/whoa182/typicaldinner.jpg

Food List: Dinner.FLS
Num. Foods: 10
Food #1 : Beans, green, cooked, boiled, drained without salt
Food #2 : Broccoli, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt
Food #3 : Cauliflower, frozen, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt
Food #4 : Corn, sweet, yellow, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt
Food #5 : Cod, cooked
Food #6 : Oil, olive, salad or cooking
Food #7 : Sweetpotato, cooked, boiled, without skin, without salt
Food #8 : Hot Salsa
Food #9: Balsamic Vinegar (15 years old)
*Food#10: Red Onion ( didn't calculate to total calories or nutrients)
Food #11 Low Fat Yoghurt (added it here but didnt have with dinner)

NUTRIENT TOTALS:

Abs. Values %RDA/SA

Calories 658.54__cal 44% UE
Protein 33.60__gm 42% UE
Total Fat 19.81__gm 59%
Sat. Fat 3.99__gm 60%
Mono. Fat 10.29__gm 47%
Poly. Fat 2.38__gm 48%
Carbohydrate 95.88__gm 44%
Fiber 19.81__gm 66%
Cholesterol 23.97__mg 24%
Vit. A 26587.01__IU 532% RDA
Vit. B6 1.11__mg 55% RDA
Vit. B12 0.53__mcg 27% RDA
Vit. C 239.88__mg 480% RDA
Vit. E 6.00__mg 60% RDA
Thiamine 0.41__mg 27% RDA
Folacin 242.03__mcg 121% RDA
Riboflavin 0.67__mg 40% RDA
Niacin 5.07__mg 27% RDA
Panto. Acid 2.50__mg 50% SA
Calcium 428.45__mg 36% RDA
Copper 0.46__mg 23% SA
Iron 4.67__mg 47% RDA
Magnesium 135.94__mg 39% RDA
Manganese 1.63__mg 54% SA
Phosphorus 397.60__mg 33% RDA
Potassium 1614.69__mg 81% RDA
Selenium 30.58__mcg 44% RDA
Sodium 167.29__mg 33% SA
Zinc 2.39__mg 16% RDA
Tyrosine 0.79__gm 82% RDA
Lysine 1.79__gm 249% RDA
Phenylalanine 1.01__gm 106% RDA
Leucine 1.84__gm 192% RDA
Valine 1.34__gm 160% RDA
Methionine 0.57__gm 190% RDA
Cystine 0.25__gm 83% RDA
Tryptophan 0.29__gm 160% RDA
Threonine 1.06__gm 221% RDA
Isoleucine 1.12__gm 155% RDA

That is only one meal

I have my dinner then a salad later in the evening, also eggwhites or porridge and fruit for breakfast.

So it's quite a lot of food but not exactly calorie dense.

 

[fergie]

beef chicken rice and protein shakes for me for the most part

 

[whoa182]

I use whey protein powder almost everyday so it usually gets me to around 70-80g protein per day, without it my protein intake would be poor.

 

[bells_trumpet]

I understand the principle of reducing free radical intake by eating less food. Isn't there a way to detoxify foods and liquids that we eat and drink? I believe that sunlight and pollution are the major causes of free radicals. What is the best way to minimize their effect w/o restricting what you eat? I don't think I could live on such a diet.

 

[whoa182]

It's quite obvious that free radical do cause damage and can accelerate the aging process and cause some of the diseases we get in old age. I think it's really important for you guys to get plenty of antioxidants in your diet because as you probably know, when you excersise ROS production goes up, we do already have defense mechanisms to deal with these, but supplementing something like Green Tea or EGCG Extract is a good idea.

One thing that calorie restriction does is improve DNA Proof reading and thus resulting in less mutations. DNA is already pretty good at keeping a low number of mutations but it does happen - only less often when on a calorie restricted diet and proof reading mechanisms are upregulated

Calorie Restriction lowers the number of oxidants and results in delayed mtDNA accumulation and reduced mitochodnria apoptotic pathways.

I think that just adding some antioxidants to your diet wont really do much. Although scientists are now trying develop a pill than will mimic Calorie Restriction, so you could basically eat all you want and still get some of the benifits of calorie restriction.\


One side effect that I didn't mention was that I am sometimes cold more than I used to be. My body temp is usually around 1-2 degrees below whats considered normal.

 

[MikeMartial]

But how does one on a CR diet engage in vigorous physical activity? Is heavy resistance training and/or cardio even possible?

The increased metabolism would put a huge demand on the body for a NEED of a higher caloric diet than the average person. I think I can safely assume there are no "average" person browsing this board.

Have there been any controlled studies with athletes and CR diets? I'd think you'd see a lot of run-down immune systems and injuries, but this is just my opinion. It would be interesting to see. And I'm not talking about daily yoga---I'm talking about athletes.

I was hoping you'd address these question, Whoa.

 

[nsashbl01]

It's all interesting what drives us. BB's love to eat often and high quantities. I have gotten crap all my life for the amount of food I eat and how I look. The funny thing is that the people that have negative things to say about those CR diet, or those on BB diets are always unhealthy people. I never get shit from someone who's muscular and or thin. So whatever motivates us to go that extra mile for our beliefs, is a good thing!