I'm not exactly the poster child for self-restraint when it comes to food intake, but do you find these people a little wacky too? The Wall Street Journal had an article about the positive benefits of calorie restriction, and it was pretty convincing. The lives of test animals were extended by years over their expected lifespans merely by restricting their intake of food to the human equivalent of 1500 calories a day. As one calorie-restriction enthusiast put it: "Every calorie you eat takes a second off your life."
I was talking about this with Bryan this afternoon, and he said that he expects that medical technology will enable us to live these longer lives without the need for highly restrictive eating habits or other practices that seem odd to those of us who live in the world of pre-packaged low-fat Baked Doritos and Chinese take-out. He puts a lot of faith in science, which you might expect from someone with a degree in biology. I envy those who can live by such a plan – the self-control required to limit yourself to 1500 daily calories seems foreign and remote to me. (But then, a regular exercise regimen seemed foreign until recently. It's getting easier.) I want to live forever too, but is it worth denying yourself the pleasure of those extra calories?
The WSJ article also made it plain that such a lifestyle requires tremendous time, planning, and organization. I wonder whether the time they spend maintaining proper nutrition on this diet balances out with the time they gain in doing so.
At the moment this seems like a pretty clear case of living forever by giving up everything that makes you want to. But the CR-diet people may have the last laugh as they eat their wheat germ and dance on our graves.
I was talking about this with Bryan this afternoon, and he said that he expects that medical technology will enable us to live these longer lives without the need for highly restrictive eating habits or other practices that seem odd to those of us who live in the world of pre-packaged low-fat Baked Doritos and Chinese take-out. He puts a lot of faith in science, which you might expect from someone with a degree in biology. I envy those who can live by such a plan – the self-control required to limit yourself to 1500 daily calories seems foreign and remote to me. (But then, a regular exercise regimen seemed foreign until recently. It's getting easier.) I want to live forever too, but is it worth denying yourself the pleasure of those extra calories?
The WSJ article also made it plain that such a lifestyle requires tremendous time, planning, and organization. I wonder whether the time they spend maintaining proper nutrition on this diet balances out with the time they gain in doing so.
At the moment this seems like a pretty clear case of living forever by giving up everything that makes you want to. But the CR-diet people may have the last laugh as they eat their wheat germ and dance on our graves.
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