Eating Less - Living Longer

The Calorie Restriction Society believes that it is possible to live an extraordinarily long and healthy life, start a different career at age 70 and pursue that new ambition with the same zeal that you had when you were young.  They claim that the geriatric generation can function at a very high performance peak without the significant decline that most experience as they age.  How do they do it you ask? Very simply by taking in fewer calories and maintaining adequate nutrition by replacing calorie dense food with calorie-sparse nutrient dense foods. In theory, this is an interesting concept, but I think my body has become addicted to an occasional sweet and it would retaliate if I deprived it of deserts all together.  And what would I do on those days that I need comfort food?  Would I get the same satisfaction if I turned to a raw carrot for sympathy?  On the serious side, I have read several articles on CR over the years and understand that many people are successfully thriving on this diet, but it still sounds like a controlled form of anorexia to me.  If we noticed a change in eating habits accompanied with weight loss in a grand daughter, we would definitely react, intervene and seek help for her.  I have a hard time wrapping my mind around the concept that CR is dangerous for young girls and equated with them having an unhealthy body image to being acceptable in older adults who depend on CR to give them longevity and vitality.  They both sound like eating disorders and this seems like an oxymoron.

 Even though extreme calorie restriction is not a practice that most people should try, Newsweek Magazine  brought this diet to the forefront again by recently published an article which spotlighted several older citizens who have benefited greatly from CR.  What was even more interesting about this article is that scientists are hoping to develop a pill that will mimic the benefits of calorie restrictions without depriving us of chocolate or crumpling our sex drive.  It sounds wonderful, I’m all for sex and chocolate.  In fact, I am all for hanging on to all my faculties while I grow to a ripe old age but I’m not sure that this Fountain of Youth elixir is such a good idea.  Will it open up a Pandora’s box of troubles?  Will people living longer add to the over-population of this planet?  And the pollution?  Will living longer mean staying on the job longer and depriving others needed employment?  Will our financial resources (social security, pensions & 401Ks) support a longer life? Will our kids still love us?  Due to cost, will the poor be deprived access to these pills thus creating a new survival of the fittest?  Is it really a good idea to become dependent on a pill for survival if we aren’t suffering from  a debilitating disease?  Like most scientific discoveries, we won’t really know the answers until years after these pills hit the market.  In the meantime, the best way to maintain optimum health in our old age is to make sure we eat healthy, exercise, laugh everyday and stay in touch with loved ones.’; //leave this line

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