April's CR Diary

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April 01, 2005

Mild to Moderate

Welcome commenters! It's wonderful to generate so much chatting! Thanks for visiting!

Is that the Dan I think it is? The Dan who inspired MR to write that sacred document, "RANT: Moderate CR," that convinced me to take my calories lower and my nutrition higher? That also convinced me that MR is without question the coolest guy on earth, and hopefully will remain so for at least the next hundred years? It sounds like that particular Dan. If so, how appropriate! In my festival of CR birthday week, which MR is making last the entire eight days I'm here, we recently celebrated the occasion on which I read said RANT for the first time.

I sorta feel like we're re-treading the arguments of the RANT from 2002. It's still the case the "moderate" CR is unlikely to get much in the way of extending lifespan, though the health benefits of eating a diet that isn't entirely crap are pleasant enough: avoiding early heart attack and type 2 diabetes, not looking like a big slug. I'm all for people avoiding looking like big slugs, especially if I have to look at them for any extended period of time, and I'm all for solving the staffing crisis in our hospitals by keeping people from having heart attacks and strokes. But seriously, why stop there? We can do better. With a little more self-discipline, a little more thought and planning, and a little more concern for our futures, we can achieve actual lengthening of human lifespan. Not a whole terribly lot -- that's why I'm fundraising for the Mprize, so we can do better -- but some.

Ah, but then the side effects debate. I always find this a bit annoying because I think that the side effects debate is dominated by the people who have had a lot of negative side effects. Like the whole libido thing. The only thing that has changed about my libido is that I'm now violently attracted to skinny guys eating giant salads. The people who are having fabulous, satisfying sex lives *while on pretty severe CR* are not chatting about it! Why? Because it's a touch socially awkward and really rather rude to go bragging about how much sex you have. So when people do a CR Society archive search on something like "libido" all they get are rants about how these skinny guys have lost all interest in sex. The girls aren't really talking at all, and lots of CR'd men have told me in private conversation that while their libido has *changed,* those changes they consider for the better. For instance, at least five men on strict CR have told me that they no longer size up every woman they meet as a sex object. However, they enjoy satisfying relationships with their partners, relationships that involve sex but don't *revolve* around sex. I actually think that's pretty cool. If CR makes men more likely to treat women like people, to really get to know them before becoming attracted to them sexually, then I know a lot of women who will be interested in coming to the next CR Society conference. And btw: they're all gorgeous, salad-eating skinny girls. Maybe Robert and David had better open conference registration now... if word gets out that I'm bringing my crew of vegetable eating CR girlfriends, the conference might fill up really fast.

On to more "problems" with CR. Dan raises:

"Calorie restriction, especially when severe, can leave a person with minimal reserves and change the chemistry of the body enough that doctors no longer understand what they're looking at."

True, doctors don't know what they're looking at. Last time I went to the doctor, the doctor definitely hadn't seen any creature in as good health as I am in a long time. Minimal reserves? This is definitely true if you're planning to say, run around in winter in Calgary with no clothes on. But if you're going to do that, CR is the least of your problems. To quote the gorgeous redhead sitting next to me (he's writing a book, I think) "CR works BECAUSE it makes you healthy!" That's why CR practitioners can never take sick days -- everyone knows we don't get sick anymore! The anecdotal evidence on this is overwhelming, and I'm hoping that studies like Luigi Fontana's will explain more about why this happens.

Also, CR'd folks don't snore. Last night, MR and I were awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of the person NEXT DOOR snoring! It sounded like someone using a power tool! Think of the women who could be convinced to cook CR meals for their husbands if they knew that CR prevents snoring!

So now we're down to problems with implementation. The medical profession and public health "authorities" are notorious for not wanting to tell people the truth if the truth hurts. "Eat crap -- in moderation!" they say. So people keep eating gak, keep getting sick and fatter as they age, and wonder why if they're doing everything "right" everything is going so wrong. Telling the public to eat a low-fat, "balanced" diet and to exercise moderately has resulted in exactly what Jay Olshansky so eloquently proved at the debate in Montreal: the population of the US, with the UK, Australia and Canada not far behind, is rapidly becoming obese! Especially children! Ick ick ick! The kinds of parents who, like my mom and MR's mom, fed us healthy food and rarely darkened the door of a McDonalds, are fewer and farther between. School cafeteria food is a nightmare, everyone is working so darned much that they don't have much time to cook and they don't have the skills to cook quick, easy meals that are also very healthful and low calorie (hence the purpose of my blog and Mary's wonderful new blog with menus, located here:
http://eatwell4life.blogspot.com/, and the CR Society website, at http://www.calorierestriction.org (see also link on side of my blog)

Yes, CR is an adjustment. I'd argue that it's easier than all the silly diets that have marched through our bookstores and supermarkets in the last thirty years. I mean really: eat meat and cheese all the time? Eat no fat ever (yeah I did that one.) Memorize the glycemic index? Memorize the POINTS system? How about this one: EAT FEWER CALORIES!

In an article in _Nature_ re: Jay Olshansky's new study on obesity and life-expectancy, you find this quote:
"We'd like nothing more than to be proven wrong," says
Olshanky's colleague David Allison, a biostatistician at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. "I hope we continue to figure out what causes obesity, and how to prevent it and more successfully treat it."

Friends, this is not rocket science! How do we prevent obesity? People need to eat fewer calories! Have the weak, pathetic recommendations of public health authorities managed to do anything as of yet to stop the obesity crisis? No, it's getting worse and worse and worse. And now it's getting to the children, who really don't have much control over their food environment.

I am always amazed at how people who say they eat "healthy" really eat. Tons of empty calories in grains, very few vegetables, tons of meat that is high in saturated fat, and fat and sugar laden desserts as more than just the occasional treat. How many times a week does the average American family order pizza for dinner? Cereal for breakfast, a sandwich and chips for lunch (with maybe an apple or a banana), pizza and a salad covered with gak-filled salad dressing for dinner. Is it any wonder that people can barely fit into airplane seats anymore?

AND PEOPLE ARE WORRIED ABOUT THE LONG TERM EFFECTS OF CR???

This is clearly an issue where the issue is not the issue.

When people seem irrationally angry about something, when their reaction seems to be emotionally hostile in a way that is disproportional to the importance of the topic at hand, it's usually a hint that there's something they're not being quite honest about.

So why don't the public health authorities recommend CR?

Now let me just be clear -- I'm not picking on Dan. I think Dan is really cool. Dan is a long-term CR practitioner and list-person, and if it weren't for Dan, MR might never have written the RANT, and I might never have fallen for him. So if the truth be told, I owe a significant part of my current blissful happiness to Dan. And to some guy named Mike who seems to have disappeared, but who wrote that he didn't want to be part of an experiment. To which MR said, "Then understand that you will age and die like your neighbors." Which led me to spend months saying to people, "You will age and die like your neighbors." Maybe I will append it to read, "You will age, die and snore like MR's neighbors."

Dan claims to advocate for moderate CR, though I've heard rumors that his own CR practice is pretty hardcore -- Dan? ;) I imagine that unlike Olshansky, Dan would draw the line for what we should advocate for the general public to do at much closer to where I would draw it, and probably much closer to what I actually practice.

But here's where I think the difference may lie. I want more health, more life, more years, and more fun. To me, that means that I'd better do more CR. So I'm constantly adjusting my life to improve my nutrition and lower my calories. I make compromises like we all do, but I have every intention of pursuing CR as far as I can happily go. I have no artificial line for how far is "too far" -- as long as I'm happy, healthy, having fun, and living a life that is in accordance with my values, I'm going to keep dropping my calories. There will come a point when I stabilize out at a level that is sustainable, but I'm not there yet.

Aubrey de Grey asked me if I was still losing weight, and I said, "Well, we're talking about that." Meaning that MR and I are constantly discussing what I can do to take my calories lower while maintaining excellent nutrition and continuing to do things I think are too much fun to give up. It's nice to be in a relationship with someone who really can't complain that you're too skinny. You can all rest assured that I have one of the safest CR diets on earth... in addition to reading my blog every day, MR actually watches me eat and cooks for me for about a week a month these days. Any nutritional deficiency will be spotted immediately.

My contact with serious life-extensionists, both through the CR Society and through the Mprize, has made me more committed to intensifying my CR practice. Eating more crap just isn't worth it, when you compare the short-term benefits, long-term benefits, and pure and simple coolness of the hardcore CR lifestyle.

After all, I don't want to miss escape velocity by just a few years...

And I won't look like Kate Moss no matter how few calories I eat. I'm just lucky that way. ;)

Posted by april at April 1, 2005 09:30 AM

Comments

Posted by: David Gobel at April 1, 2005 02:15 PM

Posted by: Dan at April 1, 2005 06:57 PM

Posted by: Willie at April 4, 2005 03:03 AM

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