Eternal life?

[LostInNerSpace]

Maybe not. There is something to be said for restricted calorie diets. I know I would rather look more like the monkey on the left in my golden years.

It would be a tough transition. It would take some practice. Not unlike tennis really. What part of your body do you play tennis with? Arm? Legs? You play with your brain. There are some neurons in muscle tissue but I'm pretty sure the brain does most of the playing. With a lottle bit of practice people should be able to make the same transition to the restricted a calorie diet.

 

[Grayscale]

With a lottle bit of practice people should be able to make the same transition to the restricted a calorie diet.

You're gonna have to give a little more context here but I agree with the last part.

In my experience, our brains will redefine what is "good" to eat. Fatty, high-calorie foods taste good to eat, but they have an excess of the substances our body needs for energy and thus they result in an excess of sorts on our body. Of course, this happens afterwards which is why it's a little bit harder to make the connection and break the habit... when you eat junk food a lot, those tastes become the norm and you are less able to appreciate the taste of healthy food in comparison. Likewise, when you eat excessive quantities of food, this becomes the norm and then you consistently eat too much because you feel that you need that much food.

Especially if you've been overweight and realize the negative impact it makes on your life, if you eat healthy long enough you'll redefine what is "good" to eat based on the fact that you feel happy and healthy, it's much easier to keep up at that point. Seems to me, overeating is often a response to feeling deficiency in other way... is it a coincidence Americans are so depressed and so overweight?

On the flipside, it's no surprise foods that we associate with nausea seem unappetizing. I still remember the only time I have vomited when drinking, I had too much strawberry vodka... to this day I still find the taste of artificial strawberry a bit disgusting, I think this is because "disgusting" is my brain's way of telling me I shouldn't consume something because experience says it will be poisonous to me in some way.

 

[LostInNerSpace]

The brain is quite plastic. The brain you have now is different from the brain you had 12 months ago and from the brain you will have in 12 months time. If you happen to have a persistent craving for carbs/sugar you can break free of that craving in a matter of only four or five days. If you can then maintain new heathier habits for long enough for your brain to reorganize you stand a good chance of locking your new heathier habits.

 

[Haphazard]

How restricted are we talking?

Because fasting turns your brain and body to crap pretty fast.

 

[Blank]

25%*

Actually, when I stopped eating meat as a big fuck-you to all of the people who don't give things up for Lent, I stopped craving meat after the first week and a half. It was crazy.

 

[LostInNerSpace]

I did see that NYT article if that's where you got 25%. The monkey diets were restricted by 30%.

There is a metabolic reason for the carb craving. I don't remember it off the top of my head, but it does not apply to meat. I think it has something to do with blood insulin levels.

 

[Feops]

Did they cross-reference this with how active the monkeys were?

I'll fully agree that the average American could stand to eat a bit less, to their benefit, but active lifestyle demands foooooood.

 

[INTJ123]

tennis?

 

[Quinlan]

If caloric restriction can delay aging, then there should have been significantly fewer deaths in the dieting group of monkeys than in the normally fed comparison group. But this is not the case. Though a smaller number of dieting monkeys have died, the difference is not statistically significant, the Wisconsin team reports.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/science/10aging.html?_r=1

I'm doubtful of anyones's ability to handle chronic hunger throughout their whole life without A. giving in or B. going crazy.

You're trying to fight millions of years of evolution telling you to eat food when it's available.

 

[Kingfisher]

the other option is to increase your level of physical fitness and activity.
great athletes often have high calorie diets.

 

[LostInNerSpace]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/science/10aging.html?_r=1

the difference is not statistically significant

For monkeys. There has been no long term study done on humans. Even then it's too hard to control what people eat to get meaningful results.

the other option is to increase your level of physical fitness and activity.
great athletes often have high calorie diets.

Yes, athletes need more. I like to workout but was joking about stuffing my face.

 

[Quinlan]

For monkeys. There has been no long term study done on humans. Even then it's too hard to control what people eat to get meaningful results.

So what basis is there to support the hypothesis? What's the point of including pictures of monkeys in a thread about calorie restriction, if monkeys aren't relevant to the calorie restriction hypothesis? Or maybe you were serious about the looks side of things?

Maybe I don't get this thread.

 

[multicell]

dawww bitter disappointment, I was hoping we'd be talking about keeping mitochondria from oxygenating.