Calorie Restriction: Could You Live Longer? at Her Active Life

Click here for the Lead Stories

Calorie Restriction: Could You Live Longer?

Posted February 6, 2008 at 12:00 PM by Aimee Gerzofsky

Section: Her Health, Body Image, Eating Disorders, Her Nutrition, Diet Myths, Healthy Eating

Calorie Counting You’ve certainly heard of cutting calories to lose weight - but what about calorie restriction as a permanent lifestyle? In this series, writer Aimee Gerzofsky looks at both sides of the contentious debate over the merits of the Calorie Restriction lifestyle. Can it really improve your health, or is it just another fad? Read on for the apparent positives to the diet, and come back next week for the other side of the argument.

Though it is impossible to stop the inevitable aging process, there may be a way to slow it down. Some studies have shown that the Calorie Restriction (CR) diet is the most successful (and natural) way to slow down aging and even improve one’s health.

Calorie Restriction is the process of reducing one’s daily caloric intake by 10-40% while maintaining a sufficient intake of essential nutrients. CR advocates claim the lifestyle will slow down aging and prevent diseases and the mortality risk that results from illness. Because calories are essentially energy, it is important to maintain an adequate amount of essential nutrients in one’s diet, especially vitamins and minerals, because the restriction of them will not produce the positive results that come from CR.

In 1993, the Calorie Restriction Society was a work in progress. However, in December of 1994, the CR Society was born and is still run by president Brian Delaney. They are a society based on the mission of answering members’ questions via email, hosting CR conferences and working closely with the media to inform the masses about CR.

The success of the CR Society is closely linked to both claims and studies that Calorie Restriction provides a vast amount of benefits; it helps slow down aging, prevents a variety of health complication and even improves different bodily functions. And while many companies and organizations have made claims similar to this, research conducted by the CR Society has shown beneficial results in a variety of animals. The results from human testing, however, still make it hard to determine the relationship between Calorie Restriction and a healthier life.

Practicing CR has been tested vigorously, especially on mice and rats, showing a high success rate in terms of the correlation between Calorie Restriction and the anti-aging process. Unfortunately, even those results have not always been consistent when it comes to considering age or species of the animal when inducing CR. According to Caloric Restruction, results differ from species to species. While CR has proven highly successful on mice, rats, even certain breeds of dogs, it did not work as well on the housefly.

Even less conclusive is the study of the effect of CR on humans. The practice of CR has displayed a variety of results amongst human test subjects, most of them being beneficial, with results showing positive effects on cardiac functioning and weight reduction.

While it is obvious that high-calorie diets generally are not beneficial, Calorie Reduction has a downside too. According to Caloric Restriction, CR can result in the mental stress of increased hunger, which can lead to depression. Additionally, this may make it more difficult to exercise, a healthy way to maintain or lose weight while keeping the body fit. Additionally, there has been a looming misconception that there is a link between Calorie Restriction and Anorexia. The CR Society has gone out of their way to clarify the issue, comparing the two practices and making them look as opposite as night and day. Because CR is not considered a diet, the weight lost from the practice should not be for the satisfaction of maintaining a more attractive physical self. If anything, weight loss is actually considered a side effect of the CR process.

So if you’re considering a natural, safe way of slowing down aging that is cheaper than plastic surgery, Calorie Restriction is probably the safest, most efficient method. However, while this is not considered a diet, there is still a big commitment involved. If you’re willing to adapt a new way of eating, and the potential side effects that come along with it, then CR just might be your golden ticket to a more eternal youth.

For more information about the CR Society, visit them online.