Comments on: Low-Calorie Diet Staves off Aging & Death in Monkeys

By: subby

subby — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:58:27 +0000

Ascetics since the dawn of humanity have practiced a low calorie diet and they all live to a ripe old age with very alert minds. Of course all they do is sit on their ass and talk. But isn’t that what most of us do anyway?

I think it may have advantages. Such as reduce the sex drive, (which helps one concentrate and discard need to have sex or masturbate) make your mind more alert due to your body pumping your brain full of more blood so you can think of ways to get food. (constant mild hunger makes you preternaturally alert and able to concentrate) And it may also reduce toxic buildup due to your body metabolism slowing down and you digesting less food.

By: Nick Vachon

Nick Vachon — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 04:50:00 +0000

My grandma lived to 102 by smoking heavily, eating fatty foods and enjoying her life. She said “it’s not what you eat, it’s what’s eating you!”

By: Dewalt

Dewalt — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:04:31 +0000

I eat a bucketful of sausage gravy every morning and I am the picture of health.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:45:43 +0000

@ you rang

Are you against those who aren’t obese? What is this ladder you speak of? Is it some kind of symbol at which you are the pinnacle, because you eat a lot and have sex with whoever you want? What does human food consumption have to do with sex? Please tell me your secrets.

Modern humans aren’t endurance animals, we only need high caloric intake in times of extreme physical exertion. I don’t eat like a pig, but I can handle my body pretty well. Did you ever think that maybe you’re a big dude because you eat too much. Is being big practical, that is, unless you have a sudden need to lift a car?

We need quality, not quantity.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:40:14 +0000

Outstanding!

So, when the world is critically overpopulated because of our longer lifespans, at least it’ll take me longer to starve to death because I don’t eat as much as some of the other guys.

Thanks science.

Hopefully rapamycin will cause sterility, too. We certainly don’t need individuals spewing out offspring for hundreds of years. I don’t think the earth can support a trillion near-immortal humans. If so, it’ll just be us, the rats, the squirrels, the roaches and our little microbial friends.

That should be great fun.

By: chris

chris — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 09:58:33 +0000

I wonder what the activity level of the calorie restricted Macaque is compared to the full calorie diet.

I’ve long held the belief or theory that less fuel = less activity = less wear and tear, though I have no scientific proof of any real relationship between these.

As science continues to unravel the mysteries of aging, perhaps we will learn to repair the genetic damage and renew our bodies thus living longer.

What kind of thoughts does a 700 year old man with the body of a 25 year old have?

Will the individual moments be less interesting for the sheer span of them he would’ve seen?

By: YouRang

YouRang — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:00:55 +0000

It occurs to me that the mouse experiment and the macaque experiment were on animals for which the similarity to humans (for this question in any event) are NON-EXISTENT. I say that, because Nova Science Now made an interesting observation on Homo Sapiens. Homo Sapiens IS THE ONLY ENDURANCE ANIMAL AMONG THE PRIMATES. The MOUSE ISN’T an endurance animal, clearly NEITHER is the MACAQUE. In order to get some sense of the effect of caloric restriction on late life ailments, they should have been experimenting on an endurance animal. Nova Science Now called the horse and migrating birds endurance animals; but a human can outrun a horse over a distance of a half marathon or greater (the indians of northern Mexico hunt deer by chasing them until they drop). About the only animal a human can’t outrun is canis canis–the wolf. A good thing about dogs too is that dogs have a relatively short lifetime (compared to macaques say); so the experiment should be very doable. It isn’t clear if chihuahuas are endurance animals or not; so they probably would have to use midsize dogs so the food bill wasn’t prohibitive.

By: YouRang

YouRang — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:44:11 +0000

Caloric restriction ((CR) meaning restricted or … as the context requires) may not work in humans absent a deep recognition that sexual conquest is not the end-all of life. If the CR’er still wishes he or she were higher on the sexual ladder (even if only to the extent of only wanting to survive until the fountain of youth is discovered) then CR might not work. Those low-end of the social ladder on the TV show who were CR’ers may only have succeeded in giving themselves a noble excuse for being at the bottom of the social ladder.

By: YouRang

YouRang — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:03:17 +0000

Since macaques live to 40 and the experiment has been going on for 20, it seems to me that what has actually been proven is that a calorie restricted diet staves off death in susceptible macaques. For those macaques that don’t have a genetic predisposition to diabetes, heart disease or cancer, the jury is still way out. Since both my grandma’s lived to over 103 and neither were small women, and the average age of all my first and second degree relatives whom I have not already outlived (an uncle tried one of those “never attempt this at home”, and I weigh down my sister’s average life span since I’m older but she doesn’t weigh down mine) is 89 2/3; and none of them were thin (except maybe my slightly potbellied grandpa who died at 80), I think I’ll stick to normo-caloric eating. (I do do a variation of the injunction “breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper”. I do “breakfast like a king, lunch like a king and dinner like a king :-) . No seriously, “b like a prince, l like a king and dinner like a store clerk”.) I think it works, being a 51, 37, 41 male who can climb the 30 ft/min for hours that everyone with normal CV health should be able (though I’d like that 37 to be 33–but then the ratio of my chest to waist would be higher than Marilyn Monroe’s) . (PS I used to count my parents as 2 people so my 2 grandma’s wouldn’t overweight the average; but the giving a lower average by counting them as 1, occurred just before my mom died.)
It occurs to me: Were the restricted macaques on the high, low or middle part of the social ladder, since it is very stressful to be on either extreme of the social ladder? Although the restricted macaques could have been on the low end of the ladder and the only ways that being on the low end is stressful are access to food and to sex. So since they were given access to the amount of food they got independent of their status, the only bad part of being on the low end of the ladder is access to sex. So if access to sex was afforded them, being on the low end of the social ladder wouldn’t be stressful. (The humans on calorie restricted diets that I’ve seen look like they were on the low end of the ladder before they went on their diets and most look like they fell off the bottom of the ladder afterward (although a few might have risen from looking like they have a fatal illness.))

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:36:33 +0000

Hemp powder contains a high amount of fiber, all of the essential and non-essential proteins, omegas and vitamins/minerals.

By: Nick

Nick — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 02:41:36 +0000

I take resveratrol and am on something of a self-imposed calorie restricted diet… at least, I assume that’s why I struggle to keep weight on – I’ve lost 10-15 lbs this year – I have a BMI around 20 and bodyfat around 13%. I’m not manorexic – I thoroughly enjoy food, I’ve just trained myself to eat in a grazing manner that makes me less *HUNGRY* and merely hungry. I think it helps regulate my bloodsugar as well. Supposedly if you eat in a grazing manner you’ll pack on the pounds, but I sure ain’t seen it. I even eat more food later in the evening, which is supposed to pack on the pounds.

So, it seems to work in humans, at least for the staying in shape part. I do exercise fairly regularly.

By: Jumblepudding

Jumblepudding — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:57:52 +0000

LOL at the monkeys. The one on the left has better posture, to be sure. Hopefully the resveratrol compound will be available over-the-counter, even if it’s stupidly expensive, so there will be more “test subjects” in the general population.