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The Search for the Anti-Aging Diet

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Eat Less, Live Longer?

Maybe gene manipulation will allow us to live to 200—someday. Until then, there’s calorie restriction (CR). Three large studies are under way to test the principle in people. Early findings show promise. In 2007, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis reported that CR improved heart function and lowered inflammation levels in a group of volunteers—two signs that could mean better health and longer life down the road. In a study of 48 volunteers, Eric Ravussin and his colleagues at Louisiana State University’s Pennington Biomedical Research Laboratory found that after six months those men and women who cut calories by 25 percent reduced their insulin levels and their core body temperature—two changes associated with longevity. They also had fewer signs of the kind of chromosomal damage that is associated with aging and cancer.

Clinical trials are far from proving that CR dramatically extends life span in humans. Still, an estimated 50,000 Americans subscribe to CR, a practice popularized by Roy Walford, M.D. Walford, a pathologist at UCLA, wrote several books—including Beyond the 120-Year Diet—on the health benefits of eating a low-calorie, high-nutrient diet. (Walford died in 2004, at age 79, from complications of Lou Gehrig’s disease.)

Peter Voss, 53, is an expert in artificial intelligence who runs a start-up firm in Los Angeles. A Google search led me to Voss’s lively website about his experiences with CR (optimal.org), which he began in 1997. He now consumes just 1,850 calories daily, which he guesses is about one-third less than what he ate more than a decade ago. “The more I read about calorie restriction, the more interested I became, until I finally decided to give it a try,” he told me when I reached him. Five foot 10 inches tall, he now weighs 130, down from 155 pounds 10 years ago. His blood pressure, good to begin with, resembles that of an active teenager, about 100/60. His triglyceride and cholesterol levels are rock bottom.

In the beginning Voss scrupulously counted calories and scoured nutrient labels. Now he monitors his progress by keeping his weight stable. Voss’s diet is Spartan by any standard. Steel-cut oatmeal with fruit and skim milk is a special treat. But Voss insists that he isn’t always hungry. “I eat whenever I feel like it,” he says. Instead of reaching for a cookie for a snack, however, he crunches a carrot or a red pepper. At restaurants, he sticks with appetizers or a first-course salad. His girlfriend, a marathon runner, also follows a CR diet, which probably helps him stick with the program.

There are downsides. Calorie restriction reduces testosterone levels, which in men can mean lower libido. (Researchers don’t have much data about the way CR affects female hormones.) Voss is now so thin that sitting on a hard chair gets uncomfortable. But he insists he still has all the energy he needs to work the 14 hours a day required by his company, and to squeeze in an hour or so of power walking most days.

Not everyone thinks CR will buy Peter Voss much extra time. Recently, John Phelan, Ph.D., a researcher at UCLA, published a mathematical model predicting that calorie restriction is likely to offer at best a 7 percent increase in human life expectancy. As evidence he pointed out that the average Japanese male consumes about 2,300 calories a day. Men on Okinawa consume about 17 percent fewer calories—very close to Peter Voss’s 1,850 a day—but they only live a little less than a year longer than Japanese mainlanders. Calorie restriction may have its most dramatic effects in species that have experienced periodic famines, forcing them to evolve extreme measures to shut down reproduction and focus on staying alive until food supplies return. We humans, naysayers argue, aren’t likely to be among them.

Still, many researchers are excited about the potential benefits. In August, just back from an Experimental Biology conference where the latest findings on CR were presented, Susan Roberts, Ph.D., who is directing a calorie-restriction experiment at Tufts University, wrote in an e-mail: “The human data on people who are already doing CR themselves is extremely impressive. I was sitting in the meeting virtually ready to sign up…myself!”

Practicing the 80 Percent Solution

That’s all I needed to hear. The next day I gave CR a try. For about 14 hours. The experience made me understand why even researchers who are convinced that calorie restriction will extend life span doubt it’s of much practical use. Let’s face it: it’s hard enough to get people to make the changes that are already proven to increase the odds of a long and healthy life, like eating more vegetables and exercising half an hour a day.

There’s a delicious paradox here. Research into calorie restriction comes at a time when people around the world are consuming more calories than ever—and packing on the pounds. Calorie-restriction diets may seem extreme. But the truth is, most of us would do well to follow the basic tenet, which is to favor low-calorie, nutrient-rich foods. To offer support and advice for people trying calorie restriction themselves, a group of enthusiasts started the CR Society in 1994 (calorierestriction.org). Their advice is anything but controversial: avoid simple sugars and flours, eat lots of leafy greens and other vegetables, choose monounsaturated fats and omega-3 fats and avoid saturated fat. Peter Voss’s typical daily fare is a nutritionist’s dream: strawberries with nonfat yogurt, almonds, steamed vegetables, salmon, five-bean chili, peanut butter and bananas. If more of us helped ourselves to a menu like his, we’d be healthier for it even if we didn’t cut calories. And probably add years to our lives.

Long before the verdict is in on calorie restriction, in other words, and even longer before effective longevity pills hit the market, there’s a lot most of us can do to better our odds of living long and staying active and alert. For my part, I decided to dish up a few extra servings of vegetables, snack on nuts, treat myself to a small square of dark chocolate for dessert and get to the gym a little more often. Oh yes, and to take a page from those long-lived Okinawans, who have been practicing their own simple form of calorie restriction long before modern science came along. According to Bradley Willcox, the Okinawans have traditionally followed hara hachi bu, a custom of eating until they are just 80 percent full. The practice allows them to consume fewer calories without bothering to read nutrition labels—and it means they don’t have to obsess about what to eat and not eat but can go about enjoying themselves.

And that, in the end, may be even more crucial to their longevity than, well, sweet potatoes or sanpin tea. Finding delight in family and friends, having something to look forward to every day: studies of centenarians around the world suggest that these intangibles, even more than the specifics of diet, may be the most powerful secret to longevity. The Okinawans have a name for it: ikigai, or “finding your reason to live.”

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