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Calories That Count
Michael Lam, MD, MPH
www.DrLam.com
(READING TIPS: For fast reading, scan through the topic headings in BOLD BLACK, important conclusions in BOLD
BLUE, and " Must Know " in BOLD RED. To jump to specific sections in this article, click on
the respective LINKS in the Contents.
| Before You Begin
Information presented here is for general
educational purposes only. Each one of us is biochemically and metabolically
different. If you have a specific health concern and wish my personalized
nutritional recommendation, write to me by clicking
here. |
Contents
Introduction
Calorie Restriction vs. Malnutrition
Mechanism of Action
History of Calorie Restriction
Animal Application
Human Application
Regular vs. Calorie Restriction
Diet
Mediterranean Diet
Anti-Aging Diet Pyramid
Do You Need Calorie Restriction?
Target Anti-Aging Weight
How
To Calculate Your Ideal Body Weight and Target Anti-Aging Weight
How Many Calories Do I Need To Lose?
Designing An Anti-Aging Diet Plan
Calorie Restriction Precautions
Take Your Time
What You Need To Know
Introduction
Only a single dietary regimen has ever been conclusively demonstrated
to extend life span and improve the heath of laboratory animals and humans.
It is known as calorie restriction
(CR). Together with exercise, this is as close to the magic bullet
as one can hope for in anti-aging. There are very few, if any, disagreements
among anti-aging experts that calorie restriction can increase longevity.
 The
average human consumes 1,500 calories a day. The average American consumes
2,100 calories a day. For most of the population, calorie restriction means taking in about 20-30 percent fewer calories.
For those serious about CR, the restriction can go up to 40%. In other words,
the average-size human on a CR diet might consume 1,500 calories a day,
compared to the 2,100 calories of the typical American. This anti-aging
diet is made up of four or five small meals a day and consists predominantly
of vegetables and fruits. "It requires a psychological profile only one
person in 1,000 has," says Richard Miller, associate director for research
at the University of Michigan Geriatrics Center.
Nevertheless, CR diets are widely practiced by anti-aging experts. The
reasons are clear - the list of the beneficial effects of CR reads like
the packaging on a miracle
cure. Benefits include: Increased average
and maximum life spans and reduction in occurrence of virtually all age-related
diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, autoimmune disease, ocular
degeneration, blood pressure, and cancer.These reductions
range from two-fold to as much as ten-fold. (For example, 50
percent of female control mice of a particular genetic strain develop breast
cancer, but only 5 percent of the same strain developed cancer if on a CR
diet.)
Two caveats - the diets must include plentiful
amounts of vitamins and minerals, and the subjects must be undernourished
without being malnourished.
Calorie Restriction vs.
Malnutrition
Calorie restriction is different from malnutrition,
starving or extended fasting. These practices actually accelerate
the aging process as they create nutritional deficiencies. Calorie restriction, if properly carried out, provides the body with
all the nutrients it needs without overburdening the organs and system functions. By limiting calorie intake to the level required by the body for optimum
functioning (as measured by the maintenance of lean body mass), that miraculous
machine, your body, will self-regulate. When you eat more food than you
need, the engine of your body goes into overdrive in order to digest the
food and store what you don't need in the form of fat. If you restrict
your food intake to only what you need to maintain a physical and active
lifestyle, your body automatically tones down its basal metabolic rate to
conserve the limited amount of energy it receives. This is your body's mechanism
for survival.
Like an old car, your body's engine needs premium gasoline to prime itself
as you age. If you are not mindful of this and continue to abuse your body
with "non-premium" gasoline and rough outings (like going on an eating binge),
you are causing unnecessary strain to your body's organs. Sooner, rather
than later, your body will break down.
What happens to your body as your calorie intake decreases? First, the
work necessary to digest food decreases. In other words, there is less oxidative
stress. Second, the body's metabolic rate automatically slows and readjusts
itself to match your energy expenditure to that of the intake. This is the
body's way of preserving itself. Third, the slowing down of your organ system
gives your organs more rest and prolongs the life span of each of the organs.
As your organs remain healthy, you live longer.
Malnutrition and starvation are extreme forms of calorie restriction,
which is age accelerating and should be avoided. A car cannot
run without gasoline, and your body needs food to generate energy. During
malnutrition or starvation, your body breaks down your muscles and organ
structures for energy, which is very destructive.
Mechanism of Action
The question of how CR works is still open to debate. The leading hypothesis is that calorie restriction reduces the amount
of oxidative damage to the body. Oxidative damage is the foremost
theory as to what causes the deterioration that comes with age. This concept
is known in anti-aging as the "oxygen paradox." While oxygen is required
for life and cellular fuel, the side effects of oxygen metabolism are detrimental
to our heath. The process takes place in cellular factories called mitochondria,
where energy for our body is produced and by-products called free radicals
are also produced. These free radicals are short-lived but voracious agents
that oxidize and damage tissues. The oxidation that occurs in the human
body is identical to the way in which rust is formed on metal, so it is
not unreasonable to say that we will all eventually "rust to death"
if given the opportunity. The free radicals not only damage the tissue,
but also seem to damage the DNA, genetic material that codes for proteins
required for the body's physiological functions.
CR reduces the amount of fuel available for cells and the amount of oxygen
needed by the mitochondria to convert the existing fuel into energy, and
it makes the existing metabolic process more efficient. With CR, fewer
free radicals are generated, the production of enzymes that neutralize the
free radicals increases, and growth hormone levels increase.
CR's effect of lowering oxidative damage is targeted at critical cells in
organs, such as the brain, heart, nerves, and skeletal muscle cells. All
these tissues depend heavily on mitochondrial energy metabolism to generate
cellular energy, and all these tissues have fairly limited self-repair ability.
In addition to lowering oxidative damage, CR
has been proven to increase endogenous growth hormone release from the pituitary
gland. Raising the growth hormone level is key in deterring the
aging process, as symptoms of aging follows the decline in growth hormones
in our bodies.
CR also stimulates the release of our body's
internal antioxidants, such as super oxide dismutase (S.O.D.). Research
has shown that administration of S.O.D. leads to a reduction of free radicals
and an increase in life span.
A properly carried out CR program will limit
the amount of sugar intake by up to 90 percent. Sugar is a negative fountain
of youth. It accelerates aging and increases the body's cortisol level. Cortisol is a hormone, but unlike other hormones, it increases with aging.
It is sometimes called the "bad" hormone because its increase is linked
to accelerated aging.
In summary, calorie restriction:
- Increases the ability of the body to repair damaged
DNA.
- Decreases oxidative (free radical) damage in the
body.
- Increases the levels of certain protective/repair
proteins that respond to stress.
- Improves glucose-insulin metabolism by lowering
glucose levels in the blood.
- Increases the release of growth hormone from the
pituitary gland.
- Increases the production of endogenous antioxidants
such as S.O.D.
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