Why I Practice Calorie Restriction

Calorie Restrict to reach longevity escape velocity

Yoda (left) and Princess Leia (right).

Yoda is one of the longest lived mice on record. 

I've talked a little about what makes people able to do calorie restriction for many years successfully and a study published in April confirms what I believed. People who maintain CR for very long periods of time have psychological distinct profiles compared to the average person. When a person starts a diet, it is not long before they fall off and return to their previous habits. When most people think of a diet, it's not usually to improve their health either, it's to lose weight and get thinner in the short term, so people will usually rely on drastic diets that are very unhealthy and potentially damaging to their health. 

I know a number of success long-term calorie restrictors who've been on the diet for more 10 years; and some more than 20 years!  This is without showing any signs of disordered eating as well. When a person typically starts a calorie restriction diet to improve their longevity, their weight is secondary to their primary goal, which is to improve their health and live longer. The reason I started calorie restriction was to improve my health, but it was also part of a long-term goal to stay alive as long as possible to take advantage of the technology that is coming in the next few decades which would be able to extend my life further. One of things found in the study is that we are more future orientated. And from talking to people on CR, this is something that was pretty obvious.

"Results indicated the CR group averaged 10 years of CR but scored lower than comparison groups on measures of disordered eating (p < .001) and psychopathology (p < .001). Particularly against overweight/obese participants, CR participants scored lower on neuroticism (p < .04) and hostility (p < .01), and were stronger in future time orientation (p < .05). Overall, CR profiles reflected high self-control and well being, except for having few close relationships. This study suggests a potential predisposition for successful long-term CR without disordered eating." 

I never took part in this study, but I have been on CRON for about 10 years now. And I've been eating very healthy for close to 12 years. I would say that the profile describes me pretty well. Calorie Restriction has always been very easy for me to do, but I realise that this is not the case for everyone. This is why I try to get the point across that even mild CR can have significant benefits. If you combine that with a high quality raw food diet, then the pay off is going be huge. Perhaps the study that I quoted above should reassure people that living this way does not predispose or cause anyone to develop disordered eating habits.

"To infinity and beyond!"

Okay, if you hadn't guessed already. I never want to die. I love life so much, and would love to explore the universe in the future. To go and see other planets and look for alien life out there. This is why living the way I do is so easy for me! I look up at the stars often and wonder what else is out there? I said the reason why I started CR was for health, right? But I also love astronomy and space. I knew in my mind that space exploration is slow and it really wasn't moving fast. Certainly not fast enough for me to see the colonisation of our solar system and beyond. So for me it was only logical to get more involved in the life extension community to make this dream become a reality. And why not dream big? When people are asked about living longer, many say that it would be too boring. No way, I say just the opposite! We are headed towards a fantastic future and we should be excited and proud of our achievements so far. The best part of our journey is not behind us, it's ahead of us. So really, I'm not too bothered about restricting my calories, when the pay off is potentially so huge. I do enjoy the present, but I'm I'm very excited about the future. It's amazing to be connected to so many inspirational people and people that are working on projects that will change the world. Open your eyes a little to see the bigger picture, and look for the good, it's all around us. Find what interests you and makes you feel alive and grow. Find your passion! Live your dreams!

Will we make it?

Aubrey De Grey uses the term 'escape velocity' which basically means that we'll be able to rejuvenate people and keep them alive long enough to take advantage of the more refined and advanced medical procedures that would be more effective in reversing the molecular damage that accumulates over time in the body with age. So if you are 80 years old, the first generation of these technologies will be able to take you back 30 years and you would function and look like a 50 year old. Then since it would take you another 30 years to become biologically 80 again (110 chronologically), the second generation of treatments could take you back another 40 years, so this time you are biologically 40 even though you are 110+ years old. In the near future, we could literally be adding one year to our remaining life expectancy with each year that passes! There are many exciting technologies that are starting to mature and slowly becoming more effective. In the near future we can expect to be able to regenerate new organs and tissues inside the body using stem cells and gene therapy. Also 3D printing is a very exciting technology! If you want to be part of the future and be alive when these technologies are perfected, then no matter what your age is, you should begin eating a very healthy calorie restricted diet now.

RECOMMENDED READING

Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime By Aubrey De Grey Ph.D and Michael Rae. This is a few years old, but still remains the objective of SENS Foundation. It details all the types of damage that needs to be repaired in the human body to reverse ageing and live longer. 

Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever By Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman. Ray sent me this book many years ago and I loved it! It takes you through all the things which you can do to extend your life and live to a time when we have full control of disease and ageing. He focuses mainly on the Biotech, Information tech and the Nanotech revolution. In his book he describes what we can do with our diet to be healthier and also recommends supplements. Although I am less enthusiastic about supplements extending the lifespan of healthy people, there are many good recommendations in the book which could help people who are not as fortunate and need to target specific problems. 

Reference.

1. Angela C. Incollingo Belskya, Elissa S. Epelb, A. Janet Tomiyama
Clues to maintaining calorie restriction? Psychosocial profiles of successful long-term restrictors. Appetite. 2014 Apr 18;79C:106-112. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2014.04.006.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666314001718

Lean is Healthy

EATING HEALTHY IS NO WALK IN THE PARK

Have you ever had a time in your life when everything is going so well, you are feeling the best you've ever felt since adopting a healthy lifestyle, and then a concerned friend or family member makes a negative comment about the amount of weight that you've lost? But you are still well within the healthy range? If you answered YES, then you're not alone.

 

I've heard from countless people who live a healthy lifestyle that they get these sort of comments a lot, at least for the first few months or year. Sometimes it's simply because they are concerned and care about you; but in other cases, especially friends and strangers, it might be a bit of envy or jealousy. Or they could just thin you are crazy for doing the diet. :) A lot of the comments usually come from a place of ignorance and distorted perception of what is "normal" for a typical human. Society's waistlines have bulged over the last few decades, and things are not improving, they're getting worse! So compared to most people, we're extremely skinny. 

When we grow up around people that are overweight, it creates a new norm, so we are less able to distinguish between what is normal weight and what is overweight. And it might be shocking to hear, but some people even fail to recognise obesity.  If you drop your weight to a normal BMI of say 19-20 on calorie restriction, people are more than likely going to comment on this weight loss, and tell you that you've gone too far. But according to how you feel, and your excellent test results, you really couldn't be much healthier; and they couldn't be more wrong. 

At first it might seem that these comments wouldn't do much harm, but if they are persistent, you might develop a heightened anxiety around the issue, and feel the need to defend your lifestyle choice.  Nine years ago, in 2005, I had some of these issues myself with my own family and friends. I was continually bombarded with questions and concerns for my health. They told me that I could not live on healthy food alone, I had to eat "normal" food. It's completely ridiculous if you think about it. How can they say these things when they are eating processed junk food and are overweight?  

To put my parents mind at ease and get them off my back, I gave them reports on my nutrition that I did with a dietary planner. I showed them that I had exceeded the requirements for all nutrients. And to get my message across even better, I showed them a report of their own diet . . .  Which from what I remember was terrible and lacked so many vitamins and minerals. The topic came up less after this, but it still took them a long time to realise I knew what I was doing.

What happened?  I stayed healthy. I stayed young. I stayed alive. The results after a few years were undeniable. They eventually gave up because they saw the great results I had from the diet over the long term. Before I even started the diet, I had done a lot of research and talked to people to get some advice. I knew what I was doing, but other people at the time didn't think so. 

So, if you're just starting off eating healthy, doing calorie restriction, and people are making negative comments, don't stress over it too much. It's likely just temporary and mostly because they care. Just be a good example, and they might even change their diet themselves.  I think for most people, it's just the shock of seeing the weight come off and their distorted perception of what is normal sets off alarms bells that shouldn't have even gone off. If we didn't live in a society where over 1/3 of people are either overweight or obese, being lean would be such an issue. 

According to the BBC's Global Fat Scale, I am skinnier than 98% of adult males aged 15-29 in the UK. And I am skinnier than 87% of males between these ages in the entire world. It says that I am most like someone from DR Congo. DR Congo has the lowest mean BMI of 18.75. While the highest BMI goes to Micronesia with a mean BMI of 30. The average BMI for people in my country is bordering on being overweight at 24.78. It's clear why we stand out from the crowd when you look at the scale on the BBC website. 

As long as you're healthy, fit, and you have excellent results from the diet, just keep going! It's not always easy these days to live differently. Reach out and find people who take care of themselves and you can relate with. Not people who constantly try to sabotage your efforts. Eating healthy is hard enough as it is without people trying to encourage you to eat badly. 

What has been your experience since starting a healthy diet? Has it been difficult with family or friends?

High Nutrition on a Low Calorie Diet

Low Calorie, High Nutrition

Doing Calorie Restriction the right way: I've come across a lot of diets over the last 10 years, and many of them seem to miss out on important nutrients or have serious imbalances which can cause some issues over the long term. When we judge whether or not a diet is working for us, we'll usually just look at the physical changes of our body and not pay much attention to anything else. When eating a very low calorie diet, you really want to make sure that you pay extra attention to the nutrients you are getting to avoid deficiencies. For calorie restriction to work, this is very important. Slight deficiencies over the long term can cause increased rates of disease; they usually don't kill you immediately. 

Deficiencies and imbalances: As a raw food vegan myself, I've had to adjust my diet slightly, as well as use targeted supplementation to protect against deficiencies and imbalances. Unfortunately, in the raw food community - which is growing in popularity - some people are being very ignorant when it comes to these potential hazards. Take for example zinc to copper ratio! These two minerals compete at the same sites for absorption in the gut; so getting too much of one can throw it out of balance and cause a secondary deficiency in the other.  In a raw food diet, copper is usually abundant in plant foods, so we get plenty of that. The problem lies in that we get plenty of copper, but not enough zinc, thus throwing out that balance. It's really not uncommon to get 4 - 5 mg of copper on a raw food diet. Ideally, you want to aim for a Zn to Cu ratio between 8:1 to 10:1. So you want 8 - 10 mg of Zinc, for every 1 mg of copper in your diet. Getting these ratios correct is important because it can have significant effects on your health. Getting this ratio is important because elevated copper and low zinc will increase the burden of oxidative stress in the body, by decreasing levels of superoxide dismutase which is responsible redox reaction or dismutation of superoxide free radicals into oxygen and hydrogen peroxide. These enzymes are part of the intraceullular and extracellular antioxidant defense system in the body and are important for protecting against cancer!  Zinc is also involved in many catalytic activities involving 200 enzymes. It plays a significant role in DNA synthesis, cell division, wound healing, immune function and also prevents accelerated ageing.

Any imbalance here can very easily be corrected with supplementation. So if you have to supplement, please do! Signs of zinc deficiency will not show up right away; one symptom that I came across myself early on was dry rough hands. Other symptoms like poor immune system, skin problems, hair loss and more can show up. I've known a few people on high plant diets who had these problems and corrected them when they started to supplement. 

Garlic can enhance the absorption of Zinc: Taking garlic with your food can significantly increase the bioavailability of Zinc by 10 to 70 percent. Every time I have beans, I always try to include some freshly crushed garlic.

Other potential deficiencies on a raw food vegan diet: B12, Calcium and Iron. Unlike Zinc, these can be easily tested for, so get blood work done and supplement where necessary. I personally take a B12 supplement called Methylcobalamin; and I choose my sources of calcium wisely! Kale has more bioavailable calcium than spinach. So remember, even if your CRON-O-METER shows up that you met the recommended daily allowance (RDI), you still can be low.

Eat a diverse range of foods: This is one way to ensure that we are getting proper nutrition and all the protective compounds in plant foods. There are many types of fruits and vegetables which provide unique phytochemicals that are very beneficial to your health and longevity. One of the reasons I think eating a strict fruitarian diet is bad is because fruits have never been shown to be more beneficial than vegetables. Vegetables are much more nutrient dense than are fruits. Fruits can provide you with a lot of calories, but you get vitamins, less minerals, and fewer phytochemicals. 

The aim is simple: Get the most nutrients in the fewest amount of calories possible. A low calorie diet should ideally meet all vitamins, minerals, fatty acids with diet alone. If you can't do that, then don't be afraid to supplement where it is needed.  I'm no longer a strong proponent of taking huge amount of supplements unless there is a specific disease or problem to target. Sensible targeted supplement will only help you in creating a more healthy and sustainable lifestyle. A low calorie diet or a raw food diet is very healthy when done right. Unfortunately, a lot of people miss things on the diet because they didn't have the right information or were misinformed by others.

What I eat in a week: I've had requests in the past by a lot of people to show what I eat in a week. So from Monday I will record everything until Sunday. I'll put information in CRON-O-METER also. So look out for updates on this!


Reference 

1. Gautam S1, Platel K, Srinivasan K. Higher bioaccessibility of iron and zinc from food grains in the presence of garlic and onion. J Agric Food Chem. 2010 Jul 28;58(14):8426-9. doi: 10.1021/jf100716t.

2. Josko Osredkar and Natasa Sustar
Copper and Zinc, Biological Role and Significance of Copper/Zinc 
Imbalance
http://omicsonline.org/copper-and-zinc-biological-role-and-significance-of-copper-zincimbalance-2161-0495.S3-001.pdf

Skin Care

SKIN CARE

Yesterday I received my order for my favourite skin product, Skinceuticals CE Ferulic acid. I've been using it since around 2009, and it was one of the few products that which totally agreed with my sensitive skin. Most of the products I've bought in the past were always causing issues, especially clogging my pores and causing breakouts. This however produced no negative effects, only positive ones, like clearing up my complexion and removing much of the hyperpigmentation I had left over when I had acne a long time ago. I only use it once a day after cleaning in the morning, and it moisturises fairly well because it has vitamin E there. Vitamin C is the active ingredient which significantly boosts collagen production and also protects against free radical damage. The Vitamin E and Ferulic Acid - which are both natural ingredients - work synergistically with the vitamin C to produce even greater results.

Benefits of Skinceuticals CE Ferulic

• Provides 8 x photoprotection
• Reduces sunburn cell formation by 96% 
• Prevents formation of thymine dimers; these are DNA mutation that case skin cancer

So as I said above, my order came, but this time I had received a free sample of another product caused Skinceuticals Hydrating B5 Gel. Normally, I'm very reluctant to try out new skin products because of my bad experiences in the past. But since I had this for free, and there are no obvious ingredients in there that should cause an issue, I decided to try it. Okay, so it's only my second day! But the moment I put it on, my skin felt baby soft! I went online and did a bit of research, and apparently B5 is good for acne sufferers. And the hyaluronic acid acid which is naturally produced by the body anyway, gives plenty of moisture to the surface of the skin. I can definitely feel a difference already. It's not like I even went from dry skin to moisturised skin either. My skin was pretty good before! Skinceuticals actually recommends that these two products be used together. So, we shall see if I end up adding this to my skin care regimen . . . But it's looking likely that I might, because I already love how it feels and looks. Another benefit I've read is that it helps give the appearance of smaller pores. I usually like to wait about 4 - 12 weeks before commenting on a new product, but I saw pretty instant results, so I thought I'd share my initial thoughts with you. 

I've been using all kinds of skin products since I was 16 years old. In order to stay young looking for longer, I believe the best results come when you combine skin care and a good with sensible sun exposure. We have to nourish our skin from within, but never forget to protect your skin from the outside where it is exposed to the environment. A low calorie diet can only do so much in slowing down ageing. I would be nice to not only feel young on the inside, but also look the part too! 

You can buy the product I use, Skinceuticals CE Ferulic below. The product lasts about 6 - 7 months, so when you work out the cost per month, it's not too bad. Also, remember to store in the fridge as this will reduce the rate of oxidation of the vitamin C. You want to make sure the product maintains a champagne colour and doesn't go yellow to be effective.

Is Fasting Good For You?

FASTING FOR BETTER HEALTH

People do short fasts and long fasts for many reasons. Some claim that it helps to reduce the risk of disease, to clean out toxins from the body; while others do it for spiritual and religious reasons. I've had quite a lot of experience with short fasts of about one to three days, but never more than this. Is there any benefit going beyond this? 

In 2007 I experimented with fasting by consuming most of my calories early in the day and creating a cut-off point where I wouldn't eat beyond a certain time. So I would wake up by 7 am and consume all my calories for the day by 2 pm. Although it's going back a bit, I remember feeling a lot more alert, and I could fall asleep faster and sleep better. Aside from the growling noises in my stomach  — which usually came on at the most inconvenient times  — the long fasts each day were pretty easy for me to because at the time I had so much going on with college and work, I didn't have much time to think about food. I guess I've always found any kind of dietary pattern very easy to adapt to. Even when I was consuming a mere 1550 Calories per day for several years, I didn't find it too difficult. After about 5 years I decided to increase my calorie intake so that I could increase my BMI a little and be safe; as I thought having such a low BMI was too risky at that time. I did this experiment where I would stop eating early in the day for about a year, and then returned to my normal pattern of eating. 

Using fasting to maintain a low calorie diet: In the last few years I have settled into just fasting one day a week. This not only gives my body a rest, but it helps lower the average calorie intake across the week if I had eaten too much on any particular day. In animal studies, it is the total calorie intake that matters when it comes to slowing down ageing; not when the calories were eaten. I find this method very effective and easy to do and makes it even easier to maintain a low calorie diet.

Benefits of Fasting: As for the health benefits of fasting, yes, they do exist! But you do not have to fast for a crazy amount of time to get them. When a person fasts, their body releases certain hormones such as Ghrelin, which stimulates appetite and has many beneficial effects around the body such as:

• Increased motivation
• Reduced anxiety and depression
• Protective against neurodegenerative diseases
• Enhances learning and memory 

When you fast you also increase the production of a protein called Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). This protein is also increased when a person is on a calorie restricted diet or is exercising. The beneficial effects of BDNF are primarily:

• Enhanced learning and memory
• Protection against neurodegeneration diseases; Alzheimer's and Parkinson's
• Increased neurogenesis (creation of new neurons in the brain)

Back in 2012 there was an excellent documentary called Eat, Fast, and Live longer. Michael Mosley investigated the research behind calorie restriction, fasting, and ageing. He travelled around the united states to speak to researchers who are at the cutting-edge of ageing research to find out which is the best way to reduce the risk of disease and possibly slow down ageing. During the show he spoke to Mark Mattson who is an expert in his field. He explained how beneficial fasting is for the brain and how well it delays the onset of Alzheimer's disease in mice that are destined to get it an an early age. To speed up the onset of Alzheimer's disease, the researchers put Fructose in their drinking water. The mice on the high sugar diet without being fasted developed the disease earlier than the mice that were fasted! Hear about the incredible results in the video below!

Although fasting is greatly beneficial to our health, there is no need to take it too far. One or two days is more than sufficient to get the benefits. Prolonged fasting can be dangerous to one's health, especially to the heart. In one study conducted on rats, they showed that every-other-day fasting caused diastolic dysfunction The heart became stiff and did not relax properly. They also showed reduced systolic pump function. So be careful with prolonged fasts. One day is totally fine and will not hurt you. There is no need for 1 week fasts.  I am currently writing a much more detailed review on fasting, but today I thought I'd just create a short overview of the benefits and risks of fasting. 

Q. What is the longest you've fasted? And did you experience any positive or negative effects from it?

References

1. Mattson MP. Energy intake, meal frequency, and health: a neurobiological perspective. 

Annu Rev Nutr. 2005;25:237-60

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16011467

2. Protecting new neurons reduces depression caused by stress

http://now.uiowa.edu/2014/04/protecting-new-neurons-reduces-depression-caused-stress

3. Meyer RM, Burgos-Robles A, Liu E, Correia SS, Goosens KA (October 2013). "A ghrelin-growth hormone axis drives stress-induced vulnerability to enhanced fear". Mol. Psychiatry. PMID 24126924

4. Diano S, Farr SA, Benoit SC, McNay EC, da Silva I, Horvath B, Gaskin FS, Nonaka N, Jaeger LB, Banks WA, Morley JE, Pinto S, Sherwin RS, Xu L, Yamada KA, Sleeman MW, Tschöp MH, Horvath TL (March 2006). "Ghrelin controls hippocampal spine synapse density and memory performance". Nat. Neurosci. 9 (3): 381–8. doi:10.1038/nn1656. PMID 16491079

5. Wenzhen Duan*, Zhihong Guo*, Haiyang Jiang*, Melvin Ware†, Xiao-Jiang Li‡, and Mark P. Mattson. Dietary restriction normalizes glucose metabolism and BDNF levels, slows disease progression, and increases survival in huntingtin mutant mice

http://www.pnas.org/content/100/5/2911.full

6. Lee J, Duan W, Mattson MP. Evidence that brain-derived neurotrophic factor is required for basal neurogenesis and mediates, in part, the enhancement of neurogenesis by dietary restriction in the hippocampus of adult mice. J Neurochem. 2002 Sep;82(6):1367-75.

7. Ahmet I1, Wan R, Mattson MP, Lakatta EG, Talan MI. Chronic alternate-day fasting results in reduced diastolic compliance and diminished systolic reserve in rats. J Card Fail. 2010 Oct;16(10):843-53. doi: 10.1016/j.cardfail.2010.05.007. Epub 2010 Jul 1.