Bare Bones Diet Gains Followers-Calorie Restricted Monkey (1,500 per day) Lives to Age 114

Wall Street Journal and MSNBC ^ | Jume 3, 2002 | Laura Johannes

[codebreaker]

Link

Gave the monkey 1500 calories a day less and he sustained much longer age than the other subjects, than the other sujects in the lab.

The scientifc survey is said to be applicable to humans.

[null and void]

If you call that living...

[codebreaker]

Well, the Japanese have triple the people 100 plus years old that we do and they follow some semblance of the diet.

[null and void]

Yes, but the Japanese revere their elders, ours are just in the way. Who wants to stick around when they are neither needed or wanted?...

[apochromat]

Less for the monkey to throw, though.

[Redcloak]

Encouraged by the animal research, the NIH plans to spend $20 million to test the effects of calorie restriction on hundreds of Americans. Some people have seen enough evidence already and have started self-depriving. Bob Cavanaugh, a 54-year-old landscaper from Morehead, N.C., has trimmed his intake to two meals a day, totaling 1,500 calories. Breakfast consists of one cup of quick oats, two tablespoons of toasted wheat germ, one cup of skim milk and blueberries. For dinner, he eats vegetables, fruit and a small portion of fish. “I’m hoping to see my great, great grandchildren,” he says.

...when he'll be known as "that weird old geezer who eats jelly beans with a knife and fork."

BTW: I'm just about done with this bag of microwave popcorn. At ~480 calories, It contains about 1/3 of this guy's daily caloric intake.

[DallasMike]

The secret is that all of your 1,500 calories per day have to be from Purina Monkey Chow.

[Brett66]

I don't stand a chance! Pizza buffet, here I come!

[Ann Archy]

It just SEEMS like 114.

[Zebra]

I saw that piece in the Wall Street Journal. One big side effect of the so-called starvation diet in loss of sexual desire. That accounts for why the 38 year old (114 in human years) monkey is so depressed.

[lsee]

Yeah, but how would the monkey rate on intelligence tests? Physical endurance tests? Agility? When the body is in "survival mode" this means ALL the other systems take a back seat. What's the point of living longer if you're also slower to think, weaker, and more clumsy? Certainly there is proven value in restricting "empty" calories like simple carbohydrates and excess fats, but this kind of subsistence living puts long life over live-able life...

[general_re]

Actually, this isn't really new - it's long been suspected that restricting your caloric intake to about 2/3 of what is considered "normal" will increase lifespan. OTOH, what's the point of living to 100+ if you have to spend all 100+ years eating roots and bark?

[eraser X]

Ha!

[codebreaker]

That guy better start taking Viagra if he is following the diet

[winin2000]

If you call that living.

Amen, brother. Give me my current relatively high-cal, low-fat diet and a shitload of cardiovascular and muscular exercise over this quackery any day of the week!

I look forward to dying at a robustly active 85 or 90, having enjoyed outstanding health, mobility, and (God-willing) potency, compared to these twits who'll look like a vegetating sack of bones at 120.

Life is to be enjoyed, not just lived!

[PushinTin]

One question...Did these monkeys exercise at all or were they couch potatoes like most overweight people?

[codebreaker]

Lets hope Bill and Hillary don't find out about this.

[SamAdams76]

The world is full of people with hearty appetites living well into their 80s and 90s. If I had a choice of living to be 80 eating what I am eating now or switching to rabbit food in order to gain another 20 or 30 years of life, I would say pass the prime rib and refill my beer glass, please.

[CapandBall]

"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in one pretty and well-preserved piece, but to skid broadside, thoroughly used up, worn out, and yelling GERONIMO!"

[spokeshave]

Not true...I read other reports on this...the long term animals were lean mean and VERY active.

My mum seems to have gone this route...at 90 she is mean and sharp...some knee arthritus..

I will give annual FReeper report

PS she must have impressed the security guards at the airport as they checked her handbag for explosives.

[NatureGirl]

Oooh, just think of it! What a utopia for the Left! I can hear it now - "No one in the West needs (read: deserves) to eat more than 1500 calories per day, while people are starving all over the rest of the world! You must do this! It's for your own good, you'll live longer!" Etc...

[Dialup Llama]

>I look forward to dying at a robustly active 85 or 90, having enjoyed outstanding health, mobility, and (God-willing) potency, compared to these twits who'll look like a vegetating sack of bones at 120.

I've known or heard of Chi Kung practitioners and the story is inevitable. They are really young acting 70 year olds, healthy 80 year olds, but when they hit the late 80's and 90's it all falls apart. I've never seen a 100 year old who didn't look his age.

[Moonman62]

The world is full of people with hearty appetites living well into their 80s and 90s.

Here's a recent story about a man who just reached 100 who has a huge appetite for bacon and eggs.

[null and void]

YOW!!! You win...

[Roscoe]

Clive Mckay, 1935.

[Congressman Billybob]

I'm with you. On the subject of bad habits, Mark Twain wrote, "If you can't reach 70 by a comfortable road, don't go."

Congressman Billybob

Latest just posted: "On Horse Kissing and Other Matters."

[LarryLied]

I'm opening a restaurant based on this. Then a line of packaged meals (three 500 calorie pouches--three meals). People need to be stroked when on a sparse diet and the profit margins....wow.

[SoDak]

You're totally right. Anyway, at the rate my 401K is growing, I won't be able to afford life past 90.

[johnboy]

i can recall a similar study done fifteen or twenty years ago involving gold fish. same conclusions.

[Atticus]

The diet almost certainly would work on humans. Apart from Ted Kennedy, how many obese people even make it past 70?

[CapandBall]

I'm all for staying lean & mean.

[Mygirlsmom]

Amen! My inlaws are into this style of eating - if it isn't 100% healthy they don't eat it - EVER! Holidays are a real joy - one never knows what strange and tasteless concoction will grace the holiday table there . Then my kids are subject to further torture when we drive home past several (closed) fast food places. Sorry, but I don't consider surviving on cardboard and bean sprouts "living"!!

[gonzo]

"...Life is to be enjoyed, not just lived!..."

Roger-that, bud. It's the journey that counts, not the destination...........FRegards

[strela]

"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in one pretty and well-preserved piece, but to skid broadside, thoroughly used up, worn out, and yelling GERONIMO!"

Great quote. I'll steal it, if you don't mind.

[CapandBall]

feel free to, I stole it from someone else, and I dont know the origional source.