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The secret to a long and healthy life? Eat less

bbc.com

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Re: The secret to a long and healthy life? Eat less

#91

Post by tarsinge »

pors wrote: post #52

There is lots of proof now that obesity is not caused by "more calories in than calories out", it is caused by hormone reactions to what you eat (esp. insulin). Just read the books by Gary Taubs for zillions of details and references to studies. So the "eat less" claim in this article is again back to the old MD advice, "eat less and move more". Not going to work if you don't look at your macronutrients.

Quite the contrary, you can't go against basic physics. Even common wisdom from a lot of Keto diet practitioners (low carb/insulin, see /r/keto and /r/ketoscience) is that for the weight loss aspect it only helps by regulating hunger, studies showed that for the same restricted caloric input, macronutients (low-carb or high-carb) made very little differences (which is expected of course). The "insulin is the root of all evil" trend in the fitness circles seems to be pushed by interested authors.

Re: The secret to a long and healthy life? Eat less

#92

Post by notadoc »

Does this surprise anyone? Humans did not spend millions of years eating 6000 calorie hyper refined lab perfected highly processed meals three times per day. We did evolve foraging, hunting, gathering, and eventually and much more recently farming, all of which would naturally include a ton of physical activity and occasional bouts of not eating if a meal was yet unavailable, which we now call "fasting" as if it is some harsh or deprivational activity.

Re: The secret to a long and healthy life? Eat less

#93

Post by bluthru »

bonniemuffin wrote: post #14

I checked out the recipes on the iDiet website recommended in the article, and I'm feeling sad and deprived just reading them. I'm willing to suffer for better health, but I'd hate to suffer through a life of egg whites and margarine and then discover in the end that the science was wrong.

>I'd hate to suffer through a life of egg whites and margarine

I know this wasn't your point but: I don't think people recommend eating margarine instead of real butter anymore.

I won't claim to know if avoiding egg yolks is healthy or not, but many seem to think that dietary cholesterol isn't as bad as once thought.

Re: The secret to a long and healthy life? Eat less

#94

Post by chiefalchemist »

dpark wrote: post #83
chiefalchemist wrote: post #42

A few thoughts. It seems that "calorie restriction" is a misleading term. If these funds are correct, CR should be considered the norm/ideal. That means the majority, currently, over-consume. That aside. I wonder if it's also related to modern food, and the production there of. If inflammation is the root of most disease, and CR, I presume, reduces inflammation, then what is it about our foods that trigger so much in…

> If these funds are correct, CR should be considered the norm/ideal. That means the majority, currently, over-consume. If we found that consuming a quart of squid ink daily extended life by 20%, we wouldn't call that "the norm". The norm is what people actually do. "Ideal" is extremely subjective, as "never satiated" is a tough steady state for most people. > If inflammation is the root of most disease That's a pret…

Ok. Fair enough. Allow me to clarify.

I was speaking of norm for the body, not norm of what most people do. In any case, my point was "restriction" isn't a restriction if you're over-consuming to begin with. It's a language/communication issue. Telling people to reduce (when they think they're normal") is, imho, the wrong message. We've normalized obesity by, to some extent, allowing people to believe obesity is perfectly normal.

As for sedentary lifestyle and obesity...those are symptoms. What happens in the body is, often, inflammation. Inflammation in turn gets manifested as various diseases. Obesity is not what kills you per se. But it does trigger various things (often rooted in inflammation) that will.

Regardless, in the context of the original article, I was simply taking a stand at why CR increases lifespan.

I hear ya. We're on the same page, mostly. I just wanted to clarify my particular thoughts.

Thanks

Re: The secret to a long and healthy life? Eat less

#95

Post by chiefalchemist »

JamesBarney wrote: post #74
chiefalchemist wrote: post #42

A few thoughts. It seems that "calorie restriction" is a misleading term. If these funds are correct, CR should be considered the norm/ideal. That means the majority, currently, over-consume. That aside. I wonder if it's also related to modern food, and the production there of. If inflammation is the root of most disease, and CR, I presume, reduces inflammation, then what is it about our foods that trigger so much in…

CR reduces inflammation through the mTor pathway. And a lot(if not all) of the benefits of CR are seen with protein restriction or intermittent fasting(which both don't modify total caloric intake) because they both act on the same receptor. So CR isn't about eating too much food (though many of us are) it's about certain biological pathways that get activated during famine that prioritize longevity over other things…

Yes. But isn't it odd that our diets cause information in the first place. In an evolutionary way, that feels odd. So, then I have to wonder, is this further incrimination of the modern diet? And lifestyle?

That is, is CR simple a proxy / correlation for putting less (modern) shit in your body?

Re: The secret to a long and healthy life? Eat less

#96

Post by chiefalchemist »

coldtea wrote: post #70
chiefalchemist wrote: post #42

A few thoughts. It seems that "calorie restriction" is a misleading term. If these funds are correct, CR should be considered the norm/ideal. That means the majority, currently, over-consume. That aside. I wonder if it's also related to modern food, and the production there of. If inflammation is the root of most disease, and CR, I presume, reduces inflammation, then what is it about our foods that trigger so much in…

> then what is it about our foods that trigger so much inflammation? Huge quantities of sodium and sugar, all kinds of BS half-tested preservatives and additives, growth hormones and the like.

Yup. It was kinda a passive aggressiveness rhetoric question ;)

Re: The secret to a long and healthy life? Eat less

#97

Post by derefr »

Cyph0n wrote: post #84
dpark wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Many of the same benefits of calorie restriction may be achievable through intermittent fasting, which is much easier for people to follow. I've been experimenting with a daily 16 hour fast Citation? I can't get the NIH study to load, but the other two are wildly different from 16/8 IF. IF proponents like to look at alternate day fasting or periodic weekly fasting and claim evidence for the effectiveness of 16/8 fa…

How about skipping breakfast and lunch, as done by Muslims during Ramadan? In general, Islam recommends voluntary fasting for 2 days every week (traditionally Monday and Thursday).

Are there longitudinal studies of comparative Muslim-population health outcomes for people who follow this precept vs. people who don't?

Re: The secret to a long and healthy life? Eat less

#98

Post by jpatokal »

dpark wrote: post #90
Cyph0n wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about skipping breakfast and lunch, as done by Muslims during Ramadan? In general, Islam recommends voluntary fasting for 2 days every week (traditionally Monday and Thursday).

What about it?

Ramadan is popularly associated with gaining weight, because people tend to binge before dawn and after sunset and are more sedentary than usual.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/07/cairo-the-...

Re: The secret to a long and healthy life? Eat less

#99

Post by Cyph0n »

dpark wrote: post #90
Cyph0n wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about skipping breakfast and lunch, as done by Muslims during Ramadan? In general, Islam recommends voluntary fasting for 2 days every week (traditionally Monday and Thursday).

What about it?

Has it been also tested by proponents of IF? That is, skipping breakfast and lunch some days of the week.

Re: The secret to a long and healthy life? Eat less

#100

Post by Cyph0n »

derefr wrote: post #97
Cyph0n wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about skipping breakfast and lunch, as done by Muslims during Ramadan? In general, Islam recommends voluntary fasting for 2 days every week (traditionally Monday and Thursday).

Are there longitudinal studies of comparative Muslim-population health outcomes for people who follow this precept vs. people who don't?

That's a good question actually. I'll try to do some digging. If I find anything, I will update this comment.
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