Caloric restriction
Jul. 7th, 2008 07:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mattbellI'm on day 2 of food poisoning. Food poisoning has dramatically reduced my hunger level, so I don't feel a strong desire to eat even though I've eaten very little over the last few days.
There's a thing called "caloric restriction" that involves cutting your calorie intake 20-40% in order to live longer. It apparently works very well on mice, dramatically lengthening their lifetimes. So of course people wanting to live longer try it. Whether it works on people or not is still up in the air.
No one asked the mice how they felt about the diet though. Life is about quality, not just quantity.
Ordinarily I'd never try caloric restriction, even for a few days, because the sensation of being perpetually hungry is too distracting to me.
However, since the food poisoning is suppressing my desire to eat, I can directly experience what it's like to live under calorie restriction. Conclusion? It's not so good.
With so few calories coming in, my body seems to be reducing its energy expenditures. The brain uses a lot of energy. As a result, my body might not be willing to "spend" as much energy running my brain. This might explain why I feel like my thoughts have been slow and sloppy.
It's not the way I'd want to live my life, even a dramatically extended one.
I also had the thought today that this is what my average day will be like when I'm 80. I'm hoping for some big breakthroughs in medicine in the next few decades.
There's a thing called "caloric restriction" that involves cutting your calorie intake 20-40% in order to live longer. It apparently works very well on mice, dramatically lengthening their lifetimes. So of course people wanting to live longer try it. Whether it works on people or not is still up in the air.
No one asked the mice how they felt about the diet though. Life is about quality, not just quantity.
Ordinarily I'd never try caloric restriction, even for a few days, because the sensation of being perpetually hungry is too distracting to me.
However, since the food poisoning is suppressing my desire to eat, I can directly experience what it's like to live under calorie restriction. Conclusion? It's not so good.
With so few calories coming in, my body seems to be reducing its energy expenditures. The brain uses a lot of energy. As a result, my body might not be willing to "spend" as much energy running my brain. This might explain why I feel like my thoughts have been slow and sloppy.
It's not the way I'd want to live my life, even a dramatically extended one.
I also had the thought today that this is what my average day will be like when I'm 80. I'm hoping for some big breakthroughs in medicine in the next few decades.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-07-08 05:45 pm (UTC)The simple way to do it is fast for 24hrs, eat whatever you want for 24hrs, and so on.
Cherie and I have played around with this, and it has worked amazingly well.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-09 01:27 pm (UTC)My take on it as well. Though to go a step further, a lot of things aren't shown to be good or bad for you, but tons of research says that stress kills reliably. And since I find asceticism stressful, it's not part of my health optimization plan.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-11 09:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-16 07:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-13 08:20 pm (UTC)A lot of the research has focused on the behavior of the mice undergoing caloric restriction. They get cranky...
no subject
Date: 2008-07-16 07:03 am (UTC)