Friday, October 2, 2009

The Anti-aging benefits of Caloric Restriction

By Alex Ariel Sanders

Nobody remains unaware of the ever popular diet fact that focuses on losing weight by cutting calories in one's diet. Caloric restriction usually makes us think about diets that end up making us hungry and deprived. Scientific evidence supports the notion that caloric restriction may lead to longevity health benefits aside from basically just losing a few pounds! There are studies conducted that support the slowing of the aging process with caloric restriction.

One important fact to keep in mind is that caloric restriction (CR) is not necessarily equivalent to malnutrition if the nutrient values are dense. This is not about ending up starved but about being healthier with what is consumed by the body. Initially calories consumed can be lowered by changing not how much is eaten but what is eaten. It is not surprising that fruits and vegetables are lower in calories but have high nutrient density. If you are interested to slow aging with caloric restriction, eat a lot of those, as well grains, beans and fish.

Recent studies have shown in primates, mice, worms, and flies that caloric restriction while maintaining a healthful diet regimen leads to a longevity without onset of many of the diseases associated with aging, including heart disease, high blood pressure, osteoarthritis and dementia.

In studies with experimental animals, when the brain regions responsible for cognition and memory were measured, there was a significant difference in the amount of atrophy of the brain tissues. In animals on caloric restriction, there was less atrophy as compared to the control group of animals, which was allowed to consume as much as they wanted. As a result, the control group that was on unrestricted caloric intake was showing the obvious signs of aging such as atrophy and other diseases. A 30% caloric reduction resulted in slowing the aging process by 30%-40%.

In general, the average human male consumes over 2600 calories per day. This is just an average number. There are no magic numbers for determining the precise number of calories that we should consume if we desire to slow aging with caloric restriction. People come in a variety of sizes, and have different metabolisms, meaning that some need more calories just to survive than would be enough to bring on obesity in others.

To get a good look at how caloric restriction affects aging, take note of your average daily calorie intake. Create a database for one month to determine your solid average caloric intake. On the following month, reduce your daily amount of calories taken by 5%. It is important not to make the body feel hungry in the process. The secret lies on the kind of food being consumed. Choose lower calorie foods that are high in nutrients instead of the high calorie foods that are presently in your daily diet.

See your doctor and ask him to make a baseline for your cholesterol level, fasting blood sugar level and blood pressure. After that, start reducing your calorie consumption by 5 percent each month. Go to your doctor at the end of each month and have your statistics checked and recorded. The aging process is obviously slowed down if certain improvements can be noticed in the numbers indicated in the observations done. You can continue with the process of decreasing your caloric intake until the changes with your numbers come to a stop. This indicates that you have reached the healthiest level of calorie intake to make sure you are going to live longer and healthier.

Resveratrol, which is found in red wine and skin grapes, has been shown to mimic the effects of a caloric restricted diet. Studies have shown that in addition to potentially slowing the aging process, Resveratrol is the biggest medical discovery since antibiotics with many cardiovascular, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer benefits, just to name a few. If you want to slow aging with caloric restriction but the process seems too difficult to attempt, why not try nature's perfect supplement, Resveratrol?

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