Calorie Restriction Without Malnutrition

Calorie restriction without malnutrition is a bold dietary concept in human longevity. The theory, originated from aging research studies, exploits undernutrition for the purpose of preserving the physical processes in a more youthful state.

Calorie restriction with optimal nutrition is all about making important nutritional choices. Low-calorie, high-nutritional foods are selected over foods high in carbohydrates and sugars. The average number of calories consumed daily by a typical adult is around 2000-3000. While a restricted dieter is limited to between 1200-2000.

There are tremendous benefits attained for preserving the physical structure and functionality of the human body. Think of all the things you’ll still be able to do, mentally, physically and sexually, because you conquered aging.

The concept of calorie restriction to enhance health and extend life is not so new. Calorie restriction with optimal nutrition first came to light in the early twentieth century, but it was not until 1930 when researchers discovered calorie restricted animals lived much longer than those allowed to feed freely.

Calorie restriction will certainly postpone the inevitable: heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, immune dysfunction, and cancer.

By restricting calories, the body has less stuff to process, and processing produces waste, sometimes toxic, which damage cells.

Other studies have shown that calorie restriction with optimal nutrition could produce the same longevity effects in adult animals, as it would in young animals. Furthermore, the longer the period spent on caloric restriction diets, the greater the span of life.

From what researchers know, from the way calorie restriction work in laboratory animals, they are convinced that it will produce the same effects in humans.

Calorie Restriction Prevents Diseases

A drastic reduction in calorie intake can reduce the risk of diabetes and heart disease. People who practice a calorie restriction lifestyle, have more normal test results than those who don’t. Laboratory rats on calorie restricted diets showed reduced levels of atherosclerosis.

Calorie restricted diets seem to reduce oxidation damage to the immune system, and provide resistance against infectious diseases. Thus, preventing strokes and heart diseases, caused by hypertension, diabetes, smoking, and of course, aging.

Calorie Restriction Reduces Oxidation

Cells need oxygen to survive. But in the processing of oxygen, toxic waste (free radicals) is produced. Free radicals cause damage to mitochondria, DNA, and protein within the cells.

Studies of adult muscle tissue show tremendous deterioration due to free radical oxidative damage, generally associated with aging.

Calorie Restriction Improves Metabolism

Without CR, new nutrients are constantly being created, while older nutrients are not expended quickly enough. This creates a build-up of unused nutrients, which clogs the system, and starves vital organs that depend on the supply of nutrients for their survival. Hence the organs malfunction causing the body to age.

Normally, newly formed nutrients replace older ones continuously, to maintain a healthy demand and supply process. With CR, fewer nutrients are formed, allowing the dispensation of older ones, and averting clogs in the system.

Calorie Restriction Preserves Brain Function

Research shows severe calorie restriction without malnutrition stops changes in the brain cause by aging. What it did not show was, that calorie restriction diet improves cognitive abilities cause by aging. Other studies show calorie restriction produces certain substances in the brain that increases growth and survival of brain cells.

There is sufficient evidence available to prove calorie restriction helps animals live longer, and protected them from the effects of aging. But scientists still don’t understand why. Obviously more research is required, but the prospect looks brighter.

Calorie Restriction Mimetics

Although the future outcome of calorie restriction without malnutrition looks promising, few folks are willing to undergo the rigorous regimentation of starving themselves in exchange for a few years longer life. So scientists are determined to ease the pain that could accompany calorie restriction.

After 70 years of research, they now know exactly how calorie restriction works. Hence, they believe they can mimic the effects, using a more pleasant approach, to obtain a similar outcome.

Calorie restriction mimetics are drugs or composites that mimic the outcome of calorie restriction. The concept, if it works, holds the answer to longevity, and the end to major chronic diseases. Researchers are now working tirelessly to produce a pill that will do the same job as calorie restriction.

What Future Holds for Calorie Restriction,

Calorie restriction research shows tremendous promise. But it’s not a way of life for everyone. Human life extension studies are, to a great extent, inconclusive. Positive results form short-term studies in humans show significant health and longevity potential. However, there is no definitive data to write a prescription. So consult your physician before trying calorie restriction.

The idea of cutting calories to boost oxygen consumption, is in direct conflict with the concept that eating less can add on a few years to your live. However, researchers discovered that calorie restriction diet lowers metabolism, reduces oxidation damage to cells, preserves brain functions, prevents diseases, and decreases insulin levels, the principal components of aging.

Calorie restriction with ultimate nutrition, as seen in laboratory testing, is the most consistent way to increase lifespan. In a study that compared people who practice calorie restriction as a lifestyle, with those who consumed a normal diet, the calorie-restricted group had a dramatic reduction in risk of heart disease and and diabetes.

In another study, mice that were fed 30 to 40 percent fewer calories, produced more nitric oxide than those that were fed unrestricted diets. Since low levels of nitric oxide is a key factor in erectile function, calorie restriction may be essential for improving male sexual health.

Related Links
Calorie restriction can increase your lifespan.
Discover the effects of calorie restriction.
Brain functions and calorie restriction.
Mimetics is the answer to calorie restriction.

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Choosing A Healthy Diet Plan

Choosing a healthy diet plan may require the services of a certified nutritionist, with medical input by your physician. This could entail two trips to the doctor’s office, and a number of sit-downs with the nutritionist, before you even get started.

This is the preferred way to start a healthy diet plan, especially if you are under a doctor’s care for diabetes, hypertension, or heart disease. Planning is essential to establish the don’ts, and to determine the extent of the do’s. You don’t want to regret not taking these initial steps later on.

After you get rolling with your diet plan, there would still be a need for occasional consultations with both professionals, to monitor your progress. They may make adjustment to your diet plan as you proceed toward your goal.

No healthy diet plan is complete without regular exercise. A personal trainer would be ideal, if you can afford one. But most people would rather become a member of a health spa or exercise gym, where personal trainer services are included in the membership fees. The services may not be too personal, but will suffice.

The nutritionist, doctor, and trainer could become a costly venture. In fact, it could cost you two arms and a leg to actually start a healthy diet plan. But thank heavens there is a way to keep your arms and leg, and pay almost nothing to achieve the same benefits.

Dietary Guidelines

The US Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services announced the release of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The Dietary Guidelines is published jointly every 5 years by the Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The Dietary Guidelines provides advice for all Americans two years and older about how to make healthy dietary choices. It is designed to reduce the risk of chronic diseases, overweight and obesity through improved nutrition and physical exercise.

This 7th edition of Dietary Guidelines for Americans places stronger emphasis on reducing calorie consumption and increasing physical activity and/or exercise, because more than one-third of all children and more than two-thirds of adults in the United States are overweight or obese. This edition, like previous ones, also serves as the basis for Federal food and nutrition education programs.

Structure of Food Guides

Most countries have developed some sort of food nutrition guide, for its people, establishing healthy dietary and nutrition plans to keep the nation healthy. The guide usually consists of four to six food groups, detailing the daily servings from each group, and other recommendations for healthy eating.

Some food nutrition guides take the shape of a dish, a platter, or a pyramid, and are referred to as such. The USDA food nutrition guide takes the shape of a pyramid, and is called MyPyramid.

STEPS FOR A HEALTHIER YOU

MyPyramid illustrates color triangles for each food category. Foods from the largest triangles should be eaten most often, while those from the smallest triangle eaten in small amounts.

MyPyramid Plan gives dietary recommendations for healthy eating, by helping you choose from a assortment of foods, recommending the servings size and the number servings per day.

MyPyramid Basic Messages gives you important tips and recommendations for healthy eating, and daily exercise.

Inside MyPyramid provides detail recommendations for healthy eating, to help improve your diet plan, including data about each food group, number of calories, and physical workout.

MyPyramid Tracker offers an activity chart for entering all foods eaten each day, and all daily physical activities performed.

This allows you to adopt good recommendations for healthy eating, and monitor your progress.

The Healthy Diet Program

MyPyramid Plan is equipped with a tool that creates a unique diet program for the individual diet planner. It utilizes age, sex, weight, height, and the level of your physical daily activity to calculate your daily dietary recommendations. It provides the amount of each food group to include in your daily dietary intake, and the number of calories for your diet plan.

A special worksheet is provided for documentation of your daily food intake and physical activity. Very little typing is required. You make selections from pop up menus about your daily activities. Upon request, your daily activities are compared against dietary guidelines, and some recommendations are made to improve your diet plan. The worksheet is printable. Use it as a reference guide, to construct a healthy diet plan.

MyPyramids Plan also features MyPyramid Tracker, an online dietary and physical assessment tool that provides information about healthy diet plans and physical activity. At the click of a button, you are told whether you are eating adequately from all food groups. It also provides information about the food groups, which enables you to make excellent choices designing a healthy diet plan.

As you can see, MyPyramid Plan provides the services of a nutritionist, to help you create a healthy diet plan, that doesn’t cost you your arms and leg. But for those people who suffer certain diseases, physical activities are not recommended before a consultation with your physician.

To get started click on over to MyPyramid Plan, fill in the information, follow the instructions, and you will create a customized healthy diet plan to fit your individual needs.

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Save Your Gallbladder

Just because a doctor may find gallstones during a routine examination via chest x-ray or other diagnostic test, does not mean that you must remove your gallbladder.  Medical technology has made this surgery so convenient, it has become almost routine. Gallbladder surgery tops the list as the highest number of surgeries performed in the United States.

So don’t let your doctor talk you into unnecessary surgery, unless you have severe symptoms that warrant surgery. The gallbladder provides a function, some health care providers may deem unnecessary, but none the less a system function, which when no longer in place, causes a malfunction.

The sole purpose of the gallbladder is to store bile,  which is produced in the liver, and aids in the digestion of fats in the small intestines.

Studies have shown that surgery is not the immediate answer to gallbladder symptoms. Eating certain foods can trigger a gallbladder attack. Avoiding the intake of these foods, reduces these symptoms. So you can live with gallstones by controlling the symptoms. A diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids, not only prevent the formation of gallstones, but control inflammation and fix any existing problems of the gallbladder.

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New Years Health Resolution

New Year celebrants make all kinds of resolutions, which are all good. But I believe the most important resolution one can make, is to improve their personal health, and help friends and relatives to do likewise. Good health is more important than things. It is because of your good health you acquire things, actually.

Michael Pollan’s guide through the increasingly treacherous landscape of food choices has established six rules for eating wisely:

1. Don’t eat anything your great-great-great grandmother wouldn’t recognized as food

2. Avoid foods containing high-fructose.

3. Spend more, eat less.

4. Pay no heed to nutritional science or the health claims on packages.

5. Shop at the farmers’ market.

6. How you eat is as important as what you eat.

Most people are obsessed with the idea of eating healthy, but still substitute butter for margarine. So this new year, make your resolution follow grandma’s rules: eat moderate portions, don’t go for seconds or snack between meals, and never eat alone.

Click on the link below to read Michael Pollan’s New York Times article. You can also checkout his latest book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”.

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My Pyramid Plan

 

 

 

 

 

Do you known that My Pyramid Plan provides a tool for you to create a unique diet plan based on age, sex, amount of physical activity? All you have to do is go to http://www.mypyramid.gov, plug-in your statistics into the plan box, hit submit, and you are shown choices of foods, and amounts that are right for you, including the number of calories for your plan.

A printable worksheet is available for you to document daily food intake and physical activity to enter into the tracker. Don’t rely on your memory to recall this information. You’ll short-change yourself.

My Pyramid Plan also features My Pyramid Tracker, an online dietary and physical assessment tool that provides information on the quality of diet and physical activity. It also provides related information on nutrients and physical activity.

The information you provide about your food intake and physical activity is compared to nutritional and physical recommendations respectively. Daily scores are formulated and remain accessible for up to one year, to give you a good idea of how well your doing.

My Pyramid Plan is the nutritionist you don’t have to pay. Clicking on a food group reveals how to utilize that food group, including what is best to eat, and what would be better to avoid. Try it for a month and see your energy levels improve.

Holiday Health Tips

The holiday season is time to celebrate. Most celebrants overeat, and drink excessive amounts of alcohol, which increases stress on the body.

Overeating raises cholesterol level and body weight, which increases the risk of heart attack. Highly salted foods can elevate blood pressure.

Don’t eat hot food and drink cold beverages at the same time. The cold solidifies fats, making the stomach work harder. One can develop stomach ache, which sometimes leads to indigestion.

Excessive drinking of alcohol and alcohol products increases the heart rate, and causes palpitations. It can also lead to reckless driving, and unsociable behavior. So drink in moderation, and apply common sense.

Before beginning holiday drinking, be sure to drink plenty of water. Finish each cocktail with a glass of water to provide a balance that keeps the body working well.

Mistletoe (Phoradendron Flavescens) is poisonous. It contains toxins, which when ingested (leaves or berries), can cause stomach irritation. Accidental ingestion may also result in increased heart rate, and high blood pressure.

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Essential Fats for Brain Development

We learn that body nutrients are better when attained through food nutrition. But supplement where you must. Essential fats for brain development are no exception. The body needs fatty acids to build brain cells.

There are two types of fatty acids considered essential. This means that the body cannot produce them. They are only obtainable from food. The brain consists mostly of fatty tissue, and depends not only on the quantity of fats consumed, but the quality as well.

Cognitive performance requires specific kind of fats called Omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 is found in large quantities in fish, flax seeds, walnuts, and leafy green vegetables.

Omega-6 supplies the other type of fats that the brain needs for growth and development. Omega-6 fatty acids are mostly obtained from cold pressed corn, sunflower and safflower oils.

Brain cells need a constant supply of these fatty acids in order to reduce stress, enhance memory and alertness. A diet that meets these recommendations provides adequate nutrients for brain cells.

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Is Vitamin E Losing Its Patina?

Vitamin E got another jab in the chest early 2005 from researchers who found that taking high doses does not prevent cardiovascular disease. What’s even more startling in this report is the revelation that vitamin E could knock out the heart.

This conclusion was made based on the outcome of a study conducted by the University of Washington, and publicized in Journal of American Medicine.
Other researchers, who are astonished at these findings, believe that further studies are needed.

But don’t throw in the towel just yet. Vitamin E is still the nutritional supplement of choice for many ailments, including kidney disease and vision problems. And for cardiovascular disease try the cardiovascular cure.

Vitamin E won the title for restoring youthfulness, and sexual stamina back in the early 90’s after numerous studies declared it the champ.

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Live Longer by Eating Less

It has been known for some time now that underfed rats and mice live much longer. Recent research on humans is too premature to determine that reduction of calorie intake is enough to extend life. It may take a long time to prove humans can actually live longer by eating less.

However, based from what is known from research, those people who have chosen to calorie restrict their diet have experience tremendous health benefits, including lower risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes, which accelerate with aging.

Ongoing research will establish whether people can carefully regulate calorie intake and eating habits to extend life.

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