Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Longevity

Conditioning Research is an excellent health and fitness blog. The post today shows a chart (I like a splashy chart) about longevity, including known factors that contribute to long life, as well as some speculative information. The "live to 1,000" stuff I'm not buying, but leading a long, healthy, and productive life does seem possible. The only immediate dissent I must register concerns the calorie reduction information. Not that it's wrong, but that a better alternative probably exists: intermittent fasting. Sustained caloric reduction is immensely grim by all accounts and may actually rob a person of energy. Instead, intermittent fasting (going for hours or days without eating from time to time) seems to work as well as caloric restriction (rabbit food 24/7). But I don't know that IF has been as thoroughly tested as caloric restriction.

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