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Is Caloric Restriction Good For You?

Animal studies suggest caloric restriction is beneficial, but what does some of the first human data show?

December 17, 2010 |
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Is Caloric Restriction Good For You?, 3.0 out of 5 based on 2 ratings

Sources Cited

A.V. Witte, M. Fobker, R. Gellner, S. Knecht, & A. Floel. Caloric restriction improves memory in elderly humans. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 106(4):1255-1260, 2009.

Acknowledgements

image thanks to fakepunju.

Transcript

What about getting really skinny, though? Fact or fiction: Severe caloric restriction—like not eating every other day—has been found to extend the lives and improve cognition of animals in laboratories, but human data has been lacking, until now. A study published this year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, perhaps the most prestigious scientific journal in the country. You can’t get enough people to stick to alternate-day fasting long enough to see if people actually live longer, but if you pay them enough you can get them to go 3 months with skip-a-day eating to at least study the cognitive part.
So, for human beings, does caloric restriction help or not?
They found a dramatic improvement in memory.

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.

To help out on the site please email volunteer@nutritionfacts.org

Dr. Michael Greger

Doctor's Note

Please feel free to post any ask-the-doctor type questions here in the comments section and I’d be happy to try to answer them. And check out theother videos on memory. Also, there are 1,449 other subjects covered in the rest of my videos--please feel free to explore them as well!

Check out my associated blog post, Eating To Extend Our Lifespan.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/mgreger/ Michael Greger M.D.

    Please feel free to post any ask-the-doctor type questions here in the comments section and I’d be happy to try to answer them. And check out the other videos on memory. Also, there are 1,449 other subjects covered in the rest of my videos–please feel free to explore them as well!

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/becochic/ becochic

    Well, I’m shocked by this. What about weight loss caused by fasting and making sure to get all your nutrients?

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/toxins/ Toxins

      Hello becochic!
      One can assume that since the people studied were all elderly, they were not highly physically active. When one is physically active we burn through glucose pretty quickly and need more nutrients to maintain our current stride. Where we get into trouble though is eating when we are not hungry. As Dr. Joel Fuhrman puts it, our body, when not digesting, is the most efficient. Your body cleans out any built up toxins and does the most repairing when not digesting. Dr. Fuhrman also mentions that people who consume a typical western diet eat when they feel “discomfort”, like a headache. This is not true hunger but toxic hunger. Their body is so built up with harmful chemicals that when they finish digestion they feel uncomfortable. They must eat again so the discomfort can go away temporarily. This does not allow their body to adequately heal itself. Before you eat your meal, aim to feel true hunger. True hunger is when you are about to run out of glucose (energy). This is not a craving but an actual feeling in your stomach, mouth and throat. Your taste buds become very sensitive in this state and this is when food tastes so good! Check out some of the most nutrient dense foods here http://nutritionfacts.org/videos/antioxidant-content-of-300-foods-2/

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/gljohans/ gljohans

    The video seems to be saying that the people were fasting on alternate days, but the linked study seems to say that they weren’t!

    “..intervention was to reduce each subject’s individual caloric intake by 30%, compared with pretrial levels. To avoid cognitive changes due to malnutrition (79), minimal intake was set to 1,200 kcal per day.”

    Am I missing something?

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/susanco/ susanco

    Yes! You are missing the ADF paper: “Short-term modified alternate-day fasting: a novel dietary strategy for weight loss and cardioprotection in obese adults” by Varady, Bhutani, Church, and Klempel. Amazing stuff – I am doing it and have lost 5 pounds in a week and feel incredible!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=640861216 Gary Yuen

    There is something against the 3 meal a day thing. We’re the only animal that does this — and we didn’t always.

  • Sarah

     I’m unsure what the take-away message is…I eat really healthy vegan meals but when I miss one I feel drained and can’t think as clearly.  Would these scientists recommend eating much more on one day but nothing the next?   It seems to me that it depends on diet since the time/energy the body requires for digestion varies quite a bit across foods…

  • Dave

    I’m big on fasting and have gone with just water a dozen times for 21 days sometimes more. My body looks forward to it, I do limit my physical activity and can get tired easily, but I generally feel good especially mentally during these fasts. I’m on one now and I am going to go vegan this year after listening to all these videos.

    • Amanda

      I dont at ALL. But they say it is different for females. I keep being hungry and keep thinking about food all days long. I tried it as experiment.

      • http://www.facebook.com/rejie.quimiguing Rejie Quimiguing

        good combination

  • nora

    Instead of alternate day fasting, I’ve been doing intermittent fasting daily…fasting 19 hours and eating vegan during a 5-hour daily window (like 2-7pm). I’ve lost 13 pounds in two months, about 1-1.5 lbs/week with very little effort, and my junk food cravings have stopped completely. I have more energy than ever and feel truly amazing. I think IF, combined with a vegan diet, is the perfect combination.

    • Psych MD

      I am also doing intermittent fasting. I first saw this on the Mercola site a few months ago. There is a wealth of info on theiflife.com. It really is amazingly painless. I have some mild hunger pangs around 0930 that I feed with a cup of tea. I also started sprouting a few weeks ago. These measures, along with whole body vibration exercise (which I also learned about from Dr. Mercola) combined with modest strength training on a Chuck Norris Total Gym have me in better shape at 60 than I was at 30.

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