eating less is almost always healthier

Abundant scientific evidence suggests that the less we eat the healthier we are.  

In animal studies, the relationship between life expectancy and calories consumed is simple and powerful:  The less they eat, the longer they live.  The response is linear. There is no threshold level of caloric restriction necessary for the effect to start.  The message for humans: Every pound you shed adds months to your life.

Surprisingly, there is no "ideal weight" from the standpoint of longevity.  Skinnier is always better, and this holds true down to levels far below what we can tolerate.  In lab experiments, mice that are on the verge of starving to death live almost twice as long as the control mice, who eat as much as they want.

The trick works for all genetic types - nature doesn't discriminate.  If you are congenitally stout, you can increase your life span with caloric restriction, even though you may not appear thin.  In fact, a person who must diet just to maintain "normal" appearance has a greater life expectancy than someone who is congenitally thin, but who appears extra-slim on an equivalent diet.

It's never too late to start. Maximal gains come from lifelong caloric restriction, but your mortality risk drops quickly when you lose weight at any age.

This article doesn't tell us on what medical evidence its advice is based - only that it's published in JAMA.  I'm guessing that the confusion arises when statisticians look for a correlation between weight and mortality.  The problem with this method is that it confounds two different sources for the weight:  is it congenital?  or does it come from overeating?   Some of us are programmed to carry more weight, and we will be heavier than others who may eat the same amount.   If you are congenitally overweight and you diet to compensate, you have the best longevity profile.  Such people may look overweight, but they are always eating less than they want.  They skew the statistics to make it look as though eating more can be beneficial.

by Josh Mitteldorf (15 articles, 41 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 27 comments) on Thursday, November 29, 2007 at 2:10:44 PM
 

Lighten up, Josh

It's a spoof.

These quacks with so-called medical degrees contradict themselves a hundred times a day.

I've seen stories on the same newspaper page with one quoting a study saying coffee if good for you, while the other story quoting another study saying coffee is bad for you.

I'll start listening to them when they make up their minds, which will be at about the same time hell freezes.

My personal answer to all these fool dietary studies is eat what you want, just do it in moderation.

BTW, ignore my message to you.  I mistakenly thought you were answering a question I asked of someone else before I wrote this piece.

by Sandy Sand (130 articles, 0 quicklinks, 151 diaries, 1160 comments) on Thursday, November 29, 2007 at 2:31:25 PM
 

A spoof, it is, indeed, but Not in the parts of Italy

Not in the parts of Italy from which I hail. Grandpa Bagnolo ate like a logger, drank like a trucker, smoked cigars like a chimney, and in his old age, doubled his intake. On his 95 Birthday, we went out and he matched me bite for bite, total, in a 5200-calorie meal and desert. He was never sick, died at 97, 30 pounds over weight and no Cholesterol. Granny was 89, 20 pounds over weight-never sick. On the other side, Gramps Iuzzolino died at 83 but had a virus, which left him with coronary problems/GRAMMA D'Leonardis 92, both 25-30 lbs overweight, and he smoked cigars. Everyone in the Town of Bagnolo, and in Rigiliano was overweight and all long-lived. There appear to be in The Caucuses, underweight people who have long lives and live on sparse diets with little meat, bout lots of cheeses and olives, and in a town in Mexico where the diet is high fat, and more in Russia, those who are thin, eat little and live long. However, certain folks in certain places seem to be not affected by the dictum of overweight, less healthy. In one Italian town everyone eats massive quantities of Lasagna, vino, Beef, pork and lamb, butter and bread and it is almost completely devoid of coronary trouble, despite occasional high cholesterol readings here and there.

On the other hand, some of my uncles were slender and died young of heart disease. Recently I read a book on retroviruses, which my doctor recommended, because we hang out together and trade academic reading it was a scholarly work. It subscribed to my theory from Grad-school that viruses damage chromosomes, DNA and damage more. In the early 1940's, Influenza swept the nation. In its wake was an epidemic of early death from Coronary Thrombosis. A bit earlier, influenza swept and left in its wake a flurry of stomach cancers.

In Victorian USDA and England following a horrible killer, the survivors were part of an epidemic that left scarcely a household untouched-hardly a home lacked the insane aunt or uncle locked in the attic, and homes for the insane were growing like pumpkins everywhere. Trace the retro virus to ancient Rome and Pompeii and a rash of early deaths followed the survivors of a massive influenza, from heart attacks,

Of course, some people cannot sustain health overweight, but some studies show that in the same families, siblings much thinner faced the same fate. 98% of a person's longevity is in the hands of genes. A person may only make a 2% upside change in their fate according to the Retrovirus book, but can seriously affect the downside by MOVING out of there home area to another area where water, food supply or industry are a hazard.

I think the genes are the key. In my Ford Foundation Fellowship Year in Anthro, that was one of my key theories and much has come forth since to support that idea. However, the slime ball drug companies want people paranoid about what they eat and how they look. They even have impressionable young girls thinking it is safe to take a drug that eliminates their periods-insane. People are too Fricking afraid to die, so they live tortured lives. Generations of my family, Dukes, Counts, artists, architects and playboys all ate and drank like tomorrow was the last day of life and all enjoyed theirs.

Eat drink and be happy, because you may die young anyway, like so many in the infernal war or an accident or a virus or God knows what. I am not overweight, nor do I have Cholesterol but I do eat in fits or great quantity and little quantity and sometimes nothing at all, but I do not drink, and so far my weight is less than that of my family members who eat as much as I.

Look to the virus' and retrovirus' and the genes those are the keys not pizzas or vino. We eat only organic stuff 95% of the time Yea Whole Foods!

I am not overweight, nor is my wife, but we eat like werewolves.

by Professor Emeritus Peter Bagnolo (144 articles, 1 quicklinks, 94 diaries, 1201 comments) on Thursday, November 29, 2007 at 9:54:09 PM
 

PS

The next story is one I have often seen repeated many time in families in my wide circle of friends. The great runner Jim Fixx. Fixx was a member of the high-IQ club Mensa and published three collections of puzzles: Games for the Super-Intelligent, More Games for the Super-Intelligent and Solve It!.
Fixx started running and watching his diet in 1967 at age 35.
Fixx died at the age of 52 of a massive heart attack, after his daily run, on Route 15 in Hardwick, Vermont. The autopsy revealed that atherosclerosis had blocked one coronary artery 95%, a second 85%, and a third 50%. Many who opposed his beliefs said this was proof running was harmful. However, Fixx came from a family where the men had poor health histories. His father suffered a heart attack at the age of 35 and died of one at 42, So did his mother. Given Fixx's unhealthy lifestyle until he took up running, many argued that running added many years to his life, however he did not outlive other ancestors and the 10 year variance was not significant because the genes did him in, not his lifestyle. This pattern has been repeated often enough. The superficiality, naivte' and gullibility of Americans is mind-boggling believing that one can alter one's fate is a salute to the brainwashing of drug companies and others with something to sell.

A fellow in my flag football league was 6'-3' 177, lean and fast and a vegetarian. His dad, mother, Grandfather and older brothers died of heart disease by ages 45-52. They ate meat and sweets and smoked or drank. He did none of those things. He married a gal who was an orphan whose parents likewise died young. They decided never to have children so the genes would die with them. He was good at flag football, he was lean his wife was pleasingly well rounded, Marilyn Monroe-ish figure. He died at 43, she at 44. She was a year younger than he, they died weeks apart-heart disease.

Eat healthy, often and well, don't smoke, have fun with sports, and stay in shape for that fun, but recall the words of the great coach, Amos Alonzo Stagg, who died at age 103, in 1965, and was not particularly active his last 30 years, when asked if he ever had the urge to exercise anymore, he answere, "yes, I do"

"And what to you do, then?"

"I lie down until the urge passes."

here are some of his innovations:

huddle
putting players' names on the backs of their uniforms
lateral pass
man in motion
numbering plays and playing
tackling dummy
helmets

by Professor Emeritus Peter Bagnolo (144 articles, 1 quicklinks, 94 diaries, 1201 comments) on Thursday, November 29, 2007 at 10:30:59 PM