Last week I introduced you to an interesting dietary lifestyle called the CR or Calorie Restriction Diet. The information I shared was bite-sized and left many of you readers hungry for more. I received many e-mails with questions about the CR diet and other e-mails from people around the country who were long-term CR dieters. I even received an e-mail from the author of the highly acclaimed book ‘The CR Way.’ These CR folks were kind enough to share even more information about their lifestyles with me and sparked my interest further. After a little more research, the CR diet became more desirable than my first impression led me to believe. Thus, here is part two of ‘Low Calorexia’, why it’s not bad after all, and definitely not anorexia.
First and foremost, it is vital to know the diet’s goals before you jump right in and begin a regimen. The goal of Calorie Restriction is to achieve a longer and healthier life by eating fewer calories and consuming adequate vitamins, minerals and other essential nutrients. The name ‘Calorie Restriction’ may sound confusing due to the name’s emphasis on lowering calorie intake, however, getting all of your daily nutrients is vital to the program and having successful results.
If you plan on simply eating less of what you already eat, don’t. Evaluate your diet first, and see if you are already getting all of your daily recommended vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. If you are like most Americans, you probably aren’t. Instead of just eating less, a CR dieter would change the foods she or he eats to those that are nutrient rich and low in calories. The Calorie Restriction Society puts it this way, “Replace calorie-dense foods with calorie-sparse, nutrient dense foods.’ That’s simple, right? Well, let’s start by looking at the guidelines put out by the Calorie Restriction Society.
The following is a list of pointers that guide the CR dieter to making educated food choices. All of the following encourage a reduction in calorie intake, but also emphasize getting all of your nutrients to avoid malnutrition.
1. Say no to simple sugars and flours! They are calorie rich, nutrient poor and leave you wanting more!
2. Eat your veggies! Eat both regular vegetables and leafy green ones. Vegetables are the richest in nutrients for their calorie content and they’re the staple of most CR diets.
3. Watch that protein and fat! You’ve got to have them, but keep your intake low. These increase your likelihood for a number of diseases.
4. Get your protein! Just enough, but not too much! CR recommendation: 0.6 to 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight.
5. Complete and Well Balanced Protein: Animal protein is both complete and well balanced, but do avoid red meat and excessive dairy intake. You can also opt for non animal protein combining beans and grains or rice with cauliflower/spinach/broccoli.
6. Choose good fat, but stay on track! The good: monounsaturated fats from avocado, almonds, hazelnuts, and olive oil; Omega 3 fatty acids from fish and flax oil. The bad: saturated fat (i.e. from animal products) As with any fat, keep intake low
Does that sound like a diet you could practice? The more I look at the data, the more I realize that these are just healthy food choices that we all should be making. The only catch is keeping the calorie intake low. Most of us probably could cut back a little, but I don’t recommend a large drop in the amount of calories you eat. The CR diet, like any, is not for everyone. This fact is mostly because of age. If you are in your late teens and early twenties you might still be growing. In this case, I wouldn’t recommend the CR diet. Most people start the diet at a later stage in life. Some argue the earlier the better; that may or may not be true.
Whatever your age or current dietary habits may be, adhering to the food choices above will probably do nothing but increase your overall health. For me, the recommendations above are ones that I will be incorporating into my own diet. At first glace, CR may seem like a form of methodological anorexia; it’s not. It’s a program aimed to increase overall well-being by extending, and increasing the quality of your life.
For more information on this little known diet please visit livingthecrway.com and calorierestriction.org.
Brent Paxton is a senior international relations and political science double major. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].
