June 11th, 2005
Calorie Restriction Blogs
Calorie restriction blogs are starting to spread - I think that this is a very good thing. The practice of calorie restriction with optimal nutrition (CRON) is as simple as a rock on a table once you have some experience; with the requirements of a calorie count and an optimal nutrient intake in hand everything else tends to fall into place and become obvious. Getting to the point of being experienced has always been the question mark in the process, however. What foods, what methods, what are the common stumbling points ... what exactly do I do today? A good calorie restriction blog is a real help for those working their way into the practice of this lifestyle option for healthy life extension. Here are some for your reading pleasure:
Do you have info in Spanish
What I've noticed about CRON disciples, bless their good intentions, is that they generally eat so incredibly poorly, on infrequently, they they are probably doing themselves more harm than good. I just took a look at all of their websites and I see people eating only two meals a day and skipping breakfast, eating too much junk food, or drinking too much wine (and then claiming a benefit from resveratrol, I suppose to make it all seem acceptable). Poor, poor misguided souls.
Not only that, I don't see where these people are supplementing like they should, even more important when you cannot possibly getting all the phytonutrients, anti-oxidants, polyphenols, etc., from a restricted food supply. (In fact, even people who eat a normal calorie intact cannot possibly get by without supplementation, assuming healthy longevity is a goal.)
I've even seen a TV show about CRON, and researchers where feeding their CRON victims white rise, white processed bread, pasta, iceberg lettuce salads (there no significant nutrition in iceberg lettuce), along with other very poor food choices. I wanted to jump through the screen and slap these white coated fools silly.
Proper exercises, nutrition and supplementation trumps CRON. But if you're going to do CRON, you cannot ignore these three things, and that's what I'm seeing among all CRON followers.
Here's an example of someone who has a great program of exercises, nutrition and supplementation:
http://www.bobdelmonteque.com
The problem with that statement is that the science - in both animal and human studies - clearly shows that great exercise, nutrition and supplementation alone does not beat CRON.
On the other hand, calorie restriction (CR) without the optimal nutrition (ON) part isn't good. You should certainly exercise and take supplements to boot.
Reason, those three things I mentioned beat CRON when the CRON practitioners I've seen only follow the CR part of it.
> Reason, those three things I mentioned beat CRON when the CRON
> practitioners I've seen only follow the CR part of it.
Scott, that's like saying CRON beats ALENS (Ad Libitum eating, great Exercise, Nutrition, and Supplementation), because most ALENS practitioners only follow the AL part of it.
Scott, Scott, Scott... You can't point out the problems with CRON unless you're actually talking to CRON practitioners. I am not one of them, yet. The ones that are, you haven't shown what's wrong with their diets, other than to point out that ALA is not as good as EPA/DHA for the typical (AL, not CRON) American, and even then, you were drawing that conclusion from one meal. You talk about junk food, but you're really talking to me, since I'm the one eating pizzas and drinking Cokes. April and the others are eating very healthy diets. If you disagree, please get specific.
My blog is new (cronliving.wordpress.com), mainly about my daily experiences with CRON to help give others an dea of how the lifestyle may be, thus help them in etermining whether it's suitable to them or not.