PBS Program on Calorie Restriction

I have always been really interested in what's going on in the research world around diet, health, and longevity.  So when I saw this program coming on PBS, I couldn't resist.  Afterwards I immediately went to the PBS website to see if I could find the video, but it may be too soon, the program was new tonite.  I think it's pretty interesting in terms of the calorie restriction we experience post-op.

Eat, Fast and Live Longer with Michael Mosley

As with most programs like this, he spends the first 40 minutes talking about recent research (and talking to various researchers) about calorie restriction, and its effect on mice and in one study, people.  He even goes on a 3.5-day fast to see how it affects his LDL, HDL, glucose, and IGF-1 (more about that in a minute).  But eventually he settles on a 5/2 interval fast program, where he eats whatever he wants for five days a week, and for 2 days a week he eats only 600 calories.  It turns out this has the same effect on blood levels as the 3.5-day fast.  And he lost "a stone" (14 lbs) in about five weeks.  (He's a Brit.)  It's all better explained in the program, of course. 

There's a thing called IGF-1 (insulin growth factor 1, I think) that, if high, is bad - the body goes into cell production.  If low, the body goes into cell repair, i.e., DNA repair, meaning things like cancer occur at lower instances.  He cut his level in half with both fasting styles.

In the brain, something else happens with calorie restriction - new brain cells develop, and the development of dementia (at least in mice bred to develop it) is delayed.  If further research confirms that this occurs in people, they speculate that hunger may predispose us, from an evolutionary standpoint, to get smarter so we remember where we found food or think of new strategies to obtain it. 

Not saying I'm going to try this, but I do find it very interesting.  I'm living on a calorie level of about 1200-1400 a day these days, and I think most of us in maintenance, if we want to avoid re-gain, have to eat a lot fewer calories than we did before.  Maybe we'll all live to a healthy, ripe old age! 

The program will probably re-run several times (if I know PBS) - it'll probably be a fund raiser eventually, LOL.  Might be worth your while.

Kathy, thanks so much for posting this. It sounds like the show presented some very interesting research, and I hope to catch it during a rerun!

Thank you.. This sounds very interesting, hopefully I'll get to catch it on PBS

Thanks so much for posting this. I have had an interest in calorie restriction research for years. However, I have always needed to be careful how I approach these views. My mother was an anorexic and at times I have leaned toward that end of the spectrum. I never went really far, but just need to be mindful. I had to work it through with my therapist how having VSG differed from anorexia before I could mentally approve of the surgery for myself.

All that said, I do think we are biologically designed for a world of scarcity and are killing ourselves in this land of plenty/ excess.

I will definitely search for this show.

Annie

I started using a form of the 5:2 in June, and have gotten to goal (20+ pounds) after a 22 pound regain the previous 12 months. I love it. I do eat a reduced  calorie diet on feast days, (1200-1500) and around 550 on fast days.