How’s Your Longevity Outlook?

[jollystomper]

With most of us in the U.S. either overweight or obese I suspect the main benefit of either strict vegetarian or strict low-carb eating is how calorie restriction is easier than with the SAD.

+1

IMHO I think the "diet wars" as not as important than the quantity of calories you are consuming. Eating more fruits and vegetables gives you a greater amount of food to fill you up with fewer calories. Processed foods tend to have high amounts of calories at lower quantities that do not fill you up... hence you tend to eat a lot more of them.

In addition, making your own food will tend to give you fewer calories than the same food purchased, and give you better control over its health content. But, it takes time that more and more folks are not willing to allocate towards doing this. I am more and more thankful that DW and I were raised by parents who taught us how to cook, and that we taught our children how to cook.

 

[LRDave]

We were far healthier as a nation in terms of chronic disease before the US govt decided that dietary guidelines should be established and were appropriate for everyone.

[/QUOTE

Anyone who spends an hour in any Walmart on a Saturday afternoon can see the results of this country's poor health epidemic.!

You would observe both the cause AND the effect.... To be fair, this would also be true in many other retailers. I'd say Dollar General moreso than Wally World.

 

[RIGM]

I would go "full on vegetarian" but am concerned about enough protein. What does your wife use for protein, beans/rice, nuts/seeds...does she eat dairy? I eat so little meat but worry about protein. I'm healthy, low BP, great a1c, heart blood work-up excellent, liver function excellent.

Rianne, my answer to you on protein was adequate, but I realized later that there is more to the answer. This adds some additional information to the answer, I think:

https://nutritionfacts.org/video/the-protein-combining-myth/

So, in short, there should not be any worry about getting enough protein.

 

[RIGM]

Regarding the several thoughts that calorie restriction is key, I recall seeing information that it didn't matter what you ate if you were on a Calorie Restricted diet. The "restriction" in the calorie restriction diet, however, mandates you keep the total calories to a pretty low level. Caloric intake is so low on a CR diet that I wonder if it is sustainable over the long run. I also wonder how that would affect someone who is more active. Still, there probably are some significant advantages to the CR diet, as this NIH overview of CR (and fasting) diets explains:

https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/calorie-restriction-and-fasting-diets-what-do-we-know

And this study's results were just published:

https://www.nia.nih.gov/news/calorie-restriction-may-benefit-healthy-adults-under-50

 

[daylatedollarshort]

The nutritionfacts.org site also has quite a bit on calorie restriction vs. plant based diets for health and longevity -

https://nutritionfacts.org/2016/07/14/caloric-restriction-vs-plant-based-diets/