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Calorie Restriction with Optimum Nutrition Forum
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A1CR
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Joined: 18 Jan 2006
Posts: 559
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 Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 10:50 pm Post subject: "Psychology Today" interview of a CRONie |
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Summary:
Hoping to extend his life span through an extreme diet, one man finds serenity and bliss.
The Skinny on Calorie Restriction
By Willow Lawson
Psychology Today
Jul/Aug 2004
| Quote: |
In early January 2000, Dean - stepped on a scale and was shocked to find that he'd become a typical American: He was overweight. It was only a few pounds, but he worried: Was this the beginning of a downward spiral?
-, a computer-software engineer, had recently seen a documentary about people who follow the Calorie Restriction (CR) diet and was intrigued by the mechanics of it. Followers believe sharply reducing calories over the course of a lifetime will extend their lives by perhaps a decade or more. The research is promising; restricting calories considerably lengthens the lives of all animals that have been studied, including rats, dogs and primates.
Four years later and 50 pounds lighter, - is an avid follower of CR, along with thousands of people around the world. |
Unfortunately, the article is almost entirely devoted to quizzing Dean on the rigors, hassles, and “weirdness” of CR. Dean responds frankly to questions on food obsessions, restaurant strategy, CR practitioner demography, the uncertainty of the anti-aging payoff, the blunting of libido, CR-induced marital friction AND smoothing, the possible dangers of CR segueing into or masking an eating disorder, and the unlikelihood of a mass conversion to unnaturally low Caloric intake. He also discusses the immediate pschological benefits he’s experienced, and his motivational shift out of CR as a life extension strategy to CR as a sort of spiritual discipline.
One point w/which I had to disagree:
| Quote: |
Q: Do most CR practitioners give up favorite foods as you have?
Dean: I think there are actually two schools of thought: You go cold turkey on treats, and after a month or so you just stop thinking about it. Other people like to "tickle the dragon" as we call it. I did that for quite some time and found it didn't result in a peaceful existence for me. It would be Thursday or Friday and I would start to think, "OK, where do I want to eat out this weekend? Which restaurant has the best desserts?" It clouded my judgment. |
Now, I know that these 2 groups exist, but I’m certain that they don’t represent the diversity of relationships here and are not even the twin poles of a dichotomy. I think that there are plenty of folks who are definitely not going cold turkey on ‘treats’ -- whether they are sneaky CR versions of junk foods (guar puddings etc) or just junk foods (in which category I am including not just Ding Dongs but haute couture desserts that happen to be brutally empty &/or toxic Calories) in small amounts with the rest of the diet designed to ensure CR and AN out of the whole package -- but who are not ‘tickling the dragon’ in the sense that this phrase has been used on the List (as a form of intentional rousing of hunger and/or food impulsivity IN ORDER to exert control over it, like Tantrik maithuna). They’re simply enjoying a food in the context of a Calorie-restricted, nutritionally-adequate diet, with no specific intent to engage in gastronomic self-conquest. Indeed, some of us regularly consume such stuff (in my case in the former category, tho’ occasionally also in the latter in v. small amounts) without significantly more internal conflict than when eating a salad.
My favorite bits:
-the interviewer implies that we’re all a bunch of food prudes with the question, “Is our society too focused on food and pleasure?” Dean turns this on its head by discussing the enslaved and ironically robotic and pleasureless relationship most people in industrialized nations have with food (cf Wilhelm Reich on frenetic pursuit of orgasm).
-“I'm in it for the adventure.”
-MR
Link to article:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/htdocs/prod/PTOArticle/pto-20040706-000002.asp
[Note: Khurram reposting MR's review from 6 Jul 2004] |
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