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A1CR
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Joined: 18 Jan 2006
Posts: 559
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 Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2006 7:36 pm Post subject: Support the CR Society! |
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Here's MR's take on why it's important to support the CR Society:
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I became interested in life extension in the early 1990s, after my
previously-superlative health began to break down in response to a very
poor, CR-but-not-AN diet created during my first year cooking for myself
as a starving student in college. I first began to DO something about
this a few years later, again pursuing a wrong path: having read a
range of other popular books on life extension, I became convinced that
megadose antioxidant supplementation could be the fountain of youth.
The more I dug into the literature, however, the more skeptical I
became. Many of the claims for antioxidants didn't seem to be borne up
by the research, for one reason or another. But what everyone --
hucksters selling their products and biogerontologists debunking their
claims -- seemed to agree was that Calorie restriction was the one
proven way to retard aging in mammals.
Later, another popular book convinced me that, in addition to oxidative
stress, sugar metabolism was a key component of the aging of my body.
Lowering glucose and insulin levels, and increasing sensitivity, was an
essential pillar of an effective anti-aging lifestyle that I was not
addressing. The book advocated a lower-carb, higher-fat and -protein
diet than I was eating -- and, agian, mild reduction in Caloric intake.
From this, it was a quick skip into reading Barry Sears' "Zone" diet
books, which reiterated more emphatically a message I'd kept hearing in
every source of information on anti-aging science that I'd come across,
but always parenthetically: that Calorie restriction is the most
well-documented anti-aging intervention known to science. I was finally
convinced that, if I was to have any hope of effectively taking hold of
the age-related decay of my body and brain, I was going to have to take
up Calorie restrictioin.
Following up in Sears' bibliography, I found Dr. Walford's books; and
after a little investigation on the Internet, I came to the CR Society.
In a media and organizational environment saturated with groups,
businesses, and ideas about slowing down aging and living a longer,
healthier life, CR always gets a mention -- but almost always
dismissively. We hear the same nonsense over and over again: that CR is
impossible for real humans to do; that there is no scientific evidence
that CR will work in humans; that CR is just anorexia or malnutrition in
life extension drag; that practitioners are miserable; that a life of
low-Calorie, high-nutrition eating is a life not worth living. That you
might not live forever, but that it would (groan) certainly *feel* like
an eternity.
If you've been around for more than a few days, you know that that's not
true. Many of us struggle with various aspects of our lifestyle,
balancing our capacity for self-discipline, social pressure, acquired
and inherent food triggers, and aspects of short-term quality of life
against the promise of a greatly-extended, more youthful future. We've
come here through various portals -- popular news stories, Dr. Walford's
or Society President Brian Delaney's books, conventional diets, word of
mouth -- but we all know, in our own ways, how a healthy, low-Calorie
diet can be integrated into our lives.
If that's so, you've almost certainly benefitted enormously from the
resources made available through the CR Society. Years after it was just
a mailing list, the Society has grown into a fully-fledged nonprofit
organization. For most, the mailing lists remain its most valuable
resource: it's where we see nutritioin debated from the unique
perspective of a CR diet; where we can consult with others who've been
throught te same challenges and have found individual solutions, or
where the a decade of collective experience of members has come up with
more uniform solutions; where we can meet other CR Society members --
intelligent, unique people who share our fundamental orientation on
life, in a world where so many are ready to accept a slow slide into
obesity, poor health, aging, and death; where the hype of the
"anti-aging" quacks *and* the defeatism of the medical mainstream is cut
through by analysis and debate amongst the people with the most at stake
in discovering the truth.
You may or may not have been able to benefit from the Society's many
other resources, such as the quick-start CR guide:
http://calorierestriction.org/howto
... or the recipes collection:
http://recipes.calorierestriction.org/default.view
... or the fantastic CR Society Conferences, which are a wonderful
opportunity to interact with both prominent CR scientists and other
people that share your unique lifestyle:
http://calorierestriction.org/conference
... or have thought of furthering the excitement of being on a very
personal experiment by joining the CR Society Cohort Study:
http://calorierestriction.org/book/view/14
... and the now-dormant CR-friendly physicians' referral system.
But unfortunately, none of these resources are as well-developed as they
could be, because of lack of funding. The CR Society is an entirely
volunteer effort, with a shoestring budget for all of its activities.
With a little money to buy software solutions, pay for outreach
materials, and put a few people on the payroll, so much more could be
accomplished with what we have -- and projects that have only been
dreamt of could be realized.
Right now, the odds are that you're using the existing resources -- if
nothing else, this mailing list -- at no cost. Of over a thousand List
subscribers, only a minority are actually supporting the activities of
the Society by becoming paying, Supporting Members of the Society. In
one sense that's fine: the Society wants to get the word out and help
people to clean up their diets, push down their Calories, and start
enjoying the benefits of a low-Calorie lifestyle today, irrespective of
their ability to pay for the services that it provides.
But at the same time, we do run into a "free rider problem." The more
the Society grows, the more resources it needs, so if this growth in
subscribers is not accompanied by a growth in monetary support, the
quality of services is degraded for everyone.
In addition to people who have never financially supported the Society,
many people who signed on as Supporting Members when we first made it
easy to sign on a year or two ago have let their memberships lapse. This
is easy to do and entirely understandable: it's easy to put it off for
one more day, and then another, even though only a little effort -- and
a small minimum membership fee -- is involved. But it's essential to the
success of the Society's important mission -- for you, and for others
who have not yet heard about CR -- that such folks take a moment to show
their support with their pocketbooks.
You're already benefitting from the investments of time, engagement, and
money that have built the Society to what it is today, and that keep the
mailing list Archives and other resources available. What is needed is
for you to put back into the system -- to pay, on the honor system, for
the goods that you're enjoying in high-quality information, and to help
us to make the Society better.
You can sign on as a Supporting Member here, using a credit card,
PayPal, or by mail, here:
http://calorierestriction.org/book/view/159
This page also lists the premium benefits of Supporting Membership, such
as a one year subscription to the quarterly CR Society member newsletter
and a free copy of Dr. Walford's Interactive Diet Planner -- software
that helps you with the crucial task of ensuring that your experimental
CR diet is not unwittingly leading you into malnourishment. Supporting
Members also enjoy a discount at the next CR Society conference.
As many recent scientific and popular publications have intimated, we
may be within a few decades of radical breakthroughs in science's
ability to slow, arrest, or even reverse the molecular rot that steals
our health and our lives with age. But right now, today, CR remains the
sole scientifically-backed method of retarding biological aging in
mammals. And indeed, our ability to live long enough, and in good enough
health, to reach the cusp of these new anti-aging biomedicines may well
rest on adhering to a rigorous CR program in the intervening years. For
humans to take up Calorie restriction is an experimental diet, carried
out in an environment hostile to healthy, *intentional* eating; you
probably know already how much you, and others, rely on the Society to
help you to navigate these uncharted waters.
Sign up for the first time, or renew your support. Give yourself, and
others, the gift of the Society's support for our new experiment in
eating and living for a longer, healthier, more youthful life.
-MR |
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