CRON stands for Calorie Restriction Optimal Nutrition. CRON operates on the premise that becoming very thin while eating a very nutritional diet, slowly over several years, will increase your life span. This premise is probably true and is based upon thousands of experiments involving a range of animals from single celled organisms to mammals. Countless experiments prove the validity of CRON. Currently, experiments on long lived primates is ongoing at the NIH and the results are confirming the validity of CRON. Below I post an abstract of a recently conducted study using Rhesus monkeys. AL stands for "ad libitum" and DR stands for "dietary restricted." The monkey study - as reported on sci.life-extension - reports a 28% increase in average lifespan:
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J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 2003 Mar;58(3):212-9
Mortality and morbidity in laboratory-maintained Rhesus monkeys and
effects of long-term dietary restriction.
Bodkin NL, Alexander TM, Ortmeyer HK, Johnson E, Hansen BC.
Obesity and Diabetes Research Center, Department of Physiology, School
of Medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore 21201, USA.
nbodkin678@aol.com
Mortality and morbidity were examined in 117 laboratory-maintained rhesus monkeys studied over approximately 25 years (8 dietary-restricted [DR] and 109 ad libitum-fed [AL] monkeys). During the study, 49 AL monkeys and 3 DR monkeys died. Compared with the DR monkeys, the AL monkeys had a 2.6-fold increased risk of death. Hyperinsulinemia led to a 3.7-fold increased risk of death (p <.05); concordantly, the risk of death decreased by 7%, per unit increase in insulin sensitivity (M). There was significant organ pathology in the AL at death. The age at median survival in the AL was approximately 25 years compared with 32 years in the DR. The oldest monkey was a diabetic female (AL) that lived to be 40 years of age. These results suggest that dietary restriction leads to an increased average age of death in primates, associated with the prevention of hyperinsulinemia and the mitigation of age-related disease.
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The idea of applying CRON to humans was popularized by Dr. Roy Walford in his book The 120-year Diet and more recently the updated Beyond The 120-year Diet. These two books are not full of the typical hype presented in most diet books. They are fully referenced and written in witty sophisticated manner. They would be useful to any Vegetarian wanting to optimize the nutritional content of their diet.
You might wonder what is the optimal BMI for a human practicing a CRON diet? Well, shockingly, it is about 19. Not surprisingly, not many people opt for such a diet. You must live every day with hunger and plan your meals to perfection. Still, there are a number of people practicing CRON and based on lab tests they are extremely healthy. You can read about CRON at http://www.calorierestriction.org/index.htm
In closing, I would like to point out that I do not condone animal experimentation. Nonetheless, the results of the animal studies are fascinating.
------------------------------
J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 2003 Mar;58(3):212-9
Mortality and morbidity in laboratory-maintained Rhesus monkeys and
effects of long-term dietary restriction.
Bodkin NL, Alexander TM, Ortmeyer HK, Johnson E, Hansen BC.
Obesity and Diabetes Research Center, Department of Physiology, School
of Medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore 21201, USA.
nbodkin678@aol.com
Mortality and morbidity were examined in 117 laboratory-maintained rhesus monkeys studied over approximately 25 years (8 dietary-restricted [DR] and 109 ad libitum-fed [AL] monkeys). During the study, 49 AL monkeys and 3 DR monkeys died. Compared with the DR monkeys, the AL monkeys had a 2.6-fold increased risk of death. Hyperinsulinemia led to a 3.7-fold increased risk of death (p <.05); concordantly, the risk of death decreased by 7%, per unit increase in insulin sensitivity (M). There was significant organ pathology in the AL at death. The age at median survival in the AL was approximately 25 years compared with 32 years in the DR. The oldest monkey was a diabetic female (AL) that lived to be 40 years of age. These results suggest that dietary restriction leads to an increased average age of death in primates, associated with the prevention of hyperinsulinemia and the mitigation of age-related disease.
-----------------------------------------
The idea of applying CRON to humans was popularized by Dr. Roy Walford in his book The 120-year Diet and more recently the updated Beyond The 120-year Diet. These two books are not full of the typical hype presented in most diet books. They are fully referenced and written in witty sophisticated manner. They would be useful to any Vegetarian wanting to optimize the nutritional content of their diet.
You might wonder what is the optimal BMI for a human practicing a CRON diet? Well, shockingly, it is about 19. Not surprisingly, not many people opt for such a diet. You must live every day with hunger and plan your meals to perfection. Still, there are a number of people practicing CRON and based on lab tests they are extremely healthy. You can read about CRON at http://www.calorierestriction.org/index.htm
In closing, I would like to point out that I do not condone animal experimentation. Nonetheless, the results of the animal studies are fascinating.