Long-life eating, part II

October

As I’m learning more about Calorie Restriction and its possible connection to a longer lifespan, I’ve had some interesting discussions with friends and relatives.

If you found out you could live, let’s say, 10 years longer by avoiding all your favorite foods for the rest of your life, would you do it? What about five years, or three?

I don’t always eat very well. I love chocolate, French fries, pizza and Chinese food. But I try to eat them sparingly and do my best to make healthy choices most of the time. Still, I love having ice cream when I feel like it, or popcorn at the movies (horrible for you, I know) or M&Ms on Halloween.

If I were a Calorie Restricter, I would not be eating any of that stuff. Junk food is, well, junk.

But there are also foods that fall into a gray area. If you make it your life’s mission to eat only foods that are packed with nutrients, eggplant parmigiana and quesadillas (two more of my “bad” favorites) would never be part of the plan.

So what do you say? How far would you tweak your diet if you knew you could live to a very old age?

This entry was posted on Monday, October 19th, 2009 at 5:28 pm by Linda Lombroso.
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One Response to “Long-life eating, part II”

mari October 22nd, 2009 at 6:38 am
Linda, What do we really have in life as we get older? Good friends and good times. These things are usually accompanied with good food.
When my mom was in a nursing home, the food was really bland. I would make her broccoli quiches, bring her candy.
It made her happy. She didn’t have it every day but once or twice a week. Her doctor told me, it is also about the quality of the life.
I personally, do not smoke, do not drink, but do not touch my chocolate.

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