Caloric Restriction

There is one issue I would like to discuss separately, which is calorie restriction. There is a recent body of research that strongly suggests we have the ability to slow down aging-to extend both life and youthfulness-through calorie reduction.

Why do you separate this discussion from the chapters that discuss nutritional issues?

WHAT’S FOR BREAKFAST

The best way to become nutritionally conscious is to read food labels when available. In addition, appendix 2 provides the nutritional content of common foods.

There are many breakfast foods that are consistent with the 10% solution. Here is a sample.

1. COLD CEREALS

The cereals below are low in fat, cholesterol, sugar, and sodium. Some of the cereals have more fiber content than others.

Quick-and-Lean Cuisine from the Kurzweil Kitchen

The problem with most cookbooks, of course, is that they reflect the high-fat, high-cholesterol, high-sodium, high-sugar, and low-fiber orientation of the Western diet. Japanese cuisine is far superior in terms of fat and cholesterol content, but is very excessive in sodium. There are a number of excellent cookbooks that comply with the guidelines of the 10% solution, some of which I have included here.

Many of the recipes in the books below meet the 10 percent-fat from calories guideline. Most are also low-sodium and low-sugar. Most of these books also provide nutritional information, including fat, sodium, cholesterol, and calories. Note that not all of the recipes in these books are sufficiently low in fat, so look at the grams of fat in the nutritional analysis that accompanies many of these recipes.

-Jeremiah Stamler, “Population Studies,” in Nutrition, Lipids and Coronary Heart Disease, ed. R Levy, et al.

1. Overview

In reviewing the eating and dying patterns of different societies, we find two basic patterns. The poor nations of the world cannot afford the high-fat “refined” foods characteristic of the wealthier nations and, thus, eat a diet that tends to be high in starch (complex carbohydrates) and fiber and low in fat and cholesterol. Heart disease, diabetes, and various forms of cancer (colon-rectal, breast, ovarian, and others) are very rare in these societies. Individuals in such societies also cannot afford medical care and proper food storage. The primary causes of death are, therefore, infectious diseases. If salt and pickling are commonly used to preserve foods, then stomach cancer may also be high. These are the diseases of poverty

Nutritional Content of Food

(Tables adapted bona Food Values of Portions Commonly Used, 15th edition by jean A. T. Pennington and Helen Nichols Church. Copyright © 1989 by Jean A. T. Pennington. Copyright © 1980, 1985 by Helen Nichols Church and Jean A. T. Pennington. Reprinted by permission of Harper Collins Publishers, Inc.)

Please note that blank spaces in the following nutritional guide denote lack of information. Do not assume that missing values are zero.

Charts for the Kurzweil Challenge

The Kurzweil Challenge is a ten-step program that enables you to try out the principles of the 10% solution on a trial basis, to determine for yourself the impact it can have on your immediate health, cholesterol levels. weight, and sense of well-being. It also allows you to test the assertion that your tastes and attitudes toward food can change. The Kurzweil Challenge is described in chapter 9.