Liza May in Daytona Beach Florida News Story

[Guest guest]

Liza May, one of the attendees at the Washington DC area CR gathering

this past weekend 06/13/2004, is featured in the Daytona Beach, Forida

News Journal, story dated today 06/15/2004:

TinyURL: http://tinyurl.com/2h7dk

LongURL:

http://www.news-journalonline.com/newsjournalonline/lifestyle/food/03foodlif

01061504.htm

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It's Not About Losing Weight Anymore

By VICKY KOREN

News-Journal Correspondent

Daytona Beach News Journal Online

Last update: 15 June 2004

Potato chips, burgers, ice cream, pizza, fried chicken, donuts -- and a

salad to go.

It's the all-American diet.

Eating healthy and restricting calories has become pretty much an after

thought. Two of every three Americans is overweight, with daily

headlines warning of the health hazards of obesity. It's grown to such

large proportions, in fact, that the Obesity Summit was held earlier

this month.

Could there be another cure to avoiding the burden of extra weight, and

living a healthier life?

The 900 members nationwide in the Calorie Restriction Society believe

they have found their own panacea.

Their belief: Reducing calories and maintaining nutrition can slow the

aging process and ensure a healthier and longer life.

It's not about losing weight anymore.

CR followers are putting their trust in the promising findings gleaned

from animal studies in the last decade that point to overall health

benefits and longer lifespan with calorie restriction.

The results were so promising that the National Institutes of Health --

National Institute on Aging has launched a caloric restriction study on

humans in three U.S. cities.

The study is being done to determine the effects on physiology, body

composition and risk factors for age-related diseases.

For now, CR followers happily are reporting their own experience and

findings.

Liza May of land, a clinical nutritionist and member of the CR

Society, said she and her husband have practiced CR for 25 years, and

now her children also are on CR diets.

May, 5-foot-7 and 115 pounds, is thoroughly convinced she's doing the

right thing.

" Animal studies and our group (CR Society) have shown that it reduces

the risk of almost every single modern degenerative disease you can

think of, and within a short period of time.

" It seems to be a remarkably powerful way to clean up your health very

fast. And there are longevity aspects to it, " said May, who holds a

masters degree in human nutritional biochemistry.

Surprisingly, May, 51, exists on 800 to 1000 calories daily and, some

days, she consumes just 300 calories.

" Yesterday, I only had an apple, " she noted.

She has reduced her caloric intake to 50 percent below what she

normally would have consumed.

" I have not had a cold or flu for as long as I can remember. I am

healthy as a horse, and I have plenty of energy. I work out every day, "

May said.

As for the recommended amount of calorie restriction for CR followers,

it varies from person to person, she said.

" It's whatever people can do. The amount that you restrict your

calories is the degree to which you will experience benefits. If you

restrict 20 percent you will live 20 percent longer, and have 20

percent health benefits, " she said, noting animal research findings.

May recommends that new CR followers start out gradual with a 10

percent reduction the first six months to a year and slowly build from

there.

May warned that if a person goes too low in restricting calories " then

you are not meeting the optimal nutrition. "

Finding a local CR follower is not easy.

There are hundreds of area residents following the latest diets, of

course.

The athletic-minded, meanwhile, are following a strict diet and

exercise regimen; and then there are happy followers of the whole food

and organic diet.

But the concept of restricting calories to live a healthier and

prolonged life is not a familiar one.

Ormond Beach resident Lynn Koller is a big fan of eating healthy,

organic foods, but admits that following a CR diet could be a

challenge.

" I don't want to be in a position where I am counting calories all the

time, but I watch what I eat very closely. I try to stick with whole

foods because that's how I think you stay healthy. I don't watch

calories, I do watch nutrient values, " said the 34-year-old resident.

Koller, who weighs 142 pounds and is 5-foot-11, calls herself an " avid

label reader. "

There is no definitive answer to the calorie question, not yet at

least, said B., Ph.D., obesity researcher and director of

the NIH-funded Clinical Nutrition Research Center at the University of

Alabama at Birmingham.

" We don't know what level of caloric intake will lead to the greatest

longevity, " said.

" The best thing we know now is you want to generally eat a balanced

diet. There is some reason to believe that food rich in certain vital

chemicals would be useful, but we really are at an early stage in our

knowledge, " he said.

said while the animal research is " virtually conclusive . . .

and promising in showing that caloric restriction radically prolongs

life and slows aging; the question is whether it will work in humans.

There are no true experiments looking at the effects of caloric

restrictions on humans. "

believes that caloric reduction as a lifestyle choice would be

close to impossible for most people.

" I think it's going to be hard to do, " he said.

Dr. H. Eckel, American Heart Association nutrition spokesman and

professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences

Center, agrees.

" The question is: 'Is this doable?' I am very skeptical about getting

people to eat 20 percent less calories for the rest of their life, "

Eckel said.

Both Allision and Eckel agreed that reproducing the animal research

results in humans will be a challenge.

" There is that group of people that claim they can do it and get away

with it (voluntarily restrict calories). This unique group of people

will not be easily reproducible in an experiment, " Eckel said.

But both agree that maintaining a healthy body weight will bring health

benefits.

Ormond Beach dietitian Carol Elliott said to play it safe, a person

interested in restricting calories should follow the food pyramid

recommendations for servings and food groups, and stay within the

healthy weight range of the Body Mass Index (BMI).

" If you are basing your restricted calories on the amount of calories

your body requires, then you are going to maintain the correct weight

for your height, and then provide the nutrients your body needs, "

Elliott said.

Did You Know?

For many Americans, watching their caloric intake when deciding what to

eat is a full-time job.

** A calorie is the measurement of heat needed to raise the temperature

of one gram of water by one degree Centigrade.

** Calories can be measured by a device called a calorimeter. Food is

placed inside a chamber, sealed and burned. The temperature of the

water surrounding the chamber is measured and used to calculate the

number of calories.