Khurram Hashmi in New Zealand Listener Magazine 29 May 2004

June 15, 2004

The front cover of the 29 May 2004 issue of the New Zealand

Listener Magazine reads:

" How the Best Diet Can Add 27 years to your life " ,

and features Calorie Restriction (CR) as the main story

of the issue.

The headline news covers pages 16 to 21 and centers on CR,

with page 20 devoted almost entirely to the story about

Khurram Hashmi and his CR lifestyle.

When I get a chance, I will post the text content of the

story about Khurram.

-- Warren

June 17, 2004

Here is the article. See below.

===

Warren wrote:

The front cover of the 29 May 2004 issue of the New Zealand

Listener Magazine reads:

"How the Best Diet Can Add 27 years to your life",

and features Calorie Restriction (CR) as the main story

of the issue.

The headline news covers pages 16 to 21 and centers on CR,

with page 20 devoted almost entirely to the story about

Khurram Hashmi and his CR lifestyle.

When I get a chance, I will post the text content of the

story about Khurram.

-- Warren

===

Listener Magazine

http://www.listener.co.nz/default,2017.sm

Features

May 29-June 4 2004 Vol 193 No 3342

The colour of life

by Alistair Bone

So you want a long and healthy life? Eating a nutrient-rich and

calorie-poor diet is one of the major factors in ensuring your best

shot at longetivity.

One of life's ironies is that the wave of people now reaching their

100th year were born at a time when knowledge about the benefits of

diet, exercise and a good attitude were nothing more than homilies,

with little science to back them up. In perspective, someone who turned

100 last year predates powered flight.

But there will soon be more century-makers in New Zealand – up from

just 300 in 1999 to around 12,000 in 2051. In industrialised countries,

the number is increasing at the rate of almost eight percent a year.

Twentieth-century improvements in public health explain some of it, but

dietitian Jeni Pearce has an additional explanation. "They were a lot

more active because they didn't have the labour-saving devices we have

now. And they ate what was put in front of them, but what was put in

front of them was a lot more fruit and veg. They had a lot less sugar,

because it was just too expensive. They also didn't have all the snack

and high-fat foods we have now."

In the prescribed troika of sweating, smiling and sensible eating, diet

is on the ascendant as a way to lengthen your four-score lifespan.

Dr Roizen is a multiple best-selling author of the Real Age

series of books and frequent Oprah guest. Diet is a biggie for life

extension, he says. "Diet is the second most important factor after

stress reduction in ensuring a long life. Cutting stress can add 32

years to your life, the best kind of diet can add 27, more than the 25

years saved reducing significant hypertension."

Roizen's original book, Real Age, contains a questionnaire to help you

determine your real age. Years are added and subtracted, depending on

your lifestyle choices. Eating a nutrient-rich, calorie-poor diet that

includes lots of grains and cereals, as well as fruit and veges, can

make your real age as much as four years younger than your

chronological age. Eating fewer than 20g of saturated fats and trans

fats, and fewer than 60g of total fat a day gets you six years off your

actual age. Lowering cholesterol is minus 3.7 years, maintaining a

steady low weight is minus six years.

His latest, Real Age Makeover (the number two seller on Amazon in

April), lists 133 things that you can do to save yourself. Not to be a

wheelchair-bound codger with an ear-trumpet, but as a disability-free

person into your nineties.

"We can control 80 percent of how to live well to age 90 to 100. We

know 80 percent of how to control age-related

diseases with your choices. That is, arterial ageing and immune system

ageing due to environmental and social factors. Not enough is being

done to promote simple changes like eating an ounce of nuts a day,

eating 10 tablespoons of spaghetti sauce a week, or doing 10 minutes of

strength training a week."

There is a whole list of foods or substances that make a difference.

The much-hyped antioxidants may or may not be a part of their

effectiveness. "We know that many foods, such as veg and fruit, that

have antioxidants are part of the effective group," says Roizen, "but

we don't know if it is

the antioxidant effect that makes a difference. It could be the

selenium in it, it could be the vitamin C. We don't know what it is.

Flavonoids, which are general antioxidants, but have other effects as

well, are one of the 15."

Pearce runs Jeni Pearce and Associates and helped write the 5+ a day

diet information on their website. "The 5+ a day camp is now focusing

on getting a lot more colours on your plate. That's all to do with

getting a better range of antioxidants. You can't just have carrots and

you can't just have greens, you've got to have yellows and oranges and

reds as well." The 5+ page (www.5aday.co.nz) says that coloured fruit

contains many of the vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals needed to

maintain good health and energy and protect against the effects of

ageing. Much of the stuff in fruit and veg contributes to their colour.

5+ wants us all to eat five servings (about a handful) from each of the

five colour groups: Red, Yellow/Orange, Blue/Purple, Brown/White and

the inevitable Green. It's all good, in that it helps to stave off

heart disease and cancer and keep you alive so as to be able to age.

But the Blue/Purple sector is where the best anti-ageing benefits are

to be found.

The Blue/Purple family contains much that could rightly be called

black, such as blackberries, blackcurrants, prunes and raisins. There

are some truly blue things, such as blueberries, a red (beetroot) and

some obvious purples such as plums, purple asparagus, purple cabbage,

purple grapes and purple peppers. All contain anthocyanins and

phenolics, which hold a promise of antioxidant and anti-ageing benefits.

Of everything, blueberries are the undisputed champions on the

anti-ageing bill of fare. The Colour Code is the original bible of

colour eating. It advises that blueberries slow and even reverse some

damage to ageing brains and improve short-term memory and

co-ordination. Blueberries also contain allagic acid, which blocks the

metabolic pathways that can promote cancer. They contain a substance

that can help prevent urinary tract infections, and can possibly assist

in the prevention of macular degeneration. The anthocyanins that make

them blue are the home of their antioxidant punch – a half cup of

blueberries packs as much antioxidant as five servings of carrots.

Colour Code author Dr Jim ph was brought here by Blueberries New

Zealand after his book was released in the US. The publicity shots

include the only known pictures of New Zealand farmers grinning from

ear to ear.

Canadian scientists have just found that broccoli (especially broccoli

sprouts, which are rich in a substance called glucoraphanin), is the up

and coming contender for the age-extension crown. The sprout appears to

cut the risk of high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and stroke.

Lab rats showed stronger antioxidant defences, less inflammation and

lower blood pressure after 14 weeks on the green.

Plant colour is not just for decoration, it turns out. Awash in a sea

of solar radiation all day and defenceless against insects, they have

developed pigmentation to help protect themselves. Happily, it works

for humans, too, and the more colour the better. The Colour Code

advises to buy "the reddest strawberries, the blackest blackberries …

broccoli that is a deep dark green … vibrant scarlet tomatoes …"

But what about the terminally lazy? Pizza, sadly, though colourful, is

not what dietitians have in mind when they talk about eating well. And

as for exercise, it is not enough to watch from a corporate box. In a

cruel twist of reason, relaxation and positivity are hard work for

many. We want a pill and we want it now.

Pearce is sympathetic but uncompromising. "We have got to get our act

together," she says. "There are drugs out there, such as human growth

hormone (HGH). But I think TV shows like Extreme Makeover have led

people to believe you can be young on the outside. Nobody is looking at

the age of these people on the inside."

HGH is a microscopic protein substance produced naturally in the

pituitary gland, just behind the eyes. It is made throughout a

lifetime, but is more plentiful during youth. A 20-year-old secretes an

average 500 micrograms a day, a 40-year-old 200 and an 80-year-old 25.

It stimulates growth in children and in adults is critical for tissue

repair, healing, brain function, physical and mental health, bone

strength, energy and metabolism. Now made synthetically, it is used by

some adults to reduce fat and build muscle mass. But doctors say it

could trigger a lurking tumour, cause carpal tunnel syndrome, excess

bone growth, diabetes, kidney problems, heart and lung failure and

possible early death. A year's supply can be bought off the Internet

for $US20,000.

Other youth-enhancing hormones, such as DHEA, testosterone and

oestrogen, may also increase the risk of breast and prostate cancer.

"So," says Pearce, "there is no easy way around it. You have to look

after exercise and muscle mass, you have to be positive and monitor

your stress and you do have to monitor the quality of what you are

eating. You have to manage your life well with all the other things

that are going on and some personality types really struggle with that."

More tough love: "A lot of these conditions are laid down when people

are young. If you make a decision when you are 50 that you are going to

live to 150, then it might be a bit late."

And some good news. Both Pearce and Roizen are happy to report that

chocolate and coffee are anti-ageing foods. (Oprah loved that, "Bring

it on, bring it on, bring it on, yeah," she chortled on her show.)

Coffee and chocolate contain antioxidants. Plunger coffee and dark (not

milk) chocolate are the best. But forget about white "chocolate", says

Pearce. "It is not even chocolate. You can't have white chocolate

because the cocoa bean is dark. White chocolate is basically just

flavoured fat and sugar."

ph first heard about the promise of blueberries from the person he

was carpooling with. The other major strand in the anti-ageing diet was

started by a fortunate accident.

The theory of calorie restriction has been around since the 1930s, but

it received a major boost in the mid 1980s when the inhabitants of the

Biosphere project spent two years living in a giant, hermetically

sealed greenhouse in the US. It turned out that they were not able to

produce adequate amounts of food, so everyone was rationed to 75

percent of their normal calorific intake. They were monitored regularly

and began showing surprising results. Most of them felt better and

their lipid and blood pressure levels were the same as younger

people's. Every other intermediate measure of ageing of the arteries

and immune system showed improvement, too.

Clinical experiments were subsequently conducted; yeast cells, worms,

toads, mice, rats, guinea pigs and primates had their calories

restricted by between 15 and 30 percent. Lifespan in the subjects was

extended by a whopping 30 to 150 percent.

Californian Khurram Hashmi first read about calorie restriction (CR)

when he was in his mid twenties. Four years ago, his interest was

renewed when a rise in his cholesterol coincided with a PBS documentary

on ageing and what can be done to prevent it.

Now 36, he eats between 1700 to 1900 calories a day, down from around

3500 a day and about 400 fewer than the 2200 recommended for sedentary

American adult males. For reference, a peach is 35 calories, a peach

pie 2410, a slice of cheese pizza around 290. Six feet tall (1.8m), he

used to weigh 81kg, he is now down to 53kg. A determined individual, he

didn't find the conversion a difficult task. "I had a lot of motivation

with respect to the health benefits and longevity," he says. "You have

to have a certain mindset. And I had a good amount of body fat, which

helps keep you from feeling too hungry."

But as his body fat burnt off he began to feel the effects of hunger.

"It is just one of those things you learn to live with. I practise a

very severe and austere form of calorie restriction, and not everybody

takes it to the same limits. Everything else is totally positive. In

itself, the time away from what I call 'sinful foods' is important.

Headaches and colds are all gone; most of us seem to be able to do with

about two hours less sleep per night as well. I've got a general sense

of wellbeing which I never had before, and clearer thinking and

perception."

Hashmi was part of a group of calorie restricters who were tested by

researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine, in the

forerunner to a $20 million National Institute of Health trial that is

just getting under way. They were among the first to study human

subjects and their findings were

published last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of

Sciences. The report noted that the average blood pressure of the CR

group was typical of 10-year-olds, and their body fat was on a par with

serious athletes. They had dramatically reduced risks of heart disease

and diabetes compared with a group consuming the typical diet.

But dietitians worldwide point out that it is hard enough getting

people to stick to eating the recommended number of calories, never

mind fewer. Dieting as a concept has been around for at least 141

years, despite the dubious nature of early attempts. People continue to

get fatter.

Hashmi runs the calorie restriction organisation's website

(www.calorierestriction.org) and even he can't see it being an instant

hit with the public. "It seems like obesity is an uncontrollable

problem. The food industry is constantly promoting their high-calorie,

low-nutrient products. The most important thing for people now is not

doing CR, but just improving the quality of their diet. Which is what

we recommend for people who want to start CR. The first thing is to get

the quality of the diet right and then gradually implement restriction

and go as far as you can go."

One seemingly common side-effect for men may be especially off-putting.

Hashmi says libido is an almost certain casualty. "All men get it,

pretty much. But it is something that is just not there, whereas the

feelings of hunger are something hard-wired and definitely present."

Hashmi claims that the upside is an average life extension of maybe 15

percent. Maybe more for him. "I started out fairly early and I push as

far as I can without starving myself, so I expect to make it to

somewhere between 120 and 130."

Cliff Tasman- is the scientific director for the New Zealand

Nutrition Foundation. Calorie restriction has shown some promise in

tests, he says. "The animals are healthy for longer throughout their

life. And when they do die, the process is much less painful and much

more rapid."

Tasman- says the human evidence for calorie restriction is sparse

at the moment. But "we know that those who tend to eat less, eat

nutritiously and are physically active appear to have fewer diseases.

We have to ask why this occurs. We know that if you eat a high-energy

dense diet, particularly with a high-fat and high-sugar tendency, then

you tend to be overweight. This causes the production of what could be

called a fat gland. When you get deposition of fat in the abdominal

area, this starts to produce its own chemicals, which can enhance the

tendency towards diabetes and a number of other conditions such as

coronary heart disease, cancer, cirrhosis of the liver and gallstones.

So, if your diet involves eating less, you tend to have fewer of these."

He notes that there are dangers from a too-low energy diet, even if it

is nutrient-adequate, because energy is needed for good brain, heart

and liver function.

Theories abound. Roizen says CR's benefits may even extend to reducing

the number of errors in the energy-delivering part of your cells by not

using the energy-converting parts of the cell as much. In other words,

the human machine is not being worn out by the action of constant

metabolism.

The major obvious downside with CR is being hungry and thinking about

food all the time. The running joke is "yes, you can live longer, but

after a few weeks of it, you won't want to". The Biosphere inmates

ended up watching each other like hawks to make sure no one had a

teaspoonful more than anyone else.

Roizen says it may be going too far. "What you want to do is find the

weight that you are most comfortable with, which is essentially a

little ectomorphic – you want to be a little thin and find the calories

and physical-activity components that balance there and stay there. And

don't be obsessive. If you go over or under, who cares? But if you are

15 percent lower, which gets you to an exaggerated ectomorph, that is

perhaps useful in reversing coronary artery disease, but it is probably

bad for immune function and risk of cancer and even risk of neurologic

disease."

Roizen says the US sees a lot of elimination fads. Not a good thing, as

they tend to exaggerate the things not eliminated. The newest research,

just reported in the ls of Internal Medicine, shows that low-carb

and low-calorie diets both seem to have the same effect in weight loss

(3-9kg) after 12 months, anyway. Cutting down on pasta, bread and

potatoes may be a quicker way to lose weight than eating fewer

fattening foods, but there is doubt that a low-carbohydrate diet is

safe and effective in the long term. And although people on a low-carb

diet – in which they ate less than 30g of carbohydrates a day – lost

5kg to 9kg after six months, people on a low-calorie diet, in which

less than a third of the food contained fat, lost much the same amount

after a year.

Pearce is suspicious of the newly emerging CR trend, but otherwise

relentlessly upbeat about the future nature of the things we put in our

mouths. "The next 20 years in nutrition are going to be so interesting,

because of all the stuff that is happening and where we are going and

the way the food companies are changing. In 20 years, we might go to

places like KFC and 's and Mc's for health foods. In 100

years time, we might have to put more fat in our diet because we have

been so good at taking it out."

Path of pillage

Free radicals are a product of normal metabolism, forming when oxygen

is burnt by the body.

Comprising a highly reactive atom with an unpaired electron, they

attack the nearest stable molecule and steal its electron. On this path

of pillage, they travel through cells, disrupting the structure of

molecules and causing cellular damage. This cell damage is believed to

contribute to ageing.

Antioxidants are substances that neutralise free radicals and their

destructive ways by "donating" an electron to the electron stealers.

The hippies of the molecular level, antioxidants do not become

scavengers after they lose their electron, because they are inherently

stable and secure within themselves.

More than skin deep

Three antioxidants have been shown to protect against and reverse

photo-ageing of the skin – selenium, vitamin E and vitamin C.

Unfortunately, creams often contain very low levels of the needed

antioxidants. The most effective way to get your dose is to take the

substances orally.

Selenium helps to protect the body from cancers, including skin cancers

caused by sun exposure. It also preserves tissue elasticity and slows

down ageing and the hardening of tissues through oxidation. The best

dietary sources include wholegrain cereals, garlic, eggs and seafood.

Seafood also contains omega oils, increasingly championed by

dermatologists for good skin.

Vitamin E protects cell membranes and prevents damage to membrane-

associated enzymes. Vitamin E supplements, taken in conjunction with

vitamin A supplements, are associated with a 70 percent reduced risk

for basal cell carcinomas. The best sources of E are vegetable oils,

especially sunflower oil, grains such as wheatgerm, brown rice and

oats, nuts, dairy products, meat and margarine.

Vitamin C is depleted when the skin is exposed to sun, pollution or

smoking. It is important in repairing free-radical damage and

preventing it from accelerating ageing and turning into cancers. It is

commonly found in vegetables and citrus fruits. Oral vitamin C has been

found to reduce UV-induced tumours in animals. Between 500 and 1000

milligrams a day is recommended, and this level is available from five

or more servings of fruit or vegetables.

Renowned New York dermatologist Dr Perricone, author of The

Perricone Prescription (out in paperback in July), stresses the

importance of fruit and vegetables and a diet low in sugar and

starches. He believes that a rise in blood sugar results in

inflammation on a cellular level, which causes wrinkles. In addition,

when our blood sugar goes up rapidly and continually, the sugar can

actually attach to the collagen in our skin, making it stiff and

inflexible. Perricone believes that a full 50 percent of skin ageing is

caused by that process, called glycation. Alcohol in excess results in

a rapid and sustained increase in blood sugar and also dehydrates the

skin. Eating antioxidants helps, reports Perricone, and so does eating

salmon. It's high in protein – good for cell repair – and it also

contains high amounts of the essential fatty acid Omega 3, a powerful

anti-inflammatory. Perricone believes that salmon is also important for

another nutrient: DMAE, which can increase muscle tone and decrease the

appearance of sagging. He recommends eating salmon with dark-green

salads – the antioxidants act as natural anti-inflammatories, he says –

and with olive oil. The oleic acid in olive oil helps the cells absorb

essential fatty acids more efficiently and also contains natural

anti-inflammatories called polyphenols. Just don't finish it off with

too much coffee: that, reports Perricone, can boost the hormone

cortisol, which can thin the skin.

June 21, 2004

How did you ever find that news story about " The Color of Life " ?

Or even find my message about Khurram's story? No mention of it

appeared on the CRSupportList that I can remember. And I never

did find the story, until you found it (below).

Thanks for helping, to my surprise and delight. -- Warren

=================

From: Easy [mailto:Easy@...]

Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2004 12:01 PM

Subject: Re: [ ] Khurram Hashmi in

New Zealand Listener Magazine 29 May 2004

Here is the article. See below.

====

Warren wrote:

The front cover of the 29 May 2004 issue of the New Zealand

Listener Magazine reads:

" How the Best Diet Can Add 27 years to your life " ,

and features Calorie Restriction (CR) as the main story

of the issue.

The headline news covers pages 16 to 21 and centers on CR,

with page 20 devoted almost entirely to the story about

Khurram Hashmi and his CR lifestyle.

When I get a chance, I will post the text content of the

story about Khurram.

-- Warren

=============

Listener Magazine

http://www.listener.co.nz/default,2017.sm

Features May 29-June 4 2004 Vol 193 No 3342

The colour of life by Alistair Bone

So you want a long and healthy life? Eating a nutrient-rich

and a calorie-poor diet is one of the major factors in

ensuring your best shot at longetivity...