File contents: CRON Made Easy

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CR Made Easy

Many new people ask: how does one begin CR? There are simple methods that

one can use easily to start you off. You will naturally lower your

calories just by cutting out sugar, high fat and junk foods and substituting

foods that are healthier. Proper preparation is also critical: fried foods

are extremely high in fat and calories; cooking should be steaming, baking,

broiling or sauteing. So if you don't know where to begin, just start with

these 5 easy steps. Later when you've mastered these, you can refine your

diet further.

1. Eliminate sugar as much as possible. Diet sugars and no cal sweetners

are OK in moderation. Splenda and/or sucralose, xylitol or stevia are the

diet sweeteners of choice and can be eaten more liberally.

2. Make your pasta and breads and other grains whole grain;

make your rice brown rice.

3. Eliminate or cut way back on fatty, high calorie foods such as red meats

(beef, pork,ham) and oils including most bottled salad dressings. Substitute

lean protein such as: poultry, game meats, fish, soy, fat-free yogurt, skim

milk, eggs. For vegetarians or vegans, besides soy, yogurt, skim milk, and

eggs - hummous and chick peas can provide protein. With legumes, such as

peas, lentils and chick peas, add brown rice or another whole grain for a

complete protein.

4. Add more vegetables and fruits to your diet while cutting back on the

higher caloric foods (add especially vegetables which are usually lower

in calories than fruit).

5. Stop taking second helpings.

OR:

if you prefer to go the route used by many popular diet groups

such as weight watchers, here's a way to practise CR with ready-made

foods:

Purchase a low-cal low-fat frozen dinner (e.g. Healthy Choice). Add some

frozen veggies to bring up the satiety factor and a very small amount of

healthy mono-unsaturated fat (olive oil, a couple of nuts or a small piece

of avocado). Skip the dessert portion (or substitute fresh fruit). This way

you've got a very easy to prepare, fairly high nutrition, CR-friendly meal.

Also, there are markets where you can purchase cut-up fresh veggies and all

you have to do is throw them all together in a salad bowl, with a bit of

olive oil and balsamic vinegar and voila! you have a salad without all the

dicing and chopping. Add some canned salmon and you have a CR meal without

the work!

OR:

Re-read pp 219-221 of " Beyond the 120 Year Diet " . On those pages Walford

gives instructions for changing your food habits and what a typical day's

eating should be. The three meals outlined are simple with very little

cooking and preparation. He calls these instructions the " basic start-up

pattern " .

OR:

go to Dr Walford's site, to the page titled: " Getting Started On The

Anti-Aging Diet " : http://www.walford.com/aastart.htm . In this one page

description, Dr. Walford outlines the Rapid Reorientation Method and the

Gradual Reorientation Method.

Finally: If you find it too hard to keep a low calorie diet, all is not

lost. Remember that even if you just change WHAT you eat and eat as much as

you want, you will still be much healthier than before.

WARNING: If you are middle aged or older your CR regimen should be

moderate. On page 50 of BT 120YD, Walford says " ....But when started at 300

days of age (mice) 6 grams actually INCREASED the death rate........The

optimal restriction level changes with age and at greater ages should be

less severe. "

Also, as everyone who has read the files knows, Dr Walford is seriously ill.

In our " Dr Walford " file, there's a conversation whereby he discusses

whether his age at the start of his caloric restriction in the biosphere

(67) and the extremeness of his restriction (due to the biosphere

conditions) might be the cause of his illness. No one can be sure of course

but he does ponder on that as well as other possibilities (such as the toxic

gases he was exposed to) .