A Cutting Edge Reply

A recent article 1 emphasized the increasing obesity within the American population, and the author criticized the Food and Drug Administration for not allowing wider use of olestra to reduce fat/caloric intake. This article crystallizes what is wrong with much health-related research today. It is a classic example of looking for a 'magic bullet' approach to a serious problem rather than making the comprehensive lifestyle changes required. I have been conducting a text-mining study on the disc

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I have been conducting a text-mining study on the discipline of caloric restriction, focusing on the eclectic laboratory and clinical nonpathological experiences with controlled caloric restriction for health improvement, applied to all living species. Excluded are starvation, disease-caused caloric restriction, surgically-driven caloric restriction, and psychologically-driven caloric restriction (bulimia, anorexia). Preliminary results offer the following conclusions:

Thus, the hard laboratory and clinical evidence shows that caloric restriction can provide longevity and good health for small species, may provide such benefits to nonhuman primates, and may offer the potential to provide such benefits to humans. As far as I have been able to determine, controlled caloric restriction is the only regimen that has been demonstrated in the laboratory to increase life span, and therefore may be the foundational requirement for proper diet. In particular for humans, how can we make optimal use of these findings before all the conclusive laboratory and clinical ...

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  • Ronald Kostoff

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