Hi all!

There is and extremely interesting article in the newest number of PNAS, April 27 2004. Vol. 101 pp 6659-6653. The authors are Fontana, Meyer; Klein and Holloszy. Title: Long-term calorie restriction is highly effective in reducing the risk for atherosclerosis in humans. I do not know how much I can legally cite so I keep it short.

18 persons that had voluntarily been on a calorie restriction diet (CR-group) for 6 years (mean) were compared to 18 persons on a “normal American diet” (AD-group). The groups were all healthy individuals and matched in age, sex, etc as far as possible. Mean age was 50.3 years in both groups. Body mass index were 19.6 (CR-group) and 25.9 (AD-group).

All of 11 well known risk factors for atherosclerosis were extremely favourable in the CR-group compared to the AD-group. Some examples:

Total cholesterol/ HDL-chol. ratio: CR 2.6, AD 4.5,
Systolic BP: CR 99, AD 129, (mm Hg)
Diastolic BP: CR 61, AD 79, (mm Hg)
Fasting insulin levels: CR 1.4; AD 5.1, (mlU/ml)

Many of the CR-individuals had medical records from before they started with their CR-diet and it could be seen that most of the change in body weight, blood pressure etc was happened during the first year.

With total daily calorie intake 1112-1958 (range) for the CR-group and 1975-3537 for the AD-group, the energy intake in the two groups were divided as follow:

Protein: CR 26 %, AD 18 %
Fat: CR 28 %, AD 32 %
Carbs: CR 46 %, AD 50 %

The calorie restriction persons are members of the Calorie Restriction Society and their goal is to reduce calories while consuming daily recommended intake (or more) of all essential nutrients, including minerals and vitamins. To be able to do that they actually have a diet that comes quite close to a paleolithic diet, with a fairly high protein intake.