Secrets To A Longer, Healthier Life
Could A Change In Diet Make It Happen



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Jun 24, 2002 10:45 pm US/Eastern
(CBS)-(NEW YORK)-Paul and Averil McGlothin say their special diet will allow
them to live to 100, 125, even longer, "It's about being able to live
together...to who knows how long." CBS 2's Paul Moniz has the story.

It's not just hype; the federal government is bankrolling a national study,
spending millions of dollars, to uncover the secrets behind this possible
prescription for long life.

"It's about real science and we'd like to think of it as we really have
discovered the fountain of youth," says Dr. Mark Lane of the National
Institutes of Health.

The diet is called Calorie Restriction and scientists say, more and more
people may want to consider this lifestyle. Why? For more than 15 years
researchers have discovered calorie restricted lab animals live years longer,
sometimes triple their life normal span. But there's one hitch, Calorie
Restriction means just that, eating 30 per cent less everyday than even the
USDA recommends.

"I've reconditioned the way I think...the way I was brought up," says Paul
McGlothin.

A typical meal for Paul and his wife may include an arugala salad, poached
salmon and a side of veggies, while their diet is carefully structured, men
are required to eat no more than 1500 calories per day, women 1200. While the
McGlothin's realize this diet might be hard to swallow for some, they say
they're convinced this is a recipe for long life, "The point is not in so
much that you're starving but to cut back enough and to cut back with foods,"
says Paul.

Calorie restricted lab rats at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the
Bronx routinely live twice as long as rats who eat whenever they want. "If we
come from the perspective that what we do to the rats is what we do to
ourselves, we sit in front of the TV, and get very fat, I would argue that it
is the excess of nutrients that is causing the aging," says Dr. Nir Barzilai.

No one knows exactly why calorie restriction works, but there are a few
theories. Some scientists say the less you eat, the less toxic particles are
created by the breakdown of food that can cause disease, others say eating so
little throws the body into survival mode eliminating all other functions so
it can focus on staying alive.

Dr. Lane and his colleagues at the National Institute of Health studied the
effects of caloric restriction on monkeys. Encouraged by their results, the
Institute now plans to spend $20 million to test the effects on hundreds of
people. "We have a monkey that's 38, that is one in several thousand chance
of happening by accident." The average life span for a monkey is 24.

If there is a connection between calorie reduction and life span, scientists
hope to figure it out and put it in a bottle.

But there is one important question? Doesn't Paul ever miss that Big Mac with
fries or a dripping slice of New York pizza?

"I don't miss anything...if I crave anything, it might be that I were a
little bit smaller and could eat a few less calories," says Paul.

It's not a sacrifice, he says he'd take his lifestyle to that of a fat rat
any day.

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