For Calorie Restrictors – Longevity Biochemistry Trumps Nutrient Density

canstockphoto8299589The World’s Healthiest Foods website includes something they call the “Healthiest Way of Eating Plan.” Considering various diets and their suitability for a CR Way of life is very important. World’s Healthiest Foods provides a valuable service through the information the site offers. However, the Healthiest Way of Eating Plan is dated: It does not take advantage of what is now known about how CR works at the molecular level.

AMPKinase, a primary driver of the extraordinary benefits that are possible through the CR Way, is an ancient molecule that becomes active when ATP is low. Thus, glucose cannot be high if you want to provide favorable metabolic conditions for AMPK activation. Nor does a high-protein meal work, which activates IGF-I and mTOR, anabolic molecules that work in opposition to AMPK. For more on AMPK, become a free Healthy Start member of LivingTheCRWay and read Essential Cell Signaling under Science Behind the Benefits.

With all of this in mind, consider the first day of the World’s Healthiest Foods Meal Plan: It starts with oatmeal, a high-GI grain. The oatmeal recipe includes raisins and molasses – foods that will send glucose soaring, especially when combined with oatmeal.

Meanwhile – the highly absorbable protein, available in nonfat milk, will stoke the insulin/IGF-I pathway: exactly what you don’t want.

If you add the blueberries and papaya to this, your postprandial glucose will likely make it to the 140+ range, increasing disease risk and negating some of the benefits of a healthy diet.

And that’s just for starters. With chicken, salmon, and nonfat milk all part of this day – the plan has too much protein. This would make getting to sleep hard for a lot of people. It would also work antagonistically to the CR Way’s stem-cell preserving benefits.

Then there’s a banana-and-almond-butter snack. Bananas can be constipating – not the best for microbiome optimization. They are also high in fructose and glucose. We use almond butter occasionally, but not daily, since it is very high in oxalates.

This meal is constructed with nutrient density in mind. Twenty years ago, calorie restriction experts would have recommended it. Since then, extraordinary benefits have been shown to come from the CR Way approach to calorie restriction, which activates longevity biochemistry. Nutrient density, while important, is secondary.

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