The Calorie Restriction Diet, or CR, is said to be the simplest and yet the most complex diet ever created. It was designed by Dr. Roy Walford whose research in rats showed that those fed a severely restricted diet lived 50% longer than average, which is the desired result of this “diet” that is not at all about losing weight or improving health though both of these results may occur. This diet is about lengthening a person’s lifespan to the maximum. In order to do this people need to follow a level of calorie restriction that is very challenging.

Those who practice calorie restriction pack all their daily nutrition into close to a quarter fewer calories than their body needs to maintain its natural weight. Proponents of CR say it’s worth it for the benefits - more energy, less digestive problems, improved heart health and mobility and perhaps, although there are no guarantees, a longer life.

It is not clear how many people are practicing CR, which is more a way of living than a diet according to followers. The Calorie Restriction Society, was founded in 1994 by a small group of people interested in the science behind CR and in creating a social network. It now has about 2,000 members (approximately 70 percent of them male, although society officials aren`t sure why), with thousands more on its mailing list.

Scientists have long known that calorie restriction increases the life span of earthworms, mice, dogs and monkeys. Studies have shown that mice and rats fed reduced calories but the best possible nutrition have a 40 to 50 percent increase in life span. The same was true of rodents fed every other day. Researchers believe that metabolic changes from reducing calories lowers cell turnover, meaning there is less chance of DNA damage - associated with cancer. While they can see these results with CR, they aren`t certain why they occur.

"It`s the only thing that is known to extend the life span in warm-blooded animals," said Dr. Marc Hellerstein, a professor at UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley who studies human nutrition and metabolism. He recently started recruiting people for a study where subjects will eat a near-fasting diet every other day, alternated with a normal one. "It`s the most amazing thing in all of biology."

And there is a growing desire to find out if humans reap the same benefits, over time, as lab animals. The Baby Boomers are aging, and just as they felt the need to revolutionize attitudes toward child rearing and midlife, they are interested in a better old age. They are the ones who promoted 50 as the new 40. Could 100 will be the next 90 - or 80? Those who follow CR as an anti-aging lifestyle say wholeheartedly that they have more bounce in their step and energy from morning to night. Most say that it would be harder to eat than not know that they are prolonging much more enjoyable and healthy lives.

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