If you could live a long and healthy life, without experiencing age related diseases like cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular problems, would you do it?  Of course, you say.  
But what if you had to give up something you really liked - like eating?

The most significant anti-aging discovery in history was made in 1935 when rats that were fed a calorie-restricted diet achieved radically extended life spans.  Since that study was published 75 years ago, dozens of experiments have validated the fact that undernutrition (without malnutrition) has profound anti-aging effects.  When humans consume a similar calorie restricted diet, the conventional blood markers of aging (excess glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL) plummet to much lower levels, cancers and cardiovascular disease are cut in half and diabetes is non-existent.

Excess calorie intake causes our bloodstream to be chronically bloated with glucose, insulin, fat, homocysteine and other pro-inflammatory chemicals.  Continual bloodstream overload predisposes us to cancer, stroke, heart attack, senility, inflammation and virtually every other age related ailment. 

Many scientists believe that our life span is heavily influenced by genes that program our bodies.  When we consume excess calories we cause some of these normally positive genes to turn against us and contribute to accelerated aging and death.  If we reduce the amount of calories we ingest, the result is a more favorable gene profile and a longer, healthier life.

What should we cut out of our diet?  I think we all know the answer to this question: refined carbohydrates.  The proliferation of refined carbohydrate foods such as chips, soft drinks, sweetened cereals, candy and pastries started more than 100 years ago and  has corresponded to the dramatic increase in age related diseases in our society.  This “western diet” has been exported to other parts of the world that traditionally ate whole, natural foods, with disastrous consequences for their health, just like it has for ours.

If you have to snack try popcorn - it’s high in fiber and low in calories.  Instead of chips have some celery or carrots.  Instead of something sugary, eat a piece of fruit.  I didn’t say it would be easy.  But if you really want to live longer and be free of the debilitating diseases which afflict so many of us, you have to make some sacrifices. The hardest part is starting. The longer you do it the less you will crave all those foods that were killing you slowly.