Anti-aging diets are regimes that reduce the number
of calories consumed by 30–50% while allowing the necessary amounts of vitamins, minerals, and
other nutrients the body needs to sustain itself and
grow.
Although there are variations between anti-aging
diets, most reduced calorie diets recommend a core set
of foods. These include vegetables, fruits, fish, soy,
low-fat or non-fat dairy products, nuts, avocados,
and olive oil. The primary beverages recommended
are water and green or black tea.
Guidelines on calorie reduction vary from diet to
diet, ranging from a 10% reduction to a 50% reduction
of normal intake. Roy L. Walford (1924–2004),
author of several books on anti-aging diets, says a
reasonable goal is to achieve a 10–25% reduction in
a person’s normal weight based on age, height, and
body frame.
The Anti-Aging Plan diet recommends
men of normal weight lose up to 18% of their weight in
the first six months of the diet. For a six-foot male
weighing 175 lb, that means a loss of about 31 pounds.
For a small-framed woman who is five-foot, six-inches
tall and weighs 120 pounds, the plan recommends
losing 10% of her weight in the first six months, a
loss of 12 lb.
Walford’s Anti-Aging Plan is a diet based on decades
of animal experimentation. It consists of computer
generated food combinations and meal menus
containing all of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s
Recommended Daily Allowances of vitamins and
other essential nutrients using foods low in calories.
On the diet, the maximum number of calories allowed
is 1,800 per day. There are two methods for starting
the diet: rapid orientation and gradual orientation.
The rapid orientation method allows people to eat
low calorie meals rich in nutrients. This is a radical
change for most people and requires a good deal of
willpower. All foods low in nutrients are eliminated
from the diet.
The nutritional value and calories in foods and meals is determined by a software program
available for purchase from Walford’s Calorie Restriction
Society.
The gradual orientation method allows people to
adopt the diet over time. The first week, people eat a
high-nutrient meal on one day. This increases by one
meal a week until participants are eating one meal high
in nutrients every day at the end of seven weeks.
Other
meals during the day are low-calorie, healthy foods
but there is no limit on the amount a person can eat.
After two months, participants switch to eating lowcalorie,
high-nutrition foods for all meals.
A sample one-day low-calorie, high-nutrition menu
developed by Walford is:
Breakfast: One cup of orange juice, one poached egg,
one slice of mixed whole-grain bread, and one cup of
brewed coffee or tea.
Lunch: One-half a cup of low-fat cottage cheese
mixed with one-half a cup of non-fat yogurt and
one tablespoon of toasted wheat germ, an apple,
and one whole wheat English muffin.
Dinner: Three ounces of roasted chicken breast without
the skin, a baked potato, and one cup of steamed
spinach.
Snack: Five dates, an oat bran muffin, and one cup of
low-fat milk.
The three meals and snack contain 1,472 calories,
92 g protein, 24 g fat, 234 g carbohydrates, 27 g fiber,
and 310 g cholesterol.
The primary benefits of the anti-aging diet are
improved health and prevention or forestalling diseases
such as heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes,
osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s.
