This a baboon, not a monkey, but isn't he sweet?Photo: iStockphoto.com/Angelika
The
Times reports today that rhesus monkeys live longer when starved on the bizarre Calorie Restriction program that
Julian Dibbell subjected himself to in last week's issue of
New York. Responding to the piece in the magazine, we devised
our own reduced-calorie diet (in which we would limit ourselves to just one White Castle burger at breakfast, among other items) and Adam Platt
described how he attempts to stay thin (no mention of sliders). But having seen how unhappy that healthy old rhesus looks, we're having second thoughts about limiting ourselves to four tater tots at a time. We realize that the moral, as the
Times seems to suggest, is that Calorie Restriction is for the monkeys. We wholeheartedly agree.
One for the Ages: A Prescription That May Extend Life [NYT]