Sunday, February 19, 2012

Caloric Restriction and Longevity; Thomas à Kempis

The CrossFit dietary prescription is as follows:
 
Protein
should be lean and varied and account for about 30% of your total caloric load.
 

Carbohydrates should be predominantly low-glycemic and account for about 40% of your total caloric load.
 

Fat should be predominantly monounsaturated and account for about 30% of your total caloric load.
 

Calories should be set at between .7 and 1.0 grams of protein per pound of lean body mass depending on your activity level. The .7 figure is for moderate daily workout loads and the 1.0 figure is for the hardcore athlete.

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Current research strongly supports the link between caloric restriction and an increased life expectancy. The incidence of cancers and heart disease sharply decline with a diet that is carefully limited in controlling caloric intake. “Caloric Restriction” is another fruitful area for Internet search. The CrossFit prescription is consistent with this research.

-from the national Crossfit website and its page on Nutrition.

One can be on a plant-based diet and still over-eat.

Thomas à Kempis speaks of the "unmortified man."  This is a man of "unbridled affections," who is never at peace.  Food, especially if you know it's "healthy" and good, still requires care, maybe even greater care. 

I am fascinated by the word mortification, which appears several times in my translation of The Imitation of Christ.  Thomas calls us to "self-mortification." He writes, "True peace of heart, then, is found in resisting passions, not in satisfying them."  How radical that sounds in a culture like ours.

Mortification comes from the Latin mortificatio, meaning "a killing," according to my Webster's.  In medicine, its definition is "Death and post-mortem change of one part of the body, while the rest continues to live; gangrene."

Matthew 5:30
30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. (NIV 1984)

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