Hello all

[Matthew182]

So I'll just introduce myself here. My name is Matthew and I've been eating a calorie restriction with optimal nutrition diet now for 6+ years. The majority of the early years was more focused on large salads, plenty of green leafy veggies but then slowly I went on to eat more cooked foods like sweet potatoes, cooked broccoli, cauli, carrots, brussel sprouts etc etc... I always ate lots of fruits like banana, loads of berries, apples, pears, pineapples, kiwi's. My protein come from beans, nuts, and whey protein powder. Felt really good for years, cured my severe allergy that I had for many years prior to eating healthy (hay fever). Now I never get hay fever again. I rarely get sick with colds or flu, if I do get something it's usually gone within hours rather than days to weeks as the rest of my family. My acne also cleared up! All my senses improved such as hearing, sight, taste. I become literally more 'conscious' and alive. It was almost like pre CRON days I must have been some sort of zombie or something. Thats how I can only describe it.

My blood work and stats are fairly good, and I'll provide a link to that down the bottom. Since starting CR its like I've not aged at all in the last 6 years, in fact I'm probably just as young now at almost 25 as when I was 16 in high school (you can see a comparison picture on my BLOG). Whereas everyone I know seems to be growing up faster than me, even the younger ones. I have amazingly low cholesterol, low inflammation, low blood sugar, very low blood pressure (90/60), very low heart rate between 45-50bpm, low body temperature (signiture of longevity). I have strong teeth, nails, and thick hair. I've been extremely fit all my life from exercise (but while on poor diet of mostly cereal grains).

My goal is simply to live a very long and healthy life, at least 100 years, but I hope to live hundreds or thousands of years through advances in technology later in the 21st century. So I'm using the knowledge now to be alive at that point.

So although I'm not exactly *new* to RAW, I'm now consistently eating at least 75-80% Raw. I love my green smoothies every morning with apples, kale, spinach, banana. Sometimes add in blueberries, pineapple, magno, manuka honey etc...

I hope that I can learn from you, and maybe I can share some of the things I've learned over the years as well.

I'm currently looking to get into the field of aging and studying it, to eventually defeat disease and aging in humans. Because no matter how good our diet is, we all eventually die. Diet can only give us so much, calorie restriction being the most effective method to extend maxmium lifespan in all species tested is something else I employ, but stll not good enough.

So heres me on the right where I took the picture almost 24 1/2 years of age

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v141/whoa182/beforeandafterCRsmall.jpg

So I hope that you can check out my blog whenever you have sometime to spare. It's mostly about how to slow down aging, seriously ;)

You can view my BLOG here;
http://www.matts-cr.blogspot.com/

My youtube channel with CR videos on longevity
http://www.youtube.com/matthewlake182

My personal website including all my own lab results
http://www.matthewlake.plus.com/results.htm

[sport]

Welcome,
I ,for one, am glad to have you aboard. It is something that I have always been interested in but find that whenever I read about it there is meat included and i am not interested in that. I am going to check out your blog.

[Frugal Raw]

Welcome!! I wish you the best of rawesome health!!

[sport]

Mathew,
I just noticed that you are from Cardiff and I am trying to figure out why I am surprised.

[sport]

Mathew
I watched the youtube link on your website and am very surprised at the results of the telomere experiment. Do you have any light to throw on the results.

[Matthew182]

Ahh yes, well telomere length is still an 'uncertain' thing in longevity. Some people are born with longer telomeres than the average person. Michael the person who wasnt on CR had longer telomere length than everyone (he had same as an average 2 year old), while David telomere length was about the same as a 38 year old (hes 51 years old). So if the measurements were taken again at another point, david's telomere shortening could be much slower than Michaels. Now heres the problem, telomere length can be upto 30x different and show no correlation with lifespan, but there seems to be much better indicators of predicting average lifespan increase at the moment rather than looking at telomeres. Although I have spoken to david about this, there is some evidence that getting enough vitamin D3 actually increases telomere length in wbc's.

There is nothing to actually say that we are actually slowing down aging because those biomarkers do not exist. 'slowing aging', or shifting survival curves to the right is a whole different game that simply 'squaring' the survival curve to increase mean lifespan but not maximum lifespan. So things that predict longer lifespan I mention in my blog under the post "The Evidence". Where you can see the survival curves and data from CR studies.
http://matts-cr.blogspot.com/2009/01/evidence.html

There are actually comparison studies done against Raw Foodists vs CRONers and the results are only slightly better for CRONers, but its really not by much. Only 2 differences being that Raw foodists had lower levels of IGF-1 due to lower protein consumption, and CRONers ate fewer calories on average than raw foodists, who were actually 'mildly' restricted themselves. (dr Fontana studies) http://geriatrics.im.wustl.edu/faculty/fontana.html

[rayofsunshine]

Good luck on your raw journey. You have definitely taken your health into your own hands.

[Irish_Vegan_Girl]

Hi, Yeah you do look very youthful, even at 24, if you don't mind me saying. Yeah I have always thought that a calorie restricted idea diet was a good thing, it reportedly stops the body ageing I have read. I have seen the tests also, which have resulted in positive findings.

Welcome to the forum, I'm sure there'll be lots of interesting posts from you.

[Matthew182]

Hi, Yeah you do look very youthful, even at 24, if you don't mind me saying

Thank you, this is exactly one of my goals, to stay youthful as long as I can. Maybe by the time I'm 50 or something I hope to be looking no older than 25 - 30 years old.


Yeah I have always thought that a calorie restricted idea diet was a good thing, it reportedly stops the body ageing I have read. I have seen the tests also, which have resulted in positive findings.

Well the data is interesting. I was going to the states to be involved in the WUSTL studies but couldn't make it ove there at the time. The guy who studies CRONers also studies Raw foodists if you're not familiar with Dr Luigi Fontana.

Here are a few really important studies that came out over the last few years from WUSTL;

Calorie restriction reduces risk of heart attack, stroke and diabetes
http://record.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/3330.html

Calorie restriction appears better than exercise at slowing primary aging
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-05/wuso-cra053106.php

CR prevent primary aging in the heart (heart of CRers was 16 years younger)
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-01/wuso-cra011206.php

So although CR seems to slow down aging, it certainly doesn't stop it by any means. Heres a few survival curves to show what happens in animals when you put them on CR. I've made a human equivalent ages too so you get the idea how CR increases lifespan to above normal for the species

http://photos-g.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-snc1/v879/211/46/635673153/n635673153_1594198_8668.jpg
Calories Intake is the most important factor in mean and maximum lifespan. CR works in yeast, worms, spiders, rats, mice, dogs, monkeys, cows among others. It probably works for humans to some extent, although it's not known how dramatic the effect of calorie restriction would be. In animal studies if you restrct from an early age you have a dramatic increase in lfiespan in proportion to the degree of calorie restriction. This means, if you restrict an organisms calorie intake relative to what it wants to eat (ad lib) by 30%, it will live on average 30% longer and it's maximum lifespan extended by 30%. A true slowing of the aging process rather than just squaring the curve and extending only mean lifespan.


Welcome to the forum, I'm sure there'll be lots of interesting posts from you.

Thanks :)

[spicyfull]

I wish you everything you need to Stay RAW..........Welcome to MY World.

[freshlight]

Hello and welcome to the RFT. Thanks for posting your pictures, you look grand :)

[Matthew182]

Thanksfor the welcome messages. It's pretty much a certainty that I'll stay mostly raw now. How can you possibly go back? I could never understand why some people would want to go back to bad foods once they experience the amazing benefits of eating healthy foods. Just doesn't make sense.

[RawHeaven]

Welcome Matthew! Your insight is inspiring and I learned something new about genetics reading your posts. You're going to be a super centurian I just know it.

[Matthew182]

Welcome Matthew! Your insight is inspiring and I learned something new about genetics reading your posts. You're going to be a super centurian I just know it.

I certainly hope so, thats the idea anyway :p

[The French One]

Welcome here!

You should look for Dr Gabriel Cousins' books, he also tries to find the causes of the ageing process.

You say you are on a calorie restriction diet. Do you count your calories? How do you settle the limit of the restriction? Just curious here, don't see any judgement, I'm just interested in the answer.

BTW, you definitely look younger at the age of 24 than at 16. Impressive.