One thing I loved about my undergraduate education at the College of William & Mary was that it was very rigorous, requiring a broad range of study, and yet I never had to take a single unit of science. Thank god — its my worst subject. As a result, I know zero about human anatomy, biology, physiology, or the atomic weight of naugahyde.

So really, I don’t have any business commenting on this new research about extending life by greatly reducing calories. But what the heck.

There have been a lot of articles popping up about this late-breaking news, but this quote really struck me: “If you’ ve ever wondered what it would be like to live on an extremely calorie-restricted diet, you’ve got to read the fascinating cover story in this week’s New York magazine. The author lived on a diet of about 1,800 calories for 63 days and lived to write about it.”

Now, I don’t know about you, but 1,800 calories seems to be about my exact maintenance range (I’m 5′6″ if that matters). Again, I’m no scientist, but by my ballpark estimates, I generally shoot for the range of 1500 - 2000 per day. If I go higher at all than that I’m gaining weight. Perhaps its different for younger, more active people than me?

Or maybe I’m just the world’s worst calorie counter? I mean, I’ve been at this for about four years and I’m not really one to weigh and measure rigorously. I generally go by the nutrition facts label and “eyeball” portion sizes. I don’t think I’ve used my kitchen scale over the past year to measure anything other than a heavy letter for a postage estimate.

Anyway, I dug around –trying to focus on government data only– and it turns out that the National Institutes of Health says 1,600 - 2,200 for “some older adults and most men.” So what’s all this crap about “… and lived to write about it” ?? Sheesh.

In my completely uninformed and totally biased opinion, agribusiness and food purveyors have been drowning us first-worlders in excess food for at least the last 30 years, building up higher and higher expectation levels for what we “should” eat. I know that when I first analyzed my highest-weight daily caloric intake in 2001, it was about 3,600 a day! Up until that point, I hadn’t been measuring my food/eating at all. I just assumed I was eating “normally.”

So sure, after years of chowing down on supersized foods, gigantic meat portions, and container after container of refined-carb products, it came as a shock to me that this was too much food. Honestly, until that point, I had no idea how I got to be over 200 pounds. Talk about denial.

In my own defense, I can only say that I was soaking up the messages on TV, in stores and restaurants, on billboards, in the paper, etc. Everywhere we turn in our society, food is available for purchase at an instant, and in cheap, massive quantities. I simply think that we Americans don’t realize that this is way out of the norm, even when compared to our compatriots in EuropeAsia. Since I’ve studied and worked overseas, it didn’t completely escape me that in other places I visited, there was at least a LITTLE less availability of food. In the past I chalked that up to the fact that in America things were just more “convenience oriented.” and

Yeah. Right.

So anyway, I’m here to tell you that *GASP* I’m living on 1,800 calories a day and no, I didn’t have to drag myself across the floor in limp exhaustion to reach the keyboard and type this. In fact, I’m feeling kinda full right now.

After all, I just had a HUGE snack. Three Wasa crackers and a liter of water. Try it, you’ll see.