The title of this post refers to the thought process of the folks described in this New York Magazine article who are obsessed with following a severe calorie restriction diet.
And as if that isn’t bad enough, this NY Times article reports on the large number of 40-somethings who are consumed with training and competing in triathlons. The article points out that some of the participants got into triathlons because their bodies were already breaking down under the stress of long-distance running!
What is utterly lacking in the lives of all the people described in these two articles is any sense of balance. Rather than eating a sensible and balanced diet, calorie restriction advocates deprive themselves in the hope that it will increase their lives for a few years. Maybe so, but how fulfilling is that extended life if one does not consume enough food to maintain a livable level of lean body mass?
Meanwhile, the triathletes punish themselves training under the delusion that more exercise is always better for their health. They ignore the substantial research that indicates that adequate rest and recovery after exercise is just as important for good health as the exercise itself.
What is it about life in America in 2010 that provokes people to do such things to themselves?
tom,
a partial answer to your question is that most of us do not have a practical understanding that we will be gone in a few short decades and there are limits to good health habits and medicine. a guy who smoked, drank and ate too much without exercise and dies at 60 instead of 80 may well have fooled all of us with his pleasure and exit before he began to be an old fool who still dies but drags the kids through the misery of his old, frail existence on the way out the door.
a second answer is that even very bright americans often lack critical discrimination in health consumer news they read–though not gullible in much else, they suspend good judgment when reading consumerist health news, almost never written by people who know their subject and write without personal agenda.
Surely Dr. Tom is aware that many medical studies are wrong and contradict the previous study. So, to say “even very bright americans often lack critical discrimination” is akin to Obama claiming it is “all Bush’s fault”.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/WhosCounting/story?id=997688
I wonder: is this some form of self-punishment, in response to some sort of strange guilt? Or in some strange way are these folks trying to make a statement that, “See, I’m a good person; look at all I do.” obviously I’m not a psychologist… Anyway, I agree with the basics of the article.
Tom,
Regarding triathletes — imho, basically it’s just a type of male demonstration of reproductive “fitness” behavior — no different than other predominantly male extreme behaviors such as working long hours to make a lot of money at the expense of health, etc. Evolutionary psychology 101 . . .
CR motivation seems to be exactly the opposite of those kinds of risky demonstations of “fitness” — rather, the hope is not to just live a few years longer as you suggest, but to live long enough to intersect medical advances that actually reverse aging. It seems increasingly likely, however, that the advantages of caloric restriction can be simulated by drugs, so extreme CR of the type highlighted in the article may be short-lived (but, of course, a lower calorie intake than the standard US diet would still have other benefits).
Steve
Tom, your posts about the health dangers of over-training are quite useful. However, I must say that my interactions with triathletes and marathoners seem to have been different from the picture that emerges in your posts.
As a group, I would say that the serious triathletes I have talked with are quite aware of the health risks of their sport. And they can talk, often in great detail, about topics such as diet, training and recovery cycles, etc.
I’m not sure how many of these people really get involved in triathlons because they think it is healthy or because they think it is macho (I know as many female triathletes as male). Most of the athletes I’ve talked with really enjoy the sport and the training. Many will tell you that the training is the highlight or their day.
My point is not that over-training is not a problem — I agree with you that it often is. However, I’m not sure that self-delusion about the health aspects of their sport if really the driving factor into the participation of most of these athletes.
I have run my share of marathons (15 or so) over the years. When it quit being fun, I quit doing it (at about age 36). I never trained to be at athlete, just a participant (anything under 3:45 was a good marathon for me).
I have found that there are people who train to ompete in extreme sports events and people who train to participate in such events. Those of us who still run the occasional 10k or half marathon and stay in the back of the pack, exchanging recipes with the blue haired ladies aren’t doing nearly the damage to our bodies as are the people who train to compete at a high level. Sometimes, a long urban hike can be a beneficial thing. In sort, simply crossing the start line and the finish line of a marathon doesn’t always mean one is damaging one’s body.
Now that I am older and wiser, I setill enjoy an occasional organized run, but mostly to add to my t-shirt collection. As for triathalons, not all triathalons are Ironman status. While there are a number of imbalanced crazies, there are even more occasional participants, looking for some accomplishment in life, just to say we did it once or twice.