Do you want to live like this?

Published May 26, 2010

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By Diana Appleyard

Elvira and Claus Bonrich are the very model of a successful young couple.

With their impressive careers - Claus is a software programmer and Elvira works in an upmarket health food shop - their immaculate home in Wimbledon, South London, and their wardrobe of designer clothes, they couldn't appear more conventional.

But they have a quite extraordinary ambition. Elvira, 28, and Claus, 33, want to live longer than anyone in the world has ever done before.

And they believe they can achieve this - simply by monitoring every single mouthful they take.

The Bonrichs are devotees of a diet and health regime which has taken America by storm and is now attracting much interest here. The eating programme is known as Calorie Restriction.

Its diet of steamed vegetables, fish, nuts and more nuts may appear, well, nuts, to cynics. But followers are convinced that it's the passport to longevity.

By living on near starvation rations, they believe they have found the secret to living into their hundreds.

'We think about every single morsel of food we put in our bodies,' explains Elvira. 'We've been following the programme for two-and-a-half years.

'We do not eat wheat, gluten, dairy, sugar, meat or even drink tap water. I take nutrient supplements and I go to the gym at least three times a week and run nearly every day.'

Devotees claim that by gaining the optimum nutrients from the fewest amount of calories, not only will you live longer and your body age at a slower rate, but you will be far less prone to disease such as heart attacks, diabetes, stroke and cancer - the main killers in the UK.

Some of the converted claim it could help humans live to as old as 140. Followers of Calorie Restriction claim to number in the millions in America, some of whom have been following the plan for the past 20 years.

Their guru is scientist Roy Walford, and his book Beyond The 120 Year Diet: How To Double Your Vital Years is their bible.

Roy is a pathologist at America's prestigious University of California, who took part in an experiment in 1991 in which eight bioscientists were sealed in an airtight atrium in the Arizona desert for two years.

They had to exist only on what they could grow. When they emerged, having endured a ration of around 1 500 calories a day (the recommended daily calorie intake for women is 2 000 and men 2 500), tests suggested they were healthier in every organ function than anyone of their biological age.

Calorie Restriction is designed to bring down glucose and insulin levels, reduce body fat, lower levels of growth stimulators, prevent cell loss, decrease inflammation, and create a more youthful physique.

Adherents of the CR way do not cook using 'extreme heat'. They steam or eat raw food instead of frying, grilling, barbecuing or roasting as they believe these methods lead to 'advanced glycation end products' or AGE, which are produced when proteins combine with sugars or fats in the process of heating.

AGE, they believe, is linked to disease and functional deterioration, especially in tissue. Eliminating AGE, they think, will help you to age more slowly. Not surprisingly, CR is definitely not for the faint-hearted.

'Of course it's time-consuming,' shrugs Elvira.

'But I want to live to a very old age and I want to be as healthy as possible. It's well worth it.'

So what exactly do they eat? Claus and Elvira live on a diet of whole grains, fish, fresh vegetables and seeds.

Breakfast is a glass of freshly squeezed juice - they wouldn't dream of tea or coffee - then a bowl of home-made cereal with a banana on top.

They will have a protein shake and dried fruit for a mid-morning snack, while lunch is steamed vegetables.

Dinner is something vegetarian, such as steamed fish and home-made tomato sauce.

With a fervour that's almost fanatical, Elvira beams: 'I never get bored. I love cooking and I am always looking for new dishes. Yes, of course, we were hungry when we first started but our bodies adjusted after about two months.

'Now we eat very tasty, satisfying food. Besides, by giving up food such as cheese and bread we are extending our lives.'

But, while one might expect the couple, who have no children, to be enjoying a hectic social life, their diet even restricts where they go.

They seldom meet friends for meals or travel abroad to avoid deviating from their strict regime.

'I would feel terribly bad if I lapsed,' Elvira admits.

One might expect any programme that takes so much effort and promises so much, to leave its followers bursting with good health.

But the benefits of CR certainly aren't obvious. Indeed, it is easy to see why critics say Calorie Restriction is little more than an eating disorder under a different name.

At just 5ft 3in (160cm), Elvira weighs a slight 7st 3lb (about 46kg) and her body mass index is just 17.9 - well below the recommended lower limit of 20.

And yet she argues the health benefits have been numerous. She had been suffering with eczema before she embarked on the diet. She found that by cutting out wheat and dairy her condition improved.

'After lots of research, I realised that food was triggering the problems,' she says. 'I work in a health food shop and have always been interested in healthy diets, so when I read about CR I was fascinated. And by following it, I have improved my health, energy and concentration.

'Claus and I both had a private health check a year ago and the doctor told us we are both at least five years younger than our biological age.'

Similarly, fellow CR follower Persephone Walton-Clark is convinced that her unusual lifestyle is a shortcut to good health.

'It isn't a diet. It's a way of life - and I'm prepared to follow it for life,' she says firmly.

'After all, who doesn't want to live as long as possible?'

Even by the standards of the movement, the pretty public relations executive, from South-East London is particularly strict - she limits herself to no more than 800-1 200 calories a day.

That's at least 800 fewer calories than nutritionists recommend.

Persephone, 26, eats piles of chopped up fruit or vegetables for almost every meal. 'It is hard work,' she says, 'I can reel off the calorie count of nearly every kind of food.'

Like many CR followers, she is a high achiever. Her mother died when she was nine, and she was brought up by very loving grandparents because her father worked full-time as a businessman.

She loves her career, and is very ambitious. It doesn't take a psychologist to work out that she may be drawn to the element of control that CR affords her.

'I want to make the best of myself in every way,' she says. 'I suppose, like most women, I just want to be thin. I also want to live as long as I can, but at the moment the main reason I follow CR is to stay thin, fit and healthy and have great, glowing skin.

'I have been down to a size 6, but in my teens I went up to a size 12, and I hated that. At 5ft 10in (about 177cm), I'm now a size eight, which I am happy with.'

Like the Bonrichs, she also works out obsessively and knows the exact number of calories she will burn off with each punishing gym session. She claims the regime doesn't restrict her twenty-something lifestyle.

'I lead a perfectly normal life. If I go out I'll have a glass of wine or some vodka and low-cal lemonade,' she says. But, like Elvira, if she deviates from the programme she feels guilty.

'I feel terrible. I get tired and bloated. If I drink or eat a little too much - as I did this Christmas - it only reinforces the fact that my way of eating and living is the very best lifestyle for me.

'I only overdid it a little by having two or three glasses of wine and eating food with some fat in it, but that is enough to set me back.'

Breakfast for Persephone is a bowl of fat-free bran flakes. At 11am, she will have an apple. Lunch is a bowl of home-made soup or salad - she makes all her own food and brings it into work - and then for dinner she will have a lentil or bean stew.

She doesn't eat red meat, only fish and chicken. But she's adamant that, despite eating barely more than half her recommended daily calories, she doesn't get hungry.

'Dinner is a huge salad Nicoise, a king prawn salad or stuffed peppers,' she says. 'I do not starve myself - I eat big portions. They are just very low in calories.

'I cut out all the rubbish that we have become so used to eating in this country.'

But is it healthy not just physically but emotionally? And just how far is her passion for CR controlling her life?

'I have to admit the thought of getting pregnant absolutely terrifies me,' she admits. 'I wouldn't be able to restrict my calories for my baby's sake and I hate the thought of losing control.'

Health experts warn that Persephone's diet might not be nearly as healthy as she thinks. One of the leading researchers in this field is Dr Dianne Ford from the Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Newcastle.

She says: 'There is research which shows that, in animals, calorie restriction does seem to slow the ageing process.

'But it can also lead to starvation and malnutrition. I would not recommend CR and would say that it is not safe. To achieve CR and ensure you are taking optimum levels of micronutrients is very difficult. Followers are likely to suffer from deficiencies.'

Certainly not everyone who has tried CR is so evangelical about it. Georgina Burnett, 31, a health and lifestyle coach, from Sevenoaks in Kent became a calorie restrictor in her mid-20s after reading about the diet in magazines. She wanted both to lose weight and to become more healthy.

But before long, she found herself becoming weak and faint. Georgina, who is engaged, says: 'If you want to lose weight, then it will work because you eat so few calories. But by following a regime of CR with around 1 000 calories a day, I became weak and totally obsessed with food. It took over my life.'

Georgina only ate salads, nuts and fruit. 'At first I thought, "Wow, this is amazing. I am totally in control, and I have so much energy and the weight is falling off me".

'After six months, I could tell anyone the exact calorie count of virtually every type of food. But then I found that I was feeling absolutely starving. I'd often eaten my calorie ration by mid afternoon and suffered hunger pangs all night.

'My mental capacity was falling off - I couldn't concentrate. After a year, I felt so terrible that I came off CR and would never go back.'

Today, Georgina eats what she wants and feels much healthier. 'I don't eat very fatty food and I run every day but I do not calorie count. It makes you obsessive.'

Worryingly, although devotees claim it's a way of life to ensure optimum longevity not a diet to lose weight, CR is increasingly attracting women eager to try it as the latest trendy diet tool.

Havva Murat, 23, a communications executive from East London, has tried every conventional diet going. Now she's trying CR. But she admits its very heavy going.

'I was a chubby child and I have tried virtually every diet: Atkins, Slimming World, you name it. I also have irritable bowel syndrome and polycystic ovaries so I find it very hard to lose weight.'

Havva has been following the CR regime for a month and she is shocked at how challenging it is. 'I have had to do so much research into the optimum number of calories which will make me lose weight and live longer, but also give me enough nutrients. It is very hard.'

'Since giving up white bread and coffee, I no longer suffer from bloating and I feel so much brighter and more energetic,' she says.

'Although I'm hungry a lot of the time, I'm determined to stick with it.

'This has to be a choice for the rest of my life, not just some new health kick.'

But, as Elvira, Persephone and Havva painstakingly weigh out every morsel of food they eat, it's impossible not to wonder whether their lives aren't just a touch out of balance.

How far does the lure of living to over 100 outweigh the physical and emotional impact of the CR diet with all its restrictions and limitations? - Daily Mail

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