
Eat less, remember more - nreece
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16482-eat-a-little-less-remember-more.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news
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nreece
I was watching a documentary today titled 'How To Live To 101 Without Trying'.
It explores the towns where people live the longest:
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7250675.stm>

_In Okinawa (Japan), the residents actually age more slowly than almost anyone
else on earth.

It's what they don't eat that may be at the heart of their exceptionally long
lives. The Okinawan's most significant cultural tradition is known as hara
hachi bu, which translated means eat until you're only 80% full.

Scientists call it caloric restriction, but don't entirely understand why it
works. They think it sends a signal to the body that there is going to be a
impending famine, sending it into a protective, self-preservation mode._

Eating less (and healthy) does have its merits.

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khafra
Dunno if "most significant cultural tradition" is an appropriate appelative
when the Okinawans invented Karate, and hara hachi bu was independently
developed in Western civilization ("Eat not to satiety," Benjamin Franklin).

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r7000
I don't think "Eat not to satiety" became a cultural tradition in Benjamin
Franklin's homeland.

~~~
aaronblohowiak
.. or even for Ben himself ;)

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robg
I seem to find the Zone better when I haven't eaten all day. I wonder if the
principles are the same. The studies in rats would seem to be very
straightforward - combining a restricted calories diet with maze tests. I'm
surprised they haven't been done yet.

~~~
jwilliams
_I seem to find the Zone better when I haven't eaten all day. I wonder if the
principles are the same._

This works fine for me, but I've seen counter-examples too - I've had
colleagues that are absolutely braindead/grumpy/etc unless they eat.

~~~
alexandros
To add another anecdote, one of my most productive programming periods was
when I was eating a single (small) meal per day at 6pm.

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bd
_"Two words may not seem like much, but it's more than the difference between
people under 30 and above 50."_

So you lose less than 16% of your memory capacity in 20+ years. Interesting. I
was afraid it was worse.

Though I don't think it was really "short term memory" they tested [1]. Even
normal adults can recall just 7±2 chunks stored in the short term memory, so
10.5/12.5 for elderly would be extraordinary.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_term_memory>

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peregrine
I'm going to give this a shot. Not radically like the CR people I will just
randomly skip meals and not eat after 6pm(good practice anyways).

Maybe it will break my procrastination cause my body begins to work harder to
find food. Just gotta make sure my stomach doesn't grumble during the wrong
times though.

~~~
aaronblohowiak
Buddhist monks don't eat after midday. They also likely wake up earlier than
programers, though ;)

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bocalogic
Dostoevsky Hunger

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joe_the_user
Since the experiment started with overweight people, I can't see it
distinguished between losing weight to improve memory and reducing calories to
improve memory.

