Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Forever Young?

How depressing, how utterly unjust, to be the one in your social circle who is aging least gracefully: In a laboratory at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, Matthias is learning about time’s caprice the hard way. At 28, getting on for a rhesus monkey, Matthias is losing his hair, lugging a paunch and getting a face full of wrinkles. Yet in the cage next to his, gleefully hooting at strangers, one of Matthias’s lab mates, Rudy, is the picture of monkey vitality, although he is slightly older. Thin and feisty, Rudy stops grooming his smooth coat just long enough to pirouette toward a proffered piece of fruit. Tempted with the same treat, Matthias rises wearily and extends a frail hand. “You can really see the difference,” said Dr. Ricki Colman, an associate scientist at the center who cares for the animals.

Both New York magazine and The New York Times have weighed in on the restricted calorie diet phenomenon recently. Research is starting to show that cutting back on the food you eat just may be the secret to keeping young and beautiful (if you wanna be loved) ... (NYT)

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