[Hans Blom, 941121b]
One puzzling finding that I heard about in a gerontology course that
I'm attending at the moment:
AD LIBITUM FEEDING LEADS TO INFERIOR HEALTH.
It is an axiom of PCT that organisms are controllers, i.e. that they
maintain certain perceptions at certain reference limits. Animal
experiments show, however, that rats, whose food intake is limited
such that their body weight is reduced to 80% of their ad libitum
feeding weight, do not only live 50% longer, but also remain in better
health throughout their lives. If a cancer develops, for instance, it
does so at a later age and its progress is slower. The same is true
for many other diseases. Rats on a limited feeding schedule seem to be
healthier throughout their lives and appear to be in a better physical
condition. They also have a closer physical resemblance to rats that
live in the wild, which leads to the tentative conclusion that wild
rats cannot feed at libitum; they WOULD like to eat more, but the
circumstances of living in the wild prevent this.
This is true not only for rats, but for all animals investigated so
far. All of these were relatively short-lived (the research dates back
less than 20 years), but currently apes (who can live upto 40 years of
age) are kept on a restricted feeding schedule to investigate whether
they, too, obey this general law.
The puzzle is this: are we gradient climbers rather than controllers?
The journey, not the destination?
Greetings,
Hans Blom