I just came across this subject a few weeks ago and had a similiar reaction to Rebecca's - at first. But as I sit here at 58 rocketing toward the cardio and neuropathic problems my mother suffered with for years, now reaching a weight 50 percent higher than I had maintained for four decades, calorie restriction with emphasis on nutrition doesn't seem very strange to me at all. I've read through a few years of April Smith's blogs and she's eaten more meals in Philadelphia restaurants in 10 years than I have in 50. For many of us, yo-yo dieting and convincing ourselves that we are eating correct portions of healthy food by guesstimating hasn't worked, and trying to maintain a healthy eating style by that method is next to impossible. I'm not trying to fit into a size 4 or prolong my life for it's own sake, but if the choice is to eat ascetically or suffer the next 20 years with diabetes and heart problems, the latter seems a more miserable life to me. The comments of calorie restrictors that I've read are not in the least bit self-satisfied. They all acknowledge that it takes discipline and commitment to follow this regime and that it is not easy. The scientific studies so far have confirmed that individuals who eat this way are extremely healthy while the mass of middle aged people are obese and heading for trouble very soon. Maybe most of us don't have the fortitude to live this kind of life and we're just extremely jealous. By the way, I'm a working class woman who knows what blue-collar people do with their money. Most of us could afford fresh vegetables, egg whites and the small amounts of meat required by this diet if we ditched the mountains of processed foods and other discretionary spending, much of it on cigarettes, liquor and knick-knacks from Walmart.

The responses to this article show just how easily people are influenced by what they read - which is most unfortunate here, as the article was thoroughly negative and thoughtless. It saddens me to see people attacking CR because of the most vocal CR proponents. Should we judge Islam based on its extremists, terrorists? I don't, and I hope that people won't continue basing their opinions on CR due to what a few (and relatively mild, compared to terrorists) extremists say and do.

I eat approx. 1000-1600 calories per day (and have now for about a half a year) and exercise quite a bit as well. I am not scared of food; in fact, I enjoy putting effort into discovering new recipes that are both tasty and nutritious.

I do not own a kitchen scale.

I go out to eat relatively often with friends or cook with them, but eat small portions - not only to I enjoy what I am eating more, but I can try a bit of everything.

Nor am I even practicing this lifestyle to live longer, though I'm sure I won't mind a few extra years. I am actually doing this to increase the pleasure I get from food. That I am successful in this is apparent every day: I never liked vegetables before, but now eggplants, sweet potatoes and zucchini are some of my favorite foods - foods I thought had little taste before. As a result, I feel more alert and I am slimmer and healthier as well (btw, I have a BMI above 19 and menstruate regularly).

I also find this lifestyle easy to maintain (despite being a college student) and free of the dissatisfaction and guilt of the typical American diet I used to eat. The only way to avoid the guilt of a high-(saturated)fat, high-sugar, low-nutrition diet is actually to eat better, not to ignore the problem (or to defend what in excess is actually harming you!). Food affects us more than we'd like to think - our approach to it is not only psychological, but it affects the chemistry of our bodies and brains as well.

I agree, of course, that what they think is CR can for some people actually become an eating disorder based on his or her approach to food - weighing food obsessively, memorizing calorie tables, regarding margarine is insta-death, refusing to eat with other people who they regard as nutritional inferiors...this is of course selfish and insane!

Yet you've solved nothing with this straw man, and have really only insulted your own powers of critical thinking. Obsessions with eating aren't shared by everyone associated with CR - in fact, most people doing CR don't share these opinions and they don't feel the need to talk about it unless the subject arises, so you never hear their voices. That doesn't mean these people do not exist.

What's not selfish about CR, on the other hand is not wasting food. And because I eat less overall, I also save money on groceries despite spending more on the ingredients. There are a number of reasons to buy good ingredients - organic foods are better for the people eating them, the economy, and the environment, and they last longer in the fridge and taste better.

A knowledge of what you are eating and the nutrition it provides should be requisite for everyone who even remotely cares about his or her health, and it is especially important in a more or less toxic environment like that of the US (I currently live in Germany for school, and it's much more natural here to do what I am doing - they actually sell organic food and recycle. Sometimes I wonder why we resist doing either so strongly in the US. Are we really so selfish?)

There's no need to demonize CR because you don't understand it or cannot fathom not eating dessert every day or having to take time from watching the average American 4 hours of tv to actually prepare a delicious and healthy meal. The Italians are no models of moderation when it comes to eating, but they certainly understand putting effort into preparing their food and cherish good ingredients. That is my impulse as well.