[extropy-chat] More upsides to meat than meet the eye.

[Robert Bradbury]

On 9/24/06, Ensel Sharon <user at dhp.com> wrote:
>
>
> b) second and third order side effects of meat such as increased
> testosterone production, increased aggressiveness and greater
> strength/mass from causes other than just the protein in the meat itself.
> [snip]
> (b) is highly speculative and difficult to prove - and perhaps even
> undesirable.


Ultimately it may be a U-shaped function.  One probably wants to build up
the greatest cellular reserve capacity as possible when one is young before
it gets "frozen" by puberty [1].  Then throughout much of life you want to
weigh as little and consume as little oxygen as possible (because it is the
primary source of the free radicals).  That means caloric restriction to the
greatest extent one is able.  As one gets older and the cells become less
efficient (or die completely) it would seem to make sense to try to supply
the still functioning cells with as much raw material as they can possibly
utilize.

The entire micronutrient debate is *way* overblown (because there is a
market for people who want to do anything other than hard core caloric
restriction).  It won't be gotten "right" until whole genome genotyping is
available for individuals and one knows for certain what metabolic "defects"
one has which are potentially lifespan limiting.   For example whether
testosterone is good or bad may depend upon which testosterone receptor
variations one has, what uncoupling protein gene variants one has, what
growth hormone production gene variants one has, etc., etc.  Other than CR
there are few (or no) one size fits all answers no matter how much people
who write books or provide health prescriptions for the masses would like to
"make it so".

It is clear that greater muscle mass and strength may be essential to
reducing ones hazard function (e.g. falls, hip fractures, etc.) when one is
older.  But prior to that time it may simply serve to increase ones oxygen
consumption producing more free radicals and aging all of the systems
involved in "whole body" maintenance at a more rapid rate.

Robert

1. I'll freely admit that one is probably up against relatively hardwired
personal genomic limits in these areas.
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