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--> --> Aug. 1: Malnutrition in America: the quest By David Morrill A news wire service reports the story of a New Jersey man who has put himself on a self-imposed starvation diet. His mission? To live to be a 120. Pictures show him, bare-chested, before he began his quest, and at the time the story is told. The before shot reveals a fairly normal albeit nerdy guy, the sort of fellow who could, one might assume, reconfigure a harddrive and beat you at chess. The after photo shows him in a nearly cadaverous state, ribs protruding, eyes glinty and sunken, the kind of chap you might see snoozing in the downtown park. The man's project, he tells us, is based on research showing that those who are undernourished live longer. One explanation for this is that, deprived of enough nourishment, the body's self-preservation mechanisms make decisions that extend life. Another suggests that the ceaseless labors of the GI tract are one of the major limiting factors to life expectancy and, over the years, they simply wear us out. The man's diet includes a lot of salad, heavy on the sprouts, a little fish and fish oil and small servings fruits. Besides his dietary sacrifices, the man, who has a wife and kids, has given up other things too, most notably sex (eviscerated libido) and roughhousing with the kids (brittle bones). These are things he is willing to do without, he says, for the benefit of a longer life. Asked why he wants to live to be 120, he says he wants to prove that it can be done. No one asked the wife and kids what they thought. What we have here is a uniquely American tale. Where else does the notion of reducing life for the sake of extending it carry credibility? It would be as difficult to imagine our starving man and his story coming out of Paraguay, Australia, France or Togo as it would be the family squabble over freezing Ted Williams. Where else could such notions be entertained but in the country that leads the world in rates of both obesity and anorexia. Where else would scientific research and the spirit of competition be enlisted in a mission without someone asking why? I am reminded of the T-shirts popular in the 1980s, worn by mountain climbers, long-distance runners, and other athletes, proclaiming, "I did it!" What is it that makes the satisfaction of standing on a snowcapped summit or crossing a marathon finish line so lacking that we must advertise the fact? A psychologist would tell us that the claim, "I did it!" is just another cry among millions, that "I exist." For years, European writers have used our obsession with personal stereos as a metaphor for America. With headphones plugged in, they point out, the jogger, the walker and the shopper can march to their own beat oblivious to life around him. The cocooning of America, is what one of them called it. The same metaphor, different props, is the driver speeding through countryside and neighborhoods on a sterile ribbon of concrete, windows rolled up, the air conditioner and stereo creating a private reality. The destination, after all, is the thing. Maybe someday when the rest of us are dead and buried, our Methuselah wannabe will reach his goal of 120 and will receive a medal and media coverage. Maybe crowds will cheer. But then again, maybe science will develop therapies so that the rest of us can live to be 120 and the hungry man, for all his valiant effort, will be simply another vacant, wrinkled face in the crowd. Surely, then, someone will present us with Y-shirts that read, "I made it." And hey, we'll need a couple of exclamation points with that. David Morrill is a Florida journalist and Northern California native. Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing