By Chris Cosci

For a society that thrives on fried foods, fatty snacks, and super-sized portions, it's good to know that some people are intent on finding ways to help us lead longer, healthier lives. Most of these methods focus primarily on weight loss, trying to convince us that even the heftiest person can lose enough weight to look like Brad Pitt or Catherine Zeta-Jones in just a few months.

But for some people, losing weight is an indirect approach to their ultimate goal of living a longer life. What they have come up with is a special diet that is designed to prolong life, with weight loss merely a side effect. The program is called CR, which stands for "calorie restriction." While the idea of counting calories is nothing new in the diet industry, CR brings it to a whole new level.

The idea of CR is to reduce your caloric intake by 15-25% of your recommended allowance. Basically, this means eating very little - and only stuff that is very low in calories. For example, Brian Delaney, president of the CR Society, typically has just two meals a day. For breakfast, he usually has whole grain cereal with soymilk, some fruit on top, and maybe a spoonful of fat-free yogurt. And for dinner, he has a large serving of vegetables along with some beans and rice. And that's all.

You may be thinking to yourself, wouldn't this make me hungry? Of course it would! Hunger is just one of those pesky "side effects" of CR, but what diet doesn't come with those? All you have to do is take your mind off the hunger. To do that, you can think about all of the other side effects of CR.

Many people on CR go through mood swings and mild depression. Some experience dizziness upon standing. And then there's the likelihood of a decreased libido. Sure, this all sounds a little discomforting, but you have to remember the end result: this diet is all about extending your life. In lab studies with numerous animals, CR has proven to increase life span by roughly 30%. If this statistic holds true for humans, that means we could add about 25 years to our lives. That's 25 more years of being snappish, sterile, and starving.

But supporters of CR are quick to point out its many benefits. Most people on the diet have noticed a general decrease in health problems, they don't get sick as often, and they generally need less sleep. And steady research on CR backs these theories up.

So not only can you live a longer life, but you'll live a healthier life. And that means more time and energy to engage in recreational activities, right? Actually, it's recommended that people not take part in any competitive sports or activities that require endurance if you're practicing CR. Well, there's always Bingo.

Better yet, you could use the extra time to start a family. Oh, wait - there's that decreased libido thing. And studies show that certain levels of CR could make it difficult for women to conceive. Okay, Bingo it is.

Seriously, what can you do with those extra 25 years of life? For some people, it's enough that this extra time will allow us to experience more of the future. There are those who feel that science will eventually produce a medical breakthrough that reverses the aging process. CR will allow them to stick around a little longer and take advantage of this miracle drug. Or, as CR user Michael Rae puts it, "it would be really stupid to miss the introduction of that discovery by one or two years." Of course, there are people who would think it's stupid to walk around hungry when there's probably a McDonald's right around the corner.

Whatever the case, many people will still give CR a try. After all, there's a lot of scientific research that says it should be effective. And maybe the day will come when a pill is created that will allow us to live even longer. And if I have to miss that day because I decided to eat a slice of chocolate cake instead of a plate of lettuce, that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.