My brother-in-law, UCLA biologist Jay Phelan, was quoted Tuesday in a New York Times article entitled One for the Ages: A Prescription That May Extend Life. The article is about the new fervor for calorie-restricted diets, which many scientists see as a key to longer life. By calorie restriction, I don’t mean holding they mayo on your roast beef sandwich. Those who are serious about the calorie restriction plan eat 30 percent fewer calories than “normal” (I’m not sure what normal means). This means, for example, that a 6-foot tall man like Mike Linsvayer, “eats an apple or some cereal for breakfast, followed by a small vegan dish at lunch. Dinner is whatever his wife has cooked, excluding bread, rice, sugar and whatever else Mr. Linksvayer deems unhealthy (this often includes the entrée). On weekends, he occasionally fasts.”

Needless to say, foodies won’t be flocking to this lifestyle.

A mathematical model published last year by researchers at University of California, Los Angeles, and University of California, Irvine, predicted that the maximum life span gain from calorie restriction for humans would be just 7 percent. A more likely figure, the authors said, was 2 percent.

“Calorie restriction is doomed to fail, and will make people miserable in the process of attempting it,” said Dr. Jay Phelan…“Have you ever tried to go without food for a day?” Dr. Phelan asked. “I did it once, because I was curious about what the mice in my lab experienced, and I couldn’t even function at the end of the day.”