In the Magazine

Starve Your Way Into Immortality! Plus, Our Tater-Tot Diet

Would living to 100 be worth eating this?Photo: Doron Gild
This week’s cover story tells of a bizarre, possibly successful scheme by a small cult of New Yorkers to extend their carcasses into extreme old age by tricking their bodies into thinking they’re starving. Or by actually starving. We’re not entirely sure we can tell the difference. The technique is called “calorie reduction,” and it gives us the shudders. Read the article if you dare. But let’s say, for the sake of argument, that we wanted to live past 40. Would a limited calorie intake be possible? Here’s a typical day following a Grub Street–style diet.

Breakfast
1 dried endpiece, Katz’s salami (paper removed)
1 White Castle hamburger
Tea

Lunch
4 tater tots
Bite of apple
Grape-nut
Fried chicken skin (meat removed)

Dinner
Beer

The Fast Supper [NYM]

Starve Your Way Into Immortality! Plus, Our Tater-Tot Diet