Fasting has become a hot topic in the world of nutrition recently. Studies in the past decade show that abstaining from eating food for a certain period might give significant benefits to weight management, modifying the risk of diabetes, reducing cancer risk, and improving overall health.
The weight-loss approach called the fast mimicking diet is gaining popularity these days and various diet programs were created to incorporate this new trend. The idea behind it is to trick the body into thinking it is fasting even though it is not. So, what is fasting mimicking diet?
Fasting Mimicking Diet Explained
Fasting diets have two main different types: intermittent fasting and fasting mimicking diet. The former is an eating plan that changes from fasting to eating during specific hours. Meanwhile, fasting mimicking is more specific about what can be eaten and when to restrict the number of calories.
According to US News, a fasting mimicking diet seems to offer a less challenging way to garner the benefits of fasting. It tricks the body into thinking it is fasting when it's actually not for five days.
This diet plan was pioneered by biogerontologist and cell biologist Dr. Valter Longo, who created it to find a sweet spot between eating too much and too little. He conducted extensive research into food restriction and how it may help health and longevity. Based on his research, he founded the L-Nutra technology company and developed the ProLon Fasting Mimicking Diet.
In their recent study titled "Six-Month Periodic Fasting in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes and Diabetic Nephropathy: A Proof-of-Concept Study," published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, researchers showed that a fasting mimicking diet improves metabolism and slows down diabetic kidney disease that could help those with type 2 diabetes.
The company's press release reported that the feasibility of their Fasting-Mimicking Nutrition Program is safe and well-tolerated when combined with personalized nutrition consultation and could be effectively integrated into clinical practice.
The program is specifically designed for people with type 2 diabetes who are not satisfied with keeping their glucose levels in control using medicines and those who aim to have their condition in remission without surgery.
How Does Fasting Mimicking Diet Works?
In a blog post by Amy Burkhart, MD, RD, an integrative medicine physician, and registered dietician, she shared how Dr. Longo and his team at the Longevity Institute at The University of Southern California have been working with "nutrient-sensing pathways" that control autophagy or the housecleaning of the body cells.
Autophagy is important as it keeps the cells alive and energetic, as well as gets rid of bad cells that cause disease and promote aging. A fasting mimicking diet speeds up this process, which means more clean-up is happening, resulting in less risk of developing health problems.
Moreover, nutrient-sensing pathways are also involved in epigenetic expression or how the environment shapes the genes. It explains why one person gets a disease while the other with the same genes remains healthy.
Dr. Longo and his team developed a five-day plan of fasting mimicking a diet that promotes autophagy in the body's cells. They recommend doing it every 1-6 months to maintain its benefits.
RELATED ARTICLE : Is Intermittent Fasting Good for Weight Loss? Study Shows Timing Is Key to Make It Realistic, Sustainable, Effective
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