According to the study, participants who intermittently fasted for three months had reduced risk factors for a wide range of issues including aging, cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
While fasting has long been seen as an effective way to lose weight and kick start your immune system, doctors have always warned against such extreme dieting measures.
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But now scientists are saying they’ve developed a five-day, once-a-month diet that mimics fasting, but most important, is safe. Co-author, Valter D. Longer, describes it as a way to “reboot” a person’s body by clearing out damaged cells and regenerating new ones.
According to the study, participants who intermittently fasted for three months had reduced risk factors for a wide range of issues including aging, cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. While there were only 19 participants, the results are so promising that the University of Southern California researcher who helped develop the regimen is already trying to get approval from the FDA so that it can be recommended for patients.
The diet, which researchers not-so-creatively-dubbed the “Fasting Mimicking Diet,” works like this:
For 25 days out of the month, dieters eat normally. Then for day one of the diet, they eat 1,090 calories: 10 percent protein, 56 percent fat and 34 percent carbohydrates. For days two through five, 725 calories: 9 percent protein, 44 percent fat, 47 percent carbs. In the study, participants consumed a lot of vegetable soup and chamomile tea.
The new diet is supposed to be less stressful on the body than complete fasting and supplies most of the carbs in the form of vegetables rather than grain-derived carbs.
Relevant sources:
http://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/abstract/S1550-4131(15)00224-7
Curated from the Washington Post
