Special diet that mimics fasting found to 'reverse ageing process' in body
20.02.2024 - 11:33
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
Diets that resemble fasting might make you "two-and-a-half years younger" by reducing your biological age, a new study has found.
Scientists found that a fasting-mimicking diet (FMD) can help with lowering lower insulin resistance, reducing fat in the liver, and slowing immune system ageing.
This type of diet can also lower the chance of getting sick with age-related illnesses like cancer, diabetes, and heart problems. When you add up all these factors up, the fasting-like diet could mean you have a younger biological age.
The FMD is a five-day diet made by experts at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology in California, USA. It is high in unsaturated fats and low in overall calories, protein, and carbohydrates.
The diet was created to imitate the effects of a water-only fast while still providing the necessary nutrients. This way of eating is meant to be more sustainable for people to continue to follow.
"This is the first study to show that a food-based intervention that does not require chronic dietary or other lifestyle changes can make people biologically younger," said senior author Professor Valter Longo. "This is based on both changes in risk factors for ageing and disease, and on a validated method developed to assess biological age."
Prof Longo and his team looked at how the FMD worked in two clinical trial populations of men and women aged 18 to 70. The participants followed three to four monthly cycles of the FMD, sticking to the diet for five days and then eating a 'normal' diet for 25 days.
During the FMD, they ate things like plant-based soups, energy bars, energy drinks, crisps, and tea, which were all portioned out over the five days. They also took a supplement packed with minerals, vitamins, and