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Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

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Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#11

Post by jerf »

tosseraccount wrote: post #7

Haven't they known this for a long time? http://jn.nutrition.org/content/31/3/363.full.pdf APPARENT PROLONGATION OF THE LIFE SPAN OF RATS BY INTERMITTENT FASTING by ANTON J. CARLSON AND FREDERICK HOELZEL Department of Physiology, University of Chicago, Chkago (Received for publication October 4, 1945 )

HN has carried news about fasting before, but this the first science article I've seen about a diet, i.e., food being eaten, that appears to mimic the benefits of fasting without actually fasting. That's a way easier sell for people, and also a way easier sell for doctors prescribing this to people who may be on the edge for other reasons and unable to sustain a true no-food fast.

(As long as I'm commenting, I complained a couple of days ago about how I'm very strongly willing to bet now that the "standard" diet is really quite bad, but that I'm far weaker on what a good diet is. This is the sort of thing I mean... how useful is fasting? Can we simulate the results without having to pay as many costs? How does fasting integrate with a low-carb/low-glycemic-index/whatever-else-you-like diet? What's the biochemical mechanisms at play here? Can we use those mechanisms any other way? There's so, so much fantastic and useful work to be done here, and instead we spent nearly 50 years re-running the same damned studies over and over again, wrong. ("Are eggs good for you? Are eggs good for you? Are eggs good for you? Are eggs good for you? I propose to study the question of whether eggs are good for you, give me half a million dollars...."))

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#12

Post by jhartmann »

marvel_boy wrote: post #6

It worked (supposedly) in mice, not in humans. The title is misleading.

No, they did a super small random pilot study. Here is the section from the actual paper on the results:

In the FMD subjects, fasting blood glucose levels were reduced by 11.3% ± 2.3% (p < 0.001; FMD) and remained 5.9% ± 2.1% lower than baseline levels after resuming the normal diet following the third FMD cycle (p < 0.05; Figure 6B). Serum ketone bodies increased 3.7-fold at the end of the FMD regimen (p < 0.001) and returned to baseline levels following normal food intake (Figure 6C). Circulating IGF-1 was reduced by 24% by the end of the FMD period (p < 0.001) and remained 15% lower after resuming the normal diet (p < 0.01; Figure 6D). IGFBP-1 was increased 1.5-fold at the end of the FMD regimen (p < 0.01) and returned to baseline levels following normal food intake (Figure 6E). These results indicate that the FMD group was highly compliant and generally did not consume foods not included in the FMD box provided to them.

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#14

Post by leereeves »

tosseraccount wrote: post #7

Haven't they known this for a long time? http://jn.nutrition.org/content/31/3/363.full.pdf APPARENT PROLONGATION OF THE LIFE SPAN OF RATS BY INTERMITTENT FASTING by ANTON J. CARLSON AND FREDERICK HOELZEL Department of Physiology, University of Chicago, Chkago (Received for publication October 4, 1945 )

Yes, this paper is building on that work; developing a diet with effects similar to intermittent/prolonged fasting.

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#15

Post by __z »

marvel_boy wrote: post #6

It worked (supposedly) in mice, not in humans. The title is misleading.

Did you read the whole thing?

"In a pilot human trial, three cycles of a similar diet given to 19 subjects once a month for five days decreased risk factors and biomarkers for aging, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer with no major adverse side effects, according to Longo."

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#16

Post by __z »

tosseraccount wrote: post #7

Haven't they known this for a long time? http://jn.nutrition.org/content/31/3/363.full.pdf APPARENT PROLONGATION OF THE LIFE SPAN OF RATS BY INTERMITTENT FASTING by ANTON J. CARLSON AND FREDERICK HOELZEL Department of Physiology, University of Chicago, Chkago (Received for publication October 4, 1945 )

The idea was to not actually fast but to develop a diet that mocks fasting.

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#17

Post by [deleted] »

zdw wrote: post #10
jhartmann wrote: post #2

The paper in Cell Metabolism is here: http://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/abstract/S1550-4131(15)0...

Contents of the diet are on this PDF: http://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/pdfExtended/S1550-4131(1... The human fasting mimicking diet (FMD) program is a plant-based diet program designed to attain fasting-like effects while providing micronutrient nourishment (vitamins, minerals, etc.) and minimize the burden of fasting. It comprises proprietary vegetable-based soups, energy bars, energy drinks, chip snacks, chamomi…

[deleted]

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#18

Post by Cyphus »

kazinator wrote: post #9

The connection between longevity and caloric intake has been studied in mice: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3958810 [1986!] "Mice from groups 3-6 [restricted intake] exhibited mean and maximal life spans 35-65% greater than for group 1 and 20-40% greater than for group 2. Mice from group 6 [most restricted intake] lived longest of all." Brackets mine.

Indeed, but this study controlled for caloric intake.

"The total monthly calorie intake was the same for the FMD and control diet groups, indicating that the effects were not the result of an overall dietary restriction."

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#19

Post by hathawsh »

The authors disclosed they have equity in a company called L-Nutra, which intends to sell diet food packs:

http://www.l-nutra.com/index.php/products/prolon

Nothing for sale yet, but hopefully the price will be competitive with do-it-yourselfers. I am cautiously optimistic about this direction.

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