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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

#81
I don't know every time I skip a meal for 8+ hours since waking up in the morning I get a terrible headache and become mad at everybody around me, not sure if it's just me or everybody who fastens have those symptoms. But when I eat breakfast and lunch I can go on without food till 4-5 am with no issues at all

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#82

Appropriate article since I just completed a fast of 19hrs. No water and no food. Muslims do this every year. Last year, on average our fast was just over 18hrs. We fast each day from sunrise to sunset for 30days. Of course, we as a group of people have been doing it for over a thousand years. Cant say we started it due to science, but cant say we noticed the lack of aging either. ;)

This is a really interesting comment. It's a sort of natural experiment. I wonder if there's any observational studies on the effect of Ramadan fasting on health. Religious Jews do some fasting, but they are two 25 hour fasts and a few other 12 hour fasts all spread throughout the year.

There have been some studies, but I dont have the references at hand. Fasting can regenerate the entire immune system for one, it can also assist in accelerated tissue repair. Anecdotally I can tell you I've been far more productive today than most days because I'm being more conservative with how I expend my energy therefore didnt waste time on things like reddit and FB, and because my body isnt busy both worrying about my next meal or digesting it, I've had much greater clarity of thought which has been great for focus.

Edit: sp and grammar

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#83
post #81

I don't know every time I skip a meal for 8+ hours since waking up in the morning I get a terrible headache and become mad at everybody around me, not sure if it's just me or everybody who fastens have those symptoms. But when I eat breakfast and lunch I can go on without food till 4-5 am with no issues at all

Have you considered magnesium and vitamin D supplements? That resolved those symptoms for me.

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#84
post #44

I currently intermittent fast by skipping breakfast + lunch, partially because I'm lazy, partially because it allows me to easily eat 'all my calories' in the end of the day. I really like this as it provides a 'buffer' for unexpected food, such as random cake, or random lunches with colleagues etc. Has anyone here actually ever TRIED fasting a full 24h day? I have. I HATED it. Well, the fasting itself wasn't that ba…

You've got to get past about 36 hours before your body / brain stop acting so "berserk." After that, you stop being hungry and you can look at food with relative equanimity.

I agree. Earlier this year I fasted for 23 days (consuming only water) and the hunger and desire to eat went away after the third or forth day. The need to eat was replaced by a burst of energy that lasted for the remainder of the fast and several weeks after.

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#85

There is much more background info on Longo and his work on intermittent fasting if you go digging. More interesting than this particular piece, which is very short on context and science relating to the study of intermittent fasting, calorie restriction as adjuvant cancer therapy, immune regeneration via fasting, etc. http://gero.usc.edu/faculty/longo/ http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-06/uosc-fts06021...…

Also note that he's the founder of a company that produces the diet under test: http://www.l-nutra.com/index.php/about/team

And he's applied for patents on the technique, e.g. http://patents.justia.com/patent/20150004280

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a really interesting comment. It's a sort of natural experiment. I wonder if there's any observational studies on the effect of Ramadan fasting on health. Religious Jews do some fasting, but they are two 25 hour fasts and a few other 12 hour fasts all spread throughout the year.

I imagine that these impacts are varied. For people of poor health with a diet of meager nutrition, or for diabetics with irregular blood sugar levels, Ramadan fasting may lead to worse health outcomes. For people who are not diabetic but at risk of becoming so, Ramadan fasting may lead to better health outcomes. Just a guess.

Those with severe health issues are not obligated to fast. Those that do have health issues but are still able to fast notice an improvement in health if they fast in the recommended way. If they continue with their poor diet at the prescribed eating times then nothing changes.

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#87
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't seem like the study can be replicated with that little information, and the word "proprietary" is especially worrying on that account.

They'll brand it and sell it, it's obviously the plan. Now question is if this is really any better than all the other intermittent fasting technics, since they all describe pretty much the same benefits, but it's (for now) hard to quantify and compare the results and the risks...

And they didn't include a direct comparison to more common IF: the control in the mice and human was both one's normal diet. So the exact causal claim established a little ambiguous.

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#88

Previously it has been found that eating a ketogenic diet ( I lost 40 lbs on keto eating mostly (by volume) non-carby veggies and mostly (by calories) fat, along with 80-120g of protein per day. I'd really like to see their complex diet tested against a well formulated ketogenic diet.

ok, since this is posted here every freaking time there is an article about dieting in HN, let me stress this out: A Ketogenic diet (per the actual medical definition and not from fitness gurus) is not low carb, adequate protein and high fat. it is high fat, little to no carbs and low protein. From medical recommendations, calories from fat should be in the 85-90% range. Most of the articles you read about the benefi…

>Also, protein as a nutrient creates a similar insulin response as carbs.

If you look at graphs comparing them you will see protein is greatly blunted compared to carbs.

The body being in ketosis is primarily medicated by the availability of liver glycogen, temporarily insulin spikes will at worst only pause ketosis. Protein can be converted to glucose via gluconeogenesis, but (compared to felines) the human body can't do much of this and its usually only an issue if someone exceeds the standard recommendation of 0.8g of protein per lbs of lean body mass by x2 or more.

Any diet that keeps your ketones high, ie keeps you in ketosis (assuming you are healthy) is a ketogenic diet by the scientific definition.

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#89

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.

it is going to be very hard to be price-competitive with "not eating"

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#90

Appropriate article since I just completed a fast of 19hrs. No water and no food. Muslims do this every year. Last year, on average our fast was just over 18hrs. We fast each day from sunrise to sunset for 30days. Of course, we as a group of people have been doing it for over a thousand years. Cant say we started it due to science, but cant say we noticed the lack of aging either. ;)

I have never met a Muslim that didn't put on 5 kilos during ramadan from ridiculous iftars and judicious day light napping. I suspect that may cancel out any benefit fasting might have.
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