Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

news.usc.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 305 posts

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#221

Post by fezz »

Rainymood wrote: post #38

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…

I've done 3, 5, 11 and 20 day fasts. The first 3 days are the hardest but once you get over that hump it's pretty easy. The senses heighten and you become very alert (when you're not napping).

I haven't done it in a while because you need to free to nap whenever you feel like it.

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#222

Post by erkkie »

thomasrossi wrote: post #133
__z wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

You don't eat, so you don't stuff your cardiovascular system with fat, nothing new there (and if your problem is not genetic diabetes, then you are good to go against diabetes that way too). Also for the aging, digestion is a pretty intensive biochemical procedure, I am sure your tissues may like some rest from time to time, nothing new there either. What is not mentioned is that other biochemical pathways are trigge…

I hope you're not trying to make the age-old (and proven by current research wrong) sentiment that eating fat "stuffs it in your cardiovascular system". Please do notice the study diet in question was relatively high in fat (9%–10% proteins, 34%–47% carbohydrates, and 44%–56% fat.)

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#223

Post by erkkie »

ziyadparekh wrote: post #45

What was the actual diet ?

From TFA (http://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/fulltext/S1550-4131(15)0...): The development of the human diet took into account feasibility (e.g., high adherence to the dietary protocol) and therefore was designed to last 5 days every month and to provide between 34% and 54% of the normal caloric intake with a composition of at least 9%–10% proteins, 34%–47% carbohydrates, and 44%–56% fat.

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#224

Post by erkkie »

jerf wrote: post #11
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 compl…

Eggs are good your you, eat them (laterish) in the morning with not too much carbs and possibly reap the benefits of fasting as well :)

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#225

Post by cybertronic »

hliyan wrote: post #220
shanev wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An easy way to fast frequently is to just skip breakfast everyday. Then you automatically get a 16+ hour fast and keep your eating to a short window during the day. This helps kick in autophagy [1], a process whereby our cells repair themselves; a garbage collector for our body if you will. This is most likely the process the scientists are observing as slowed down aging. It's not really a foreign topic as there's 39…

I've been doing this for quite a while and it works great for me. It's 1:30PM here and all I've had so far: 1. a cup of milked tea in the morning 2. a chicken salad for lunch My dinner will be slightly heavier (usually low carb) and will be before 8:00pm. Throw in 2 more cups of tea and that's my day. It took me a very gradual tapering off of caloric intake lasting over a year to get to a point where I can do this wi…

That's exactly what I've been doing for more than a year, including the pig-out day! I lost more than 15 kg 10 months and now my BMI is constant too. I don't need vitamin supplements though and i drink more coffee than tea :)

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#226

Post by tkyjonathan »

There have been studies that prove that reducing meat consumption is the main benefit of fasting for slowing down ageing and that fasting has many negative psychological effects. If you eat foods with low amounts of the amino acids methionine and leucine, you could significantly reduce age-related diseases and the risk for certain cancers. http://nutritionfacts.org/2015/06/11/exploiting-autophagy-to...

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#227

Post by Guest1827 »

mrfusion wrote: post #68
krmmalik wrote: post #39

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. ;)

Why 19 hours? Are you in a northern latitude? Makes me wonder would people in Antarctica not fast at all?

Fasting is limited with te following condition. Quran 2:187 "and eat and drink, until the white thread of dawn appear to you distinct from its black thread; then complete your fast Till the night appears;" So if it never dawns, or the sun almost never sets, it's impossible to exercise islamic fasting.

So instead of thinking sanely, people come up with "solutions" like 'then exercise your fasting according to meccahs timezone' and such.

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#228

Post by mipapage »

Rainymood wrote: post #38

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…

I fasted for 14 days a few years back. Once you get past the first day or two its easier.

When you do this you re-learn what hungry is, and I found that what I thought was hunger was just desire in many cases.

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#229

Post by mipapage »

marchelzo wrote: post #95
aviv wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Sorry- but you mean that you didn't eat anything at all for 23 days? And you felt energized?

I went thru the same on a 14 day fast. More energy after about day 3, clearer thinking etc.

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#230

Post by tkyjonathan »

windlep wrote: post #179
hathawsh wrote: post #19

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.

I'd love to see this study replicated, only instead of "proprietary (expensive?) product", it was just 40% of your daily caloric intake.... in soylent. There's been multiple studies I've seen now indicating that fasting does this, the questions I want to know are: 1. How much of a caloric intake drop is required? 2. How much does it matter what specific types of calories are used for the lower-calorie period? (ie, 50…

There was a 10 year study that concluded this year that vitamins pills don't help with cancer and heart disease. The quality of delivery of vitamins to the body is important and based on this study, I don't think soylent is a good long term solution for overall health - unless you eat it with fruit and vegetables.
Post reply on HN