What is the fasting mimicking diet?
This is a 5-day diet high in unsaturated fats and low in overall calories, protein, and carbohydrates and is designed to mimic the effects of a water-only fast while still providing necessary nutrients and making it much easier for people to complete the fast.
It was developed by the laboratory of USC Leonard Davis School Professor Valter Longo, the senior author of the new study.
First food based study to make people biologically younger
To study the impact of the diet on people, two clinical trial populations, each containing both men and women between the ages of 18 and 70, were included. The fasting mimicking diet comprised of plant-based soups, energy bars, energy drinks, chip snacks, and tea portioned out for 5 days as well as a supplement providing high levels of minerals, vitamins, and essential fatty acids. Patients in the control groups were instructed to eat either a normal or Mediterranean-style diet.
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“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, based on both changes in risk factors for aging and disease and on a validated method developed by the Levine group to assess biological age,” Longo said.
Clinical studies showed that participants who had consumed fasting mimicking diet had reduced biological age by 2.5 years on an average.
