Talk to your doctor before trying diet
DEAR DOCTOR: I’m reading a lot about a fasting-mimicking diet, which is supposed to help you live longer. I wonder whether this diet might be worth trying.
DEAR READER: The approach you’re referring to falls into an ever-expanding category of dieting known as intermittent fasting. It has its roots in research that has found a correlation between periodic fasting and increased longevity, as well as positive health outcomes.
A number of studies have found that intermittent fasting can bestow a range of metabolic benefits. These include a reduction in body fat and overall body weight, lower blood pressure, improved blood lipid levels and improved regulation of blood sugar. Several methodologies fall under the intermittent fasting umbrella, including 24-hour fasts, alternate-day fasting, restricted calorie diets and time-restricted diets, which allow eating only during certain hours of the day. The downside of this approach to eating is that it is quite restrictive and can be difficult to adhere to. In addition, there is concern that intermittent fasting, which
entails a certain amount of deprivation, can lead to bingeing and other extreme eating behavior.
When it comes to the fasting-mimicking diet, the food restrictions kick in for just five days out of the month. That is, the diet mimics a fast without requiring daily deprivation. During those five days, calories are limited to about 800 per day. The nutrient profile of the diet is typically high in fat, low in protein, with carbohydrates falling somewhere in the middle. Some versions of this approach, which are more extreme, allocate nutrients in accordance with the high-fat ketogenic diet. In this approach, 80 percent of daily calories come from fat, with the rest divided equally between carbohydrates and protein.
As for whether this particular approach is one you should try, that’s a discussion you should have with either a dietitian or your family physician. While the benefits of this approach to diet are appealing, it requires both discipline and consistency for optimal results.