New fix for over-50 fat

Millions are buzzing about Netflix’s battle- of-the- diets docuseries You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment. Spoiler alert: After just eight weeks, folks put on a plant-based plan by Stanford scientists ended up dramatically healthier than their identical twins put on a well-balanced omnivorous plan. Plant-based twins got bad cholesterol 20 points lower, cut insulin 20% more, doubled their ability to lose weight— and scans showed they became biologically younger than omnivorous siblings with the same birthday and DNA. “The results speak for themselves,” says George Washington University nutrition expert Neal Barnard, M.D. “And the twins were fairly healthy to begin with. People who are out of shape do even better.” Take Maryland makeup artist Shauné Hayes, who went plant-based after a health scare. She got off multiple meds, lost 100 pounds and feels a decade younger. Keep reading to learn how much plants might benefit you…

For the Stanford study, twins on both diets cut added sugar and processed carbs while emphasizing veggies, fruit and whole grains. So almost everyone reduced calories, improved nutrient intake and boosted well-being. Why did the plant group get a bigger boost? When you eat only plants, “you almost always include more of what I call ‘power foods,’” Dr. Barnard explains. Options like broccoli, berries, beans and oats “power off excess weight that causes or worsens so many modern health problems.”

How ‘power plants’ slim

Dr. Barnard says these are the keys:

• Appetite destruction Fiber, protein and micronutrients in whole plants f ill us up

and trigger hormones that make us “immediately less hungry,” says the doc. And plants satiate after significantly fewer calories than omnivore meals, so weight comes off without limiting portions. “New injectable weight-loss drugs were developed to mimic this effect. The feeling is liberating.”

Because roughage in plants stimulates metabolism, “studies show that on a plant-based diet, your ability to burn calories increases about 15% for several hours after the meal,” says Dr. Barnard. “It’s like exercise without going to the gym. You’re getting calorie burn for free.”

• Calorie blocking Tufts scientists have evidence that “plant f iber traps calories in the digestive tract and pulls them out