How much -- or how little -- you eat could influence how long you live.
The
idea of caloric control improving your health, and therefore your
lifespan, is nothing new, but researchers are now hoping to accurately
determine the type of diet that could make you live longer.
One team at the University of Southern California (USC)
are reducing the calorie count as low as it can go, using specific
foods to trick the human body into thinking it's fasting -- a process
called fasting mimicry.
"Diet can have a
remarkable effect on you," says Valter Longo, Professor of Gerontology
at USC Davis, who has been long been researching the mechanisms behind
human aging and has recently turned his attention to fasting.
"It can reprogram your body and put it on a path to live longer," says Longo.
Shutdown and regeneration
Fasting has been performed by communities and cultures for millennia and Longo's team are curious about the advantages.
Their
idea follows on from the long running trend of caloric restriction,
mostly known through diets such as the 5-2 diet and intermittent
fasting. Longo tested the impact of fasting for five consecutive days
every month, believing that when the body thinks it's in a state of
fasting, it shuts down and goes into standby mode.
"As
cells are killed and the body goes into standby, your stem cells switch
on," says Longo. Once switched on, the stem cells can regenerate the
lost cells and organ mass -- leaving you shiny and new.
When
cells in the body age, their ratios change and Longo believes the
body's reaction -- and repair methods -- to fasting help restore them to
when you were younger. "You're killing the bad cells and regenerating
with cells that are more functional."
Starvation strategies
In a 2015 study,
Longo's team set a specific diet for human volunteers, which mimicked
the effects of fasting over five consecutive days monthly, for three
months. Trials were also conducted in mice.
People
consumed approximately 1000 calories on day one and 725 calories for
the remaining four days, but these numbers alone didn't determine the
benefit.
"It's not just about reducing
calories", says Longo. His diet is designed to include specific
percentages of protein, fat and carbohydrates, for maximum effect. The
food items used, however, were specific to the trial and if translated
to the public would involve designing meals made up of the right
combination of nutrients.
"The
human fasting mimicking diet (FMD) program is a plant based diet
program designed to attain fasting-like effects while providing
micronutrient nourishment (vitamins, minerals, etc.) and minimize the
burden of fasting," Longo said in the study.
After
three months, the benefits were a reduction in body weight as well as
certain risk factors for cardiovascular disease. There was also an
increase in certain stem cells in the body.
"The diet is turning on the body's ability to renew itself," says Longo.
The
team have since calculated that following the diet every three months
could provide enough of an impact as effects are thought to last up to
six months.
How does it work?
"When
you fast, you lower protein and certain amino acids and you control
pathways [in the body]," says Longo. The pathways he refers to are known
as TOR, PKA and IGF pathways, which when controlled can switch on
certain reactions inside the body causing immune cells to die and organs
to shrink.
This activation, or
reduction, of pathways is why the components of the diet, such a
proteins, must also be controlled. "You won't activate the correct
pathways," says Longo.
"When
you make IGF less active, it reduces risk factors linked to diabetes
and cardiovascular disease," says Miguel Toribio-Mateas, Chairman of the
British Association for Applied Nutrition and Nutritional Therapy.
According
to Toribio-Mateas, the results confirm earlier theories that "some
hormone-like growth factors that are required during development to
grow, then become promoting agents of aging after development and sexual
maturity have been reached". He also believes the benefits are down to
improved efficiency on a cellular level.
"Cells
have a list of things to do every day,...like getting rid of toxins"
says Toribio-Mateas. If their workload is then disrupted by the need to
store excess calories, certain products can accumulate. "Regulating
calories can have a very positive effect," he says. To him, diet
underpins longevity.
Is it safe?
Unlike
the 5-2 diet, which requires two days of low calories at any point in
the week, Longo's diet involves fasting for five consecutive days, which
requires much more willpower.
"Five days is safe: going on for longer is difficult to do outside of a clinic," says Longo.
More
work needs to be done to fine tune the diet and determine meals that
meet the criteria. Longo has since founded his own nutrition company.
L-Nutra, to sell products that serve this purpose, which may be seen as a
conflict of interest. He states that profits are going back into
funding further research by his team.
"The results of the study are encouraging and warrant more research in this area," says Toribio-Mateas.
Occasional fasting could help you live longer
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