Do you know about FMD?
The letters stand for Fast-Mimicking Diet. It’s a diet that mimics the effects of fasting without the need to completely abstain from food. As reported here, you consume about 500-600 calories a day (compared to a typical daily intake of 2,000 calories) and you do it for five days.
The article reports on two clinical trials involving a total of 100 participants, who completed three cycles of FMD spaced four months apart. Results: reduced insulin resistance, lower hepatic fat, improved immune system function and a biological age, based on a number of biomarkers, that was 2.5 years younger on average.biological age.
“The findings suggest that FMD may be a beneficial intervention for promoting healthy aging, in part due to its ability to reduce inflammation and improve cellular repair mechanisms. The researchers also suggest that FMD may help protect against age-related diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, but say that more research is needed to confirm these results and to determine the diet’s long-term effects.”
The article quotes Dr. Valter Longo, who developed the FMD idea: “I think the more extreme approaches, such as daily caloric restriction, are too much for most people, which is why I’m really optimistic about the fasting-mimicking diet. People can do it two or three times a year and then do what they need to do for the rest of the year.”
FMD is essentially tricking your cells into thinking they aren’t getting any food, according to Joseph Antoun, CEO of a longevity nutrition company founded by Longo. “So your cells are receiving some of the nutrients but not in an acute high dose, so you’re getting the nutrients but the stress on the cells is still there, which in many ways is even better than water fasting.”
As always, you should check with your doctor before undertaking this. But the story does demonstrate the range of what’s being explored in terms of leveraging diet into creating important benefits at the cellular level. This is a topic that continues to be very robust.