Fasting Mimicking Diet: Health Benefits And More

The recent unveiling of the fasting-mimicking diet, or FMD, marks the first time in human history we have found a way to push back our biological clocks. In other words, it allows us to refresh many of our cells to, in effect, “de-age” our bodies by 2.5 years. This biological de-aging and the variety of other benefits unlocked by the fasting-mimicking diet are exciting to say the least, and the revolutionary diet puts them within reach of almost anyone.

What is the fasting-mimicking diet (FMD)?

The fasting-mimicking diet is a plant-based 5 day meal plan that triggers the benefits associated with water-only fasting. It consists of foods extremely low in calories, carbs, and proteins. Not only do those nutrient-rich foods make the diet easier to stick to than a traditional fast, but they also provide the fuel that your body needs to stay vital and alert. [1¹]

The Science Behind FMD

The fasting-mimicking diet is not just a collection of random healthy foods thrown into a meal plan. Instead, each food item is carefully chosen through a scientific process. The precise amount of nutrients of each type in every meal is monitored closely to provide specific benefits to the body, keeping calories to the absolute minimum to preserve the fasting effect while making sure to keep enough vitamins and nutrients to provide energy. [2²], [3³].

Biological impacts of fasting

The Ancient Greeks were the first ones to realise that fasting had positive biological effects [4⁴]. They noticed that it tended to give people clearer skin, sharper cognitive performance, and an overall more youthful “pep in their step.”

Now that we have more advanced observational tools at our disposal, we can see that the Greeks weren’t just imagining things; the widespread positive impacts of fasting [5⁵] are very real. For instance:

• Fasting reduces C-reactive protein, a precursor to some forms of bad acne.
• Fasting reduces brain fog.
• Fasting decreases blood pressure and moderates blood triglycerides, making you able to exert more energy comfortably.
• Fasting causes your body to secrete more growth hormones, which will help you lose weight and aid in muscle growth.
• Fasting helps increase longevity. In other words, it literally makes your body function as if it were younger.

All of these positive impacts of fasting carry over to the fasting-mimicking diet. In fact, the diet very well may amplify the effects because of the nutrients it provides your body during the “fast” that it can in turn use to fuel the processes further.

Research studies and findings

Over the past decade, over 165 studies, papers, and articles coming from 25 different countries have been published about FMD. Experts from a wide variety of fields, from oncology to nutrition dietetics to cell biology, have contributed to the research. The leading researcher on FMD is Dr. Valter Longo, a cellular biologist at the University of Southern California.

Although the studies look at the fasting-mimicking diet from different perspectives, however, they all agree on one thing: the diet provides unprecedented health benefits for a relatively easy-to-implement food regimen. The benefit that is most focused on in the body of research is the diet’s strong correlation with a decrease in cancer risk. It’s not too surprising, since younger cells like those generated by the diet are less likely to become cancerous. Still, it’s a huge deal in the medical community.

Almost all of the studies back the diet’s other purported benefits: weight loss, increased cognitive ability, a strengthened immune system, and more.

Health Benefits of the fasting-mimicking diet

Since fasting diets originated, people around the world have embraced the concept because of its many health benefits [6⁶]. The benefits range from physiological to psychological to biological, most notably including:

• Weight loss and increased metabolism, meaning you will burn more calories during activity.
• Disease prevention. FMD decreases your risk of health issues, from cancer to heart problems.  
• Mental clarity. You will feel less brain fog and may be able to remember things more easily.
• Physical energy. FMD recipients often report feeling like they just drank a cup of coffee but without the jitters.
• Enhanced weight management. Once your body grows accustomed to such a precise amount of nutrients, it’s easy to control your weight by adding or subtracting just a little from your diet.
• Longevity. As mentioned above, studies show those who go on several cycles of fasting-mimicking diet decrease their biological age (the effective age of their cells) by an average of 2.5 years.
• Immune system reboot. FMD effectively “updates” your immune system, making it easier for your body to fend off sicknesses.

Starting the fasting-mimicking diet

So how do you get started on FMD?

RESET programs by Shoku Iku

Shoku Iku acts as a bridge between the dieticians who developed the fasting-mimicking diet and the public. We offer the “Advanced Reset”, a 5-day fasting-mimicking program meal plan, to customers in the Melbourne and Sydney Metro Areas. The plan is a collaboration between food scientists, nutritionists, and our highly experienced master chefs trained in both Japanese and Australian cooking techniques.

The Advanced Reset meals include items like shirataki noodles with pesto, curry-spiced coconut crackers, pumpkin soup, and avocado cacao mousse. Each of the items has hours of care put into its recipe design so that it contains exactly the amount of nutrients your body needs to run efficiently but still mimic the effects of fasting. All items are plant-based, gluten-free, dairy-free, organic, and without refined sugars.

Find out more and order the plan at the Shoku Iku Advanced Reset Pages for the Melbourne and Syndey metro areas.

Read more: Advanced RESET – All You Need To Know

Tips for Success and Sustainability

A few tips for success when you begin on FMD:

• Stay active! You don’t need to go lift weights at the gym, but going for a light run or doing yoga will help the positive effects of the diet kick in more quickly.
• Drink plenty of water. Keeping your body fueled up by staying hydrated is important. Try to stay away from caffeine, although you can go with green tea or black coffee if it’s necessary.
• If you absolutely need to snack in between meals, stick to small servings of cucumber or celery.
• Remember that FMD is a short-term diet. Keeping it in mind makes it much easier to stick with the diet when you’re feeling hungry, because you can always remember that you can go back to a normal diet in a few days.

Preparing for FMD

So what do you need to know before you begin the fasting-mimicking diet?

Daily regimen and what to expect

Preparing and self-administering your own FMD is possible, but even nutritionists do not recommend it because of how incredibly precise all the nutrient amounts in the food need to be to achieve maximum effect.

When you start on one of Shoku Iku’s fasting-mimicking plans, you can expect the meals to be carefully packaged and delivered to your door every morning. Each delivery will include between three and four items – a soup or salad, a fasting-mimicking meal, a snack of either crackers or a medicinal drink, and maybe even a healthy dessert. 

What time to eat is up to you, but we recommend eating all of your meals for one day within a 4-10 hour period and spreading them out during that time. We also discourage eating within three hours of bedtime.

Safety and who should avoid FMD

People who should not go on the fasting-mimicking diet include:

• People under 18 or over 70 years of age.
• People with a body mass index of under 18.5.
• People with a chronic infection.
• Pregnant or breastfeeding women.

The fasting-mimicking diet is a beautiful culmination of decades of nutritional science research combined with holistic dietary practices [7⁷]. Services like the RESET programs from Shoku Iku bundle up all that work into a series of delicious and refined meals and bring them right to your door.

Reference:

1. Wei, M., Brandhorst, S., Shelehchi, M., Mirzaei, H., Cheng, C. W., Budniak, J., Groshen, S., Mack, W. J., Guen, E., Di Biase, S., Cohen, P., Morgan, T. E., Dorff, T., Hong, K., Michalsen, A., Laviano, A., & Longo, V. D. (2017). Fasting-mimicking diet and markers/risk factors for aging, diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. Science translational medicine, 9(377), eaai8700. https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.aai8700 ↩︎
2. Tang, F., & Lin, X. (2020). Effects of Fasting-Mimicking Diet and Specific Meal Replacement Foods on Blood Glucose Control in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Oxidative medicine and cellular longevity, 2020, 6615295. https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/6615295 ↩︎
3. Maugeri, A., & Vinciguerra, M. (2020). The Effects of Meal Timing and Frequency, Caloric Restriction, and Fasting on Cardiovascular Health: an Overview. Journal of lipid and atherosclerosis, 9(1), 140–152. https://doi.org/10.12997/jla.2020.9.1.140 ↩︎
4. Caffa, I., Spagnolo, V., Vernieri, C., Valdemarin, F., Becherini, P., Wei, M., Brandhorst, S., Zucal, C., Driehuis, E., Ferrando, L., Piacente, F., Tagliafico, A., Cilli, M., Mastracci, L., Vellone, V. G., Piazza, S., Cremonini, A. L., Gradaschi, R., Mantero, C., Passalacqua, M., … Nencioni, A. (2020). Fasting-mimicking diet and hormone therapy induce breast cancer regression. Nature, 583(7817), 620–624. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2502-7 ↩︎
5. Cherif, A., Roelands, B., Meeusen, R., & Chamari, K. (2016). Effects of Intermittent Fasting, Caloric Restriction, and Ramadan Intermittent Fasting on Cognitive Performance at Rest and During Exercise in Adults. Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 46(1), 35–47. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-015-0408-6 ↩︎
6. Fanti, M., Mishra, A., Longo, V. D., & Brandhorst, S. (2021). Time-Restricted Eating, Intermittent Fasting, and Fasting-Mimicking Diets in Weight Loss. Current obesity reports, 10(2), 70–80. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13679-021-00424-2 ↩︎
7. Ilbeigi, K., Bokaie, S., Aghasharif, S., Soares Magalhães, R. J., & Rashtibaf, M. (2018). Risk factors for recurrence of FMD outbreaks in Iran: a case-control study in a highly endemic area. BMC veterinary research, 14(1), 253. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12917-018-1580-3 ↩︎