Fasting Mimicking Diet
Let’s start with three essential features: Duration: 5 days +1; How many calories are introduced: a total of over 4000 Kcal divided into the diet days. The advice would be to follow the fasting-mimicking diet for three consecutive months up to a maximum of 6 under strict medical supervision. It consists of eliminating foods that stimulate the production of insulin and growth hormone (GF), preferring a low-calorie intake. It is, therefore, a low-calorie diet; the restriction of calories occurs gradually and is calibrated to benefit the immune, muscular and nervous systems. The DMD (Fasting Mimicking Diet), as the word itself says, simulates a fast: it forces most of the cells to go into a standby state and destroy unnecessary components (proteins, mitochondria, etc.); other cells are killed. The body, therefore, is activated in 3 levels:
- On a global level: with the destruction of old and obsolete cells that are replaced thanks to the activation of stem cells capable of generating new cells when we are entirely re-nourished. This happens, for example, with the immune system’s cells, which are thus strengthened.
- At the intra-cellular level: inside the single cells, with the replacement of systems and components that increase the resistance of the cell itself to stress. The mechanism used in the studied protocols on fasting mimicking in association with chemotherapeutic agents in treating tumors.
- Intra and extra-cellular level: inhibiting the production of substances with high toxic potential, such as AGEs (Advanced Glycation End-Products), responsible for damage to cells, organs, and tissues. It, therefore, has cell regeneration as its primary objective. Regeneration does not occur simply by eating “normally” but requires attention to all the nutrients introduced (from vegetables, fruit, whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, and quality animal proteins).
Structure Of The Fasting Mimicking Diet
The nutritional scheme generally develops in 5 days of calorie restriction and low protein content. On the first day, the Fasting Mimicking Diet provides for the intake of about 1100 calories, divided between 34% (500 Kcal) of carbohydrates, 56% (500 Kcal) of fat, and 10% (about 25g) of protein. Over the next four days, calories drop to 750: 47% (400 Kcal) carbohydrates, 44% (400 Kcal) fat, and 9% protein. The sixth day provides a free nutritional approach without adding animal proteins, salt, spices, or other condiments except for extra virgin olive oil.
Within this scheme, the recommendations are not to use simple sugars and proteins from animal sources (cheeses, cured meats, meats, fish, and eggs) and to reduce the number of complex carbohydrates from cereals, legumes, and fruit as much as possible. So not simple and within everyone’s reach. Because of its complexity, DMD must be supported and proposed to the patient under the strict supervision of a nutrition professional (nutritionist biologist, dietician, dietitian) and not undertaken independently, risking causing damage to the organism.
Who Can Do The Fasting Mimicking Diet?
The fasting-mimicking diet is recommended for all people between the ages of 35 and 65. Currently, there are two groups of protocols:
- Estimate;
- Therapeutic.
The preventive protocols are dedicated to healthy people who want to live longer in good health and to people in a state of overweight and obesity and with other predisposing risk factors for metabolic syndrome. In both cases, supervision by a nutritionist is recommended(doctor or biologist depending on the subject), but if for the healthy, it is possible to buy the kit independently by declaring their state of good health; in the second case, the purchase is subject to the release of a code by the nutritionist to testify that the person it will be followed during the diet period. The effects of the diet are less effective if they are not accompanied by other changes in the daily lifestyle between one cycle of Mime-Fasting and the other. Instead, the therapeutic protocols in the clinical trial phase are related to cancer therapy in combination with chemotherapy, diabetes therapy, cardiovascular disease therapy.
Also Read: WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF MERCURY POISONING ON HEALTH?
