The path to longevity is often lengthy and precarious. While you can’t change how long you’ve lived, you could switch up how healthy and “young” your body is.
Biological age measures how well your cells and tissues are functioning, and chronological age expresses how long you have been alive.
Now, new research, published in the journal Nature Communications, has found that a fasting-mimicking diet (FMD) could lower your biological age by a whopping two and a half years.
This dietary intervention could also slash your risk of age-related health conditions like diabetes, cancer and heart disease.
The FMD, created by a laboratory at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology in California, US, is a five-day diet which is packed with “healthy” unsaturated fats and low in overall calories, protein and carbohydrates.
The research team put down the promising effects of this diet to reduction in insulin resistance, liver fat, and slowing immune system ageing.
Professor Valter Longo, senior author, said: “This is the first study to show that a food-based intervention that does not require chronic dietary or other lifestyle changes can make people biologically younger.
“This is based on both changes in risk factors for ageing and disease, and on a validated method developed to assess biological age.”
The diet is designed to mimic the effects of a water-only fast, while still providing the necessary nutrients.
It is said to trick your body into releasing enzymes and other chemicals that have been linked to longevity.
Professor Longo and his team looked at the effects of the FMD in two clinical trial populations, with men and women between the ages of 18 to 70.
The study participants underwent three to four monthly cycles of the FMD, which consisted of following the diet for five days and then eating a “normal” diet for 25 days.
When following the FMD protocol, they consumed things like plant-based soups, energy bars, energy drinks, crisps, and tea – all of which were portioned out over the five days.
They were also administered a supplement which provided high levels of minerals, vitamins, and essential fatty acids.
On the first day, they had to eat 1,010 calories and this reduced to 717 on days two to five.
The dietary composition consisted of 46 percent fat, 43 percent carbohydrates and 11 percent protein on the first day, followed by 44 percent fat, 47 percent carbs and nine percent protein for the others.
During the remaining 25 days, the study subjects were told to eat a “normal” or Mediterranean-style diet, which is also what the control group consumed.
The findings revealed that those in the FMD group had a lower risk of diabetes, including less insulin resistance and reduced HbA1c levels.
Insulin resistance occurs when your body’s cells don’t respond properly to the hormone that helps to control your blood sugar levels. And HbA1c levels describe your average blood glucose levels over the last two to three months.
The participants also had decreased abdominal and liver fat, which is associated with a reduced risk of metabolic syndrome, and an increased lymphoid-to-myeloid ratio, which is an indicator of a more youthful immune system.
Further statistical analysis showed that the FMD participants had reduced their biological age by two and a half years on average, independent of weight loss.
