Nutrition ⇒ Protein restriction diets for stem cell–based regeneration

[Fred]

"Protein Quantity and Source, Fasting-Mimicking Diets, and Longevity"
published November 2019

https://sci-hub.se/10.1093/advances/nmz079

"Dietary modifications, including caloric restriction, dietary restriction, various intervals of fasting, and even limiting the time when food is consumed can have a pronounced impact on longevity.

In addition, dietary modifications are powerful interventions to delay, prevent, or treat many aging-related diseases such as cancer and diabetes.

Restricting amino acid and protein intake generally decreases aging-related comorbidities and thereby increases health and longevity.

However, chronic dietary interventions are likely not feasible for most people due to low adherence to dietary protocols or resistance to drastic changes to lifestyle, and might even cause detrimental effects, possibly by negatively affecting the immune system and wound healing.

The periodic use of low-protein, low-calorie fasting-mimicking diets (FMDs) has the potential to promote health benefits, while minimizing the burden of chronic restriction.

Protein restriction and FMDs together have the potential to play an important complementary role in medicine by promoting disease prevention and treatment, and by delaying the aging process at least in part by stimulating stem cell–based regeneration in periods of normal food intake after periodic FMD cycles.

The aim of this narrative review is to summarize research on the impact of protein restriction on health and longevity in model organisms and to discuss the implementation of an FMD in mice and in human clinical trials and its effects on biomarkers of healthy aging.

Taking into account the importance of sex on aging and diet, we include this information in all discussed studies. Whereas for some model organisms of aging, such as rodents, many studies are available, results are more limited for primates and/or humans."

[NewLifeScience]

"Protein Quantity and Source, Fasting-Mimicking Diets, and Longevity"
published November 2019

https://sci-hub.se/10.1093/advances/nmz079

"Dietary modifications, including caloric restriction, dietary restriction, various intervals of fasting, and even limiting the time when food is consumed can have a pronounced impact on longevity.

In addition, dietary modifications are powerful interventions to delay, prevent, or treat many aging-related diseases such as cancer and diabetes.

Restricting amino acid and protein intake generally decreases aging-related comorbidities and thereby increases health and longevity.

However, chronic dietary interventions are likely not feasible for most people due to low adherence to dietary protocols or resistance to drastic changes to lifestyle, and might even cause detrimental effects, possibly by negatively affecting the immune system and wound healing.

The periodic use of low-protein, low-calorie fasting-mimicking diets (FMDs) has the potential to promote health benefits, while minimizing the burden of chronic restriction.

Protein restriction and FMDs together have the potential to play an important complementary role in medicine by promoting disease prevention and treatment, and by delaying the aging process at least in part by stimulating stem cell–based regeneration in periods of normal food intake after periodic FMD cycles.

The aim of this narrative review is to summarize research on the impact of protein restriction on health and longevity in model organisms and to discuss the implementation of an FMD in mice and in human clinical trials and its effects on biomarkers of healthy aging.

Taking into account the importance of sex on aging and diet, we include this information in all discussed studies. Whereas for some model organisms of aging, such as rodents, many studies are available, results are more limited for primates and/or humans."

Hey Fred,
So what kind of regimen should a beginner take? It is easy to get carried away with calorie restriction.

[Fred]

Hey Fred,
So what kind of regimen should a beginner take? It is easy to get carried away with calorie restriction.

I'd say it's really hard to get carried away with any sort of calorie restriction. Your appetite and other factors will work against you.

This article was more focused on the health benefits of not overeating protein (which we do).

Doing partial fasts is easier than constant calorie restriction. Professor Valter Longo's book "The longevity diet" is a good start.

Limit protein intake between fasts to no more than the recommended 0.8 g/kg and preferably from plant-based protein since animal protein intake increases the incidence of cancer, diabetes and overall mortality in not only flies and mice but also in humans.

[Fred]

From the paper in the original post:

In a pilot clinical trial in 19 healthy volunteers (7 women and 12 men), 3 monthly FMD (Fasting Mimicking Diet) cycles (5 d per cycle) decreased risk factors/biomarkers such as body weight, serum glucose, IGF-I, trunk fat, and others associated with aging, diabetes, CVD, and cancer without major adverse effects (100).

Notably, mesenchymal stem and progenitor cells in the peripheral blood mononucleated cell population showed a trend to increase at the end of FMD, in line with the results obtained in mice (100). The results on markers/risk factors associated with aging and age-related diseases and the FMDinduced improvements were confirmed in a randomized crossover-style clinical trial

[smokinjoe]

Hey Fred,
So what kind of regimen should a beginner take? It is easy to get carried away with calorie restriction.

I'd say it's really hard to get carried away with any sort of calorie restriction. Your appetite and other factors will work against you.

This article was more focused on the health benefits of not overeating protein (which we do).

Doing partial fasts is easier than constant calorie restriction. Professor Valter Longo's book "The longevity diet" is a good start.

Limit protein intake between fasts to no more than the recommended 0.8 g/kg and preferably from plant-based protein since animal protein intake increases the incidence of cancer, diabetes and overall mortality in not only flies and mice but also in humans.

I skip meals, usually breakfast and lunch... but lately have had 2 weeks in a row with a 48 hour fast. I was going to try for 72 hours when i started crashing...

Normally, I would think that eating high protein during the fast would be preferable to carbs or fat. But maybe fatty, non-carb foods could help.

[Vandevalk1]

What is a fasting mimicking diet, as opposed to fasting? would an intermittent fasting diet be considered fasting or fasting mimicking?

[Fred]

What is a fasting mimicking diet, as opposed to fasting? would an intermittent fasting diet be considered fasting or fasting mimicking?

Intermittent diet doesn't mean anything to me. You have to say how many hours? Days? And how many kcal....zero kcal? 250 kcal? How much protein?

So instead of using the non-descriptive "intermittent fasting" we need to start to specify what that means.

An FMD is between 200 and 750 kcal with no more than 15 g of protein and the fast lasts for 5-7 days. That will activate autophagy, innate DNA repair programs and stem cell regeneration.

You can read about the science on the commercial product site but no fasting kit is necessary. I do these 200 kcal 5 day fasts with just vegetable soups.

https://prolonfmd.com/science-research/

[Fred]

Normally, I would think that eating high protein during the fast would be preferable to carbs or fat. But maybe fatty, non-carb foods could help.

Eating high protein during a fast is the worse thing you could do. It negates most of the beneficial things you want the fast to accomplish.

It is the lack of protein and energy that starts the DNA repair program and the stem cell based tissue regeneration when you eat again.

No more than 15 g of protein on the five fasting days. The less the better. Vegetable soup without beans is perfect.

[Vandevalk1]

What is a fasting mimicking diet, as opposed to fasting? would an intermittent fasting diet be considered fasting or fasting mimicking?

Intermittent diet doesn't mean anything to me. You have to say how many hours? Days? And how many kcal....zero kcal? 250 kcal? How much protein?

So instead of using the non-descriptive "intermittent fasting" we need to start to specify what that means.

An FMD is between 200 and 750 kcal with no more than 15 g of protein and the fast lasts for 5-7 days. That will activate autophagy, innate DNA repair programs and stem cell regeneration.

You can read about the science on the commercial product site but no fasting kit is necessary. I do these 200 kcal 5 day fasts with just vegetable soups.

https://prolonfmd.com/science-research/

Fred, I am very confused with the FMD requiring 200-750 kcal (kcal being a kilocalorie = 1000 calories correct?)

This is a lot of calories.

[Fred]

Fred, I am very confused with the FMD requiring 200-750 kcal (kcal being a kilocalorie = 1000 calories correct?)

This is a lot of calories.

No. When people use the term "calories" what they really mean is kilocalories.

The accurate term is kilocalories.

1 "calorie" = 1 kcal

The FMD is 200-750 kcal which is a very low kcal intake.

A 70 kg man can require about 2600 kcal a day or more.

Scientifically, 1 kilocalorie (1000 calories or 1 kcal) means the energy it takes to raise the temperature of 1kg of water by 1°C.

Calories are units of energy so small that a tiny cookie can provide thousands of them. To ease calculations, energy is expressed in 1000-calorie units known as kilocalories.

That is, 1 Calorie is equivalent to 1 kilocalorie; the capital C in Calories denotes kcal on food labels, calories and kilocalories are used interchangeably to mean the same thing.

In other words, it is just as normal and acceptable for people to use the small “c” instead of big “C” and say “1 gram of fat gives us 9 calories” in the nutrition world as “1 gram of fat gives us 9 kilocalories or 9000 calories” in the physical science world.