Posted on 10/14/2021 6:16:30 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
In a new USC study on the health effects of a low-calorie diet that mimics fasting in the body, researchers found regular five-day cycles of the diet in mice seemed to counteract the detrimental effects of their usual high-fat, high-calorie diet.
The findings point to the potential of using a fasting-mimicking diet as "medicine," according to the researchers. A fasting-mimicking diet, or FMD, is a low-calorie diet that "tricks" the body into a fasting state.
One group of mice ate a high-calorie, high-fat diet (with 60% of their calories from fat) and became unhealthy and overweight. A second group of mice ate the same poor diet as the first one for approximately 4 weeks, followed by five days where they were fed an FMD and two days of a normal, healthy diet.
Study authors say those brief diet interventions were sufficient for that second group to return to normal levels of cholesterol, blood pressure and weight. Notably, the mice who ate the fasting-mimicking diet for five days out of each month lived as long as a third group of mice that was consistently fed a healthy diet.
"Our major discovery is that intervening with this diet made their hearts more resilient and better functioning than the mice who only ate a high-fat, high-calorie diet."
The study authors say cycles of FMD appeared to prevent obesity in mice by reducing the accumulation of visceral and subcutaneous fat—all without causing lean body mass loss. FMD cycles appeared to improve heart function and prevent high blood sugar and high cholesterol.
According to researchers, the effect of FMD cycles on gene expression indicated a role for fat cell reprogramming in obesity prevention. Specifically, the diet's impact on fat accumulation and cardiac aging could explain protection from early death caused by a high-fat, high-calorie diet.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
For everyone wanting to eat bad, six days reprograms your body to be better than before.
Not a good diet. Read “Wheat Belly” by Wm. Davis, MD.
When I gave up wheat, my LDL went down 40 points in 2 months. Lost weight without being hungry. Feel better than I ever have and I’m 85. My doc says I’ll live to be 100. Love eggs, beef, yogurt, salmon, chicken.
Go iift weights, muscular strength is greatest indicator of a long life.
Do you think the mice got fat because they at a high-fat diet, or because they ate too many calories.
Any diet that is too high in calories is going to be bad for you.
Kind of like binge and purge revisited.
There is a semblance.
Stored iron increases as we eat. I donate blood every two years to prevent it.
If a person’s blood ferritin is less than 70 ng/ml, she has an iron deficiency.
Autophagy: What You Need to KnowSource: healthline.com/health/autophagy#benefits
Autophagy is the body’s way of cleaning out damaged cells, in order to regenerate newer, healthier cells, according to Priya Khorana, PhD, in nutrition education from Columbia University.
“Auto” means self and “phagy” means eat. So the literal meaning of autophagy is “self-eating.”
It’s also referred to as “self-devouring.” While that may sound like something you never want to happen to your body, it’s actually beneficial to your overall health.
This is because autophagy is an evolutionary self-preservation mechanism through which the body can remove the dysfunctional cells and recycle parts of them toward cellular repair and cleaning, according to board-certified cardiologist, Dr. Luiza Petre.
Petre explains that the purpose of autophagy is to remove debris and self-regulate back to optimal smooth function.
“It is recycling and cleaning at the same time, just like hitting a reset button to your body. Plus, it promotes survival and adaptation as a response to various stressors and toxins accumulated in our cells,” she adds.
What are the benefits of autophagy?
The main benefits of autophagy seem to come in the form of anti-aging principles. In fact, Petre says it’s best known as the body’s way of turning the clock back and creating younger cells.
Khorana points out that when our cells are stressed, autophagy is increased in order to protect us, which helps enhance your lifespan.
Additionally, registered dietitian, Scott Keatley, RD, CDN, says that in times of starvation, autophagy keeps the body going by breaking down cellular material and reusing it for necessary processes.
“Of course this takes energy and cannot continue forever, but it gives us more time to find nourishment,” he adds.
At the cellular level, Petre says the benefits of autophagy include:
removing toxic proteins from the cells that are attributed to neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease
recycling residual proteins
providing energy and building blocks for cells that could still benefit from repair
on a larger scale, it prompts regeneration and healthy cellsAutophagy is receiving a lot of attention for the role it may play in preventing or treating cancer, too.
“Autophagy declines as we age, so this means cells that no longer work or may do harm are allowed to multiply, which is the MO of cancer cells,” explains Keatley.
While all cancers start from some sort of defective cells, Petre says that the body should recognize and remove those cells, often using autophagic processes. That’s why some researchers are looking at the possibility that autophagy may lower the risk of cancer.
While there’s no scientific evidence to back this up, Petre says some studiesTrusted Source suggest that many cancerous cells can be removed through autophagy.
“This is how the body polices the cancer villains,” she explains. “Recognizing and destroying what went wrong and triggering the repairing mechanism does contribute to lowering the risk of cancer.”
Researchers believe that new studies will lead to insight that will help them target autophagy as a therapy for cancer.
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