Prolon 5-Day Fasting Mimicking Diet
I recently attended the national conference for the Association of Diabetes Care and Education Specialists, which was held right here in Phoenix, Arizona. At the conference I participated in a session entitled “Clinical Breakthroughs in Diabetes Remission: Fasting Mimicking Nutrition Programs in Practice.” The session was hosted by a company called L-Nutra, founded by a pioneer of longevity medicine and fasting, Dr. Valter Longo.
I have long been aware of promising research around fasting as it relates to metabolic disease, and I already use a fair bit of intermittent fasting with my patients. Typically defined as fasts lasting 12-48 hours, intermittent fasting can be helpful for weight loss and blood sugar control. But longer fasts, sometimes referred to as periodic fasting, offer an entirely unique set of benefits including cellular recycling and rejuvenation through a process called autophagy. The term autophagy comes from the Greek words meaning “self-eating,” and it is a natural cellular process in which old, damaged, or unnecessary cells and organelles are recycled by the body. It is thought to help with healthy aging, metabolic balance, immune defense and protection against diseases such as neurodegeneration and cancer.
Essentially, food serves as more than just fuel and building blocks, it also serves as a source of information for the body. When we are consuming ample protein and carbohydrates our cells’ nutrient sensing pathways (NSPs) are turned on. These pathways, including mTOR (mechanistic target of rapamycin), IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1) and PKA (protein-kinase A) tell the cells to work and grow and age. On the flip side, if we are not eating very much, these pathways will be turned off and the cells will streamline their processes to prepare for leaner, more stressful times via autophagy.
In the brain: Autophagy helps to clear mis-folded proteins such as amyloid and tau, and supports the survival and plasticity of our higher quality brain cells. This supports memory, learning, and repair after brain injury.
In the lungs: Autophagy helps remove damaged proteins and pathogens, which may protect against fibrosis and COPD.
In the liver: Autophagy clears excess fat stores, protecting against fatty liver disease and restoring glucose metabolism.
In the blood: Autophagy helps stem cells maintain their regenerative capacity, allowing faster recovery from musculoskeletal issues such as acute injuries and arthritis.
For the immune system: Autophagy destroys intracellular pathogens like bacteria and viruses, which reduces the need for a systemic immune response (aka feeling sick).
For cancer prevention: Autophagy helps to remove damaged DNA and proteins that can lead to mutations.
Our ancestors likely experienced autophagy periodically due to food scarcity, war, religious fasting and other stressors. But in today’s food environment it takes a concerted effort to go 12 hours without food, nonetheless 3+ days! And while my patients are generally amenable to shorter, intermittent fasting, I don’t have many people signing up to eat nothing for the better part of a week. Heck, I can’t even bring myself to go past a day, even with extensive knowledge of the benefits. This is where Dr. Longo’s research comes in.
Because the nutrient sensing pathways are primarily stimulated by proteins and simple carbohydrates, he has devised a diet that includes real, nourishing foods, but that “flies under the radar” of the NSPs, so to speak. That diet is commercially available as a product called the Prolon 5-Day Fasting Mimicking Diet. The research presented at the conference was compelling. For example, one randomized, controlled trial was conducted at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands. 100 participants with an A1C over 6.5% and/or a prescription of metformin were randomized to standard care or standard care plus 12 monthly cycles of a 5-day fasting mimicking diet (meaning they did the fast for 5 straight days, every month, for 12 months). 40% of the participants in the fasting group were able to lower their metformin dose, compared with only 5% of participants receiving standard care. In fact, 16% of the fasting participants were able to stop their metformin altogether - only 5% of standard care participants could do the same. And despite using less medication, hemoglobin A1C actually went down slightly more in the fasting group than it did in the control group. Perhaps even more compelling was data around body composition. Unlike with most calorie restricted diets, the fasting mimicking diet preserved muscle mass while diminishing visceral fat - the fat located in and around the abdominal organs. I walked away from the session intrigued, to say the least.
As a general rule, I don’t like to recommend a new protocol to my patients without first trying it myself. And by that I mean making my husband try it with me :)
See below for a series of videos that I created on each day of the Prolon 5-Day Fasting Mimicking Diet. In them, you’ll get to see a picture of every single food you eat throughout the program. Essentially, they send you a neat little box filled with 5 smaller boxes, each containing all the food you’ll eat on any given day of the diet. Breakfast is always a nut bar, lunch and dinner are always soup. There’s also some flax crackers, olives and chocolate crisp bars that are peppered in with the meals or as snacks. You also get unlimited herbal tea, some multivitamins, some omega-3 fatty acid supplements, and a fruity glycerol drink that helps you maintain muscle mass. All in all you’re eating about 1,100 calories on the first day, and 800 on the remaining days. Weight loss is expected, largely due to the caloric restriction, but the real magic is in the autophagy that starts around day 3. Even for people that aren’t looking to lose substantial weight, autophagy provides worthwhile longevity benefits. It is generally recommended that participants complete the 5 day fast every month for 4-12 months, then quarterly in perpetuity.
If you are interested in learning more, consider scheduling a session with me to discuss how periodic and intermittent fasting could help you achieve your health goals. And if you just want to dive in, you can purchase your very own Prolon box(es) through this link.