Fasting mimicking diet resources
This post started its life as an email to a few folks. I’m having trouble keeping up with writing blog posts, so now it’s a blog post too.
…I had heard about this diet from a couple of very different sources, and my ears always perk up when such different people recommend the same thing.
Here is Dominick Hussey’s brief description of the Fasting Mimicking Diet:
“Fasting has been found to offer many health benefits, including improved insulin sensitivity, regeneration of the immune system, and improved cognitive function. However, prolonged fasting can be hard to stick with for both physical and mental reasons. The Fasting Mimicking Diet (FMD) is an eating program designed to help you achieve the health-promoting effects of fasting while minimizing the adverse effects that are associated with prolonged calorie restriction. The FMD involves significantly reducing total calorie intake for three to five days…”
The first time I heard about the Fasting Mimicking Diet was when filming a talk by Dr. Felice Gerche for the Physicians For Ancestral health group. You can see the talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V_H_43p4Rc
Then a couple of months ago I heard Kevin Rose recommend the regimen to Tim Ferriss on his podcast (Warning – if you haven’t heard Tim’s podcast he is a little too fond of the sound of his own voice for some people’s tastes…) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vhrfFjHNC0
The diet is a 5 day program to be repeated several times over the course of a year. It was developed by Valter Longo, who now sells prepared food kits and has a book on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN0525534075/offsitoftimfe-20
While I’m interested in the fasting program, I’m not particularly interested in the kits, for several reasons. They are apparently expensive, and also contain processed foods, including gluten.
I heard a rumor there were some DIY recipes floating around, and after some searching, this is what I was able to dig up. Some people online seem to suggest that these homemade diets may not hit all of the requirements perfectly, but others have seemed to have success with them, so I intend to try them the next time I have a slow spell amenable to a 5-day fast.
The first materials are in a slick PDF from Dominick Hussey at Ottowa Wellness: http://www.dominickhussey.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Homemade-Recipes-for-the%E2%80%A8Fasting-Mimicking-Diet.pdf
A broader variety of recipes can be found at this website: http://agingadvice.org/FMD-Recipes.html
Again, at least one person was critical that these recipes may not thread quite the same physiological needle that Valter Longo’s prepared foods thread, but this is what I intend to try when a good opportunity presents itself.
Feel free to ask me any questions about this, although I have to admit I don’t know much yet beyond the materials in these links, and I may not actually try the program for many months. We’ll see!
Be well!