If you are wondering if fasting or intermittent fasting is just another fad in the diet world, the jury is in. The research overwhelmingly supports the claims around fasting, particularly on how to reduce inflammation. In a study published in Cell, Mount Sinai researchers found that fasting reduces inflammation and improves chronic inflammatory diseases without affecting the immune system’s response to acute infections. Chronic inflammation has been linked with heart disease, diabetes, cancer, multiple sclerosis, and inflammatory bowel diseases. The Mayo Clinic also reports that research suggests that intermittent fasting may be more beneficial than other diets for reducing inflammation and improving conditions such as Alzheimer’s, arthritis, asthma, and a host of other diseases.
The Connection Between Obesity and Inflammation
As we age, weight tends to accumulate at an average of one to two pounds a year from early adulthood through middle age. Nearly 40% of Americans are obese (meaning their body mass index is 30 or higher), and inflammation is one of the consequences. The accumulation of fat increases immune response, leading to a cycle of perpetual low-level inflammation.
How Does Fasting Reduce Inflammation?
In the Mount Sinai research study, Miriam Merad, MD, PhD, and her colleagues, working with human and mouse immune cells, showed that intermittent fasting reduced the release of pro-inflammatory cells called “monocytes” in blood circulation. During periods of fasting, these cells go into “sleep mode” and are less inflammatory than monocytes found in those who were fed. “Monocytes are highly inflammatory immune cells that can cause serious tissue damage, and the population has seen an increasing amount in their blood circulation as a result of eating habits that humans have acquired in recent centuries,” said Dr. Merad.
But is Fasting Doable Long Term?
THAT is a question biochemist Valter Longo, director of the USC Longevity Institute, and his team ultimately found a way to answer – YES! Scientists have known for a long time that reducing calories without malnutrition can extend healthy life spans in animal models. In fact, cancer and cardiovascular disease in calorie-restricted monkeys are about 50 percent reduced. However, caloric restriction can be harmful. Ultimately, the monkeys didn’t live much longer because they had as many problems as solutions, and fasting can be difficult to maintain over time. The answer was to develop a way to do periodic diets that mimic fasting as a way to deliver caloric restriction. Lab and clinical studies showed that it is perhaps the most potent way to activate protection, repair, and rejuvenation processes in the body.
Fight Inflammation with Food
Foods like green leafy vegetables, fatty fish, olive oil ginger, onions, turmeric, and berries have the opposite effect, suppressing the production of pro-inflammatory molecules and enhancing the production of anti-inflammatory. We’ve compiled an entire list of things to eat and not eat to help you fight inflammation: The Best Foods To Eat (And Avoid) For Inflammation.
Fasting-Mimicking Diet With Food
The breakthrough nutri-technology that Longo and his team discovered came after 20 years of research and tens of millions of dollars in funding support from the National Institute of Health. ProLon®, the 5-day dietary program, became the first and only clinically tested, doctor-recommended fasting meal program. L-Nutra, the parent company for ProLon, holds the rights to the only patent in the history of healthcare on optimizing longevity and healthspan.
The ProLon Fasting Mimicking Diet® (FMD) is a diet program that’s unlike any other diet on the market. Their specially designed food gives you essential nutrition but doesn’t activate your body’s food sensing system. In other words, you get to eat, but your body “thinks” it’s on a 5-day fast.
The ProLon Diet includes 5 days of plant-based and scientifically tested ingredients that nourish the body while it does not recognize it is eating. This fasting-with-food meal plan is low in carbohydrates and proteins and contains good fatty acids. The FMD® recipe allows your body to remain under a fasting mode even though you are consuming calories.
ProLon ingredients are primarily plant-based. It’s gluten-free and non-GMO. The program includes a variety of 5 different soup flavors, sesame kale crackers, chocolate dessert bar, olives, L-drink for energy, and supplements. While your hunger likely won’t be completely satisfied in the first day or two, your body will adjust, and you will receive the nourishment necessary to maintain your health.
While the ultimate goal of fasting is longevity, ProLon is a fat-focused weight loss program. You will lose fat (especially belly fat) while protecting lean body mass.*
Hundreds of Prime Women have already tried ProLon Fasting Mimicking Diet® and seen real results. Read Verified Weight Loss Results to learn more about their experiences with the 5-day fast.
If you want to jumpstart your fast and weight loss, order the ProLon 5-Day Fasting Mimicking Diet. In the U.S. and Canada, use Coupon Code: PRIME for $25 off your order.
For our U.K. readers, use PRIME for $25 off your ProLon 5-Day Fasting Mimicking Diet.
Fast Bar And Intermittent Fasting
In addition to developing the 5-day fasting mimicking diet, L-Nutra used the fasting bars in the diet to create a product to help extend the time you could practice intermittent fasting. The result was Fast Bar – the first bar designed specifically for intermittent fasting.
A new randomized, controlled study of 105 adults who fasted for 15 hours overnight, then had glucose and ketone levels measured every hour for four hours after eating either breakfast, a Fast Bar, or just water showed that Fast Bar did not break their fast.
Prime Women has long been a proponent of intermittent fasting. Our most widely read article ever published has been Benefits of Intermittent Fasting for Women Over 50. In fact, we felt it was so critical to weight loss and maintaining weight loss that we made intermittent fasting a central part of our weight management program, PLATE. L-Nutra’s Fast Bar is the perfect addition to our recommendation to practice intermittent fasting for weight loss. Using the bar as a replacement for breakfast in the PLATE meal plan allows our members to stay on a 16 hour fast with ease.
If you want to try intermittent fasting or just Increase your fasting time without hunger, order Fast Bar. Use Coupon Code: PRIME for $10 off your order.
Another product that might assist you in your fasting journey is Ekon Fasting Champ Tea. It has a powerful combination of green tea and Rooibos that work as appetite suppressants, boosting metabolism and taking the edge off your hunger.
*Results based on 3 consecutive monthly cycles.
This article is for informational purposes only. Please consult your doctor before using any products mentioned in the article or before beginning intermittent fasting.
