Full text: http://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fu...1247(16)30576-9

Cool! Ketogenic diet is the best!

I found this article explaining it:

https://thequantifiedbody.net/fast-mimicking-diet/

High fat, high micronutrients. Low protein, and no carb.

I wonder if previously there would have been natural mini-cycles with religious practices? One of the criticisms of the Keys lipid studies was that the Mediterranean diet looked especially good because he polled food practices during Lent.

Thanks for the links, RN and WB. Very interesting reads.

I wouldn't call it no carb. Especially if you go look at the FMD recipes. The biggest attribute seems to be low protein. I may have to give it a shot. My immune system does need a break.

Didn't look at the recipes.

Myself, I am doing only dinner (which is what Dr. Fung does) and I feel good. Eating dinner instead of some other meal seems to solve my "ketosis is surging and I'm trying to sleep" problem.

But I am hoping this is a sustainable way to reset my endocrine system.

Funny, I just posted this over in General Health.

Here's a link to the layperson's version from USC:

https://news.usc.edu/101187/diet-th...rosis-symptoms/

Also, the initial research that was more about longevity and cancer growth reduction:

https://news.usc.edu/82959/diet-tha...-to-slow-aging/

It seems most of the benefits come from the Fasting Mimicking Diet (FMD), at least as far as autoimmunity, longevity, and now MS is concerned. Although the Ketogenic Diet is seen to have benefits as well -- just not as significant as the FMD.

Entire article...

Sounds kinda complicated. And with a patent, that must mean he has something to sell. I think I'll just keep skipping meals - no one has a patent on that yet!

Problem. The diet with 1090 calories works out to about 92 grams of carbohydrate a day at the given macro nutrient percentages and the 725 calorie diet comes to about 85 grams of carbohydrate a day. Those amounts of carbohydrate are both way too high for a lot of people's bodies to be able to enter ketosis or begin burning fat for fuel and would simply be what Gary Taubes described as semi-starvation diets. High enough carbs to keep the body trying to burn carbs for fuel while hormonally unable to access its own fat storage to make up the calorie deficiency to meet the brain and body's needs. Not good. At that rate might have to resort to burning muscle protein to make glucose for brain and body since the body's fat can't be accessed as fuel or to produce ketones which could otherwise fuel the brain. If I were designing a diet intended to mimic fasting but while allowing the comfort of some food, I'd advise ditching those carbs in favor of fat while keeping the protein level low since both carbohydrate and to some extent protein (but not really fat) elevate insulin which as part of its job signals the body to burn glucose instead of fat. Actual fasting lowers insulin and so should this idea for a diet, so it should much more closely mimic fasting than the higher carb one.

To be, carb addiction is totally real, because look what entire cultures go through to avoid not having them in their diet.

I agree that it appears complicated. If it helps people with MS, the fact that it's complicated shouldn't be an issue. However, the life longevity and general health claims require further research, as answers to the following questions would be helpful. Is the 5-day FMD protocol really the same as a 5-day water fast? How does it compare in terms of autophagy and other metabolic processes? Can a shorter water fast produce the same results, or does this really require 5 days?

For those already fat adapted, fasting isn't the burden the articles describe. In terms of fasting being unhealthy, that's possibly true for some, but I feel this point is exaggerated in the articles. People who have never tried fasting are probably going to believe this claim.

It looks like the FMD diet is going to be marketed in some form of food equivalent. Processed? That would help with the complicated nature of what one has to eat. More to come apparently . . .

I think FMD can be seen as less scary, but yes, most people will see fasting from their carb-laden state, where they have three spoons of sugar in their coffee, grab a Danish, and then are freakishly hungry two hours later.

The whole "patented" thing seems quite weird to me. On Ketogenic Forums one user posted this:

I've done something similar, but with low carb veggies and broth instead of the greens supplement. Gives sort of a placeholder soup for meals.

Can't blame Long for wanting to make a few bucks. But I don't think his research area gives him much advantage when it comes to micronutrition, and when it comes to the macros, the cat's sort of out of the bag, protein and carbs are the big movers when it comes to mimicking the fasted state. I find with a more ketogenic diet--I'm never far from the sort of edge of euphoric state that some people report with fasting, except that it occurs when I'm a couple of hours past my usual meal time, instead of a day later.