Boost Your Longevity with the Fasting Mimicking Diet
Progressive Health wants you to live your best, healthiest life. So we recommend a healthy lifestyle!
But there is an important tool we do not use enough and that can accomplish a degree of cellular clean-up and rejuvination that little else can. This is fasting.
There is a lot of confusion about fasting. Many people practice “intermittent fasting” by skipping breakfast. The latest science does not support skipping breakfast. Life expectancy actually decreases in people who skip breakfast. I do believe it is healthy to eat in a narrower window by eating an early dinner and avoiding snacking after 6pm or 7pm.
But to get the magical ability to do cellular clean-up and clear out senescent, “zombie” cells from our body, it appears that we have to do some amount of fasting for a few days.
In his book Longevity Diet, Dr. Valter Longo recommends a mostly plant-based diet with 2 servings of fish per week. He also recommends a kind of fast that he created called the Fasting Mimicking Diet. This diet is the only safe way of fasting that we can safely recommend in an outpatient setting.
In fact, when people did three 5-day FMD fasts over 3 months, they had lasting benefits in their health. Participants report their appetite is reset, so they are less tempted to overeat all the time. They experienced lasting weight loss, improved glucose / pre-diabetes, and lower blood pressure.
Importantly, people do not lose muscle mass while doing this fast. We lose fat and lose senescent “zombie” cells, but we do not lose muscle. No other fast and no other diet is known to provide both of these benefits. This is why we endorse the Fasting Mimicking Diet, accompanied with a shift to mostly plant-based diet before and after your fast.
Note that we do NOT recommend a long-term keto diet, as this too has been found to shorten lifespan.
How can I figure out if this is right for me?
In general, the only people who cannot safely do this modified fast are people who are malnourished/underweight and people allergic to the ingredients, which include seeds and nuts. Most everyone else who is not acutely ill, is safe to use this 5-day fast.
If you have any doubts at all, please check with your PCP!
How can I get the Fasting Mimicking Diet?
To obtain this 5-day kit, you must order it through a doctor’s office. You can order it here:
https://prolonfmd.com/ProgressiveHealth
A 20% discount is applied at checkout. The meals will be shipped directly to your home address.
What is the cost?
The cost comes to roughly $140 total, for the 5-day fast, or a little lower if you buy 3 kits. Remember this offsets any other food you would need to buy for those 5 days.
Will you offer any support for fasting?
YES! We plan to run a group fast, from July 10-14, and again in August and September. We will meet at 12pm on July 9, 11, and 14 to talk about the science of fasting, plan for after the fast, and give you moral support!
How often should I consider doing this fast?
If you are young and healthy then Dr. Longo recommends this fast only 1 to 2 times per year, to induce cellular clean-up.
If you have some chronic diseases like hypertension, diabetes, kidney or gastrointestinal disease, then 3 times per year is recommended.
If you are trying to reverse a chronic disease like pre-diabetes or hypertension, then Dr. Longo recommends once per month for as much as 6 months, then quaterly.
I get hangry when I fast. Do I have to do this?
No!