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Fasting could help you live longer

Fasting diets could help people to live longer as well as make them slimmer, according to new research.

A pilot study by American and Italian researchers shows that people put on a calorie-restricted diet for five days a month have more anti-ageing “regeneration” markers in their blood and fewer red flags of disease.

In a study of 37 healthy people, half ate a regular diet while the rest were put on a fasting-type diet for five days a month over three months -- consuming between 34 and 54 per cent of the calories in a normal diet.

Compared to regular eaters, those who fasted had fewer risk factors linked to ageing, diabetes, heart disease and cancer, without any negative effects on their health.

Researchers were prompted to do the human trial after an earlier study in mice found that a fasting-type diet improved metabolism and cognitive function, decreased bone loss and cancer incidence, and extended longevity.

Their findings, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, showed that mice put on a fasting diet for four days twice a month, produced more stem cells, while cells in their bone, muscles, liver and brain, as well as their immune cells, were regenerated.

It was the first time many of the regenerative effects had been shown in a short-term diet.

The mice lived longer, with less inflammatory diseases and cancer, improved learning and memory, and reduced bone loss.

Lead researcher Valter Longo from the University of Southern California, whose previous studies showed that fasting improved how cells resisted stress, said the mice were fed a diet low in protein and carbohydrates but high in healthy fats.

“This is arguably the first non-chronic anti-ageing and healthspan-promoting intervention shown to work and to be very feasible as a doctor or dietitian supervised intervention,” Dr Longo said.

But he said the pilot study was based on small numbers and the results needed to be replicated in a larger study.

The diet program would be tested in another 60-70 people ahead of a bigger trial of up to 1000.