In early May, beach lovers begin to actively engage in their figure. One of the simplest ways to lose weight is to keep your food intake within reasonable limits. International research groups that have studied the effect of restricting food intake on life expectancy have come to the conclusion that hunger prolongs life. How to starve properly in order to live long.
Experiments on mice
Japanese scientists have found that fasting two days after two prolongs the life of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Another study found that mice fasting every other day lived as much as 30% longer than controls. This way of limiting food intake is called intermittent fasting.
Interestingly, if you start to limit food to adult mice, then there will be no effect, and if elderly mice start starving, their life expectancy will decrease by 15%. And this is logical: the elderly need adequate nutrition to strengthen their bones, maintain the tone of the immune system and the stable functioning of other organs, so intermittent fasting is not their option.
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In young individuals, intermittent fasting, on the other hand, causes a whole range of positive effects: a decrease in the general level of inflammation and oxidative stress, prevention of autoimmune diseases, an increase in the production of neurotrophic factors, an increase in insulin sensitivity, prevention of type II diabetes, activation of protective mechanisms at the cellular level, stimulation of intracellular renewal. systems - autophagy. Among the unpleasant consequences may be a decrease in resistance to infections and difficulty in wound healing.
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Best friend and protector
Some of the beneficial effects of restricting food intake found in animals apply to humans as well.
One of the causes of aging is the hyperstimulation of cells with nutrients. Changes in the state of the body along the "exhaustion - overeating" gradient cause shifts at the systemic level, affecting the concentration of metabolites in the blood, the activity of signaling pathways sensitive to nutrients, the production of steroid hormones and growth hormone.
Hunger includes mechanisms that enhance genome stability and maintain chromatin structure, improve the functioning of the chaperone system for controlling the cellular composition of proteins, and trigger autophagy.
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Autophagy is our best friend and protector. It is a mechanism necessary for the destruction and recycling of non-functional and potentially hazardous cell components. The cell lives off the work of its proteins. Naturally, proteins spoil from time to time, broken proteins must be immediately removed before they disrupt the functioning of the cell and to avoid their aggregation - protein aggregation is the cause of some neurodegenerative diseases, in particular Alzheimer's disease.
In recent years, there has been a lot of evidence supporting the protective effect of autophagy. It began to be seen as a promising treatment for Alzheimer's disease. The efforts of many researchers have been directed to the development of compounds that initiate autophagy processes and are able to cross the blood-brain barrier.
It was previously thought that autophagy in brain cells could not be activated by fasting, since the brain is a metabolically privileged organ.
It is known by now that this is not the case. We now know that limiting food intake effectively triggers autophagy in all cells of the body, including brain cells. All that remains is to figure out how best to organize your personal fasting schedule.
Science Fasting
The secret to intermittent fasting is to add 2-3 fasting days to your weekly schedule and consume the amount of nutrients your body needs on the remaining days. On days of hunger, you can not eat at all, while consuming a lot of fluids (you can drink everything except soda). The positive effect of long intervals between meals of 5-7 hours has also been described.
How to organize meals on non-fast days? Calorie restriction was previously thought to be responsible for the beneficial effects of fasting. Now it has become known that the issue is not in the number of calories, but in the ratio of macronutrients, that is, proteins, fats and carbohydrates. It is also important to limit the intake of amino acids such as asparagine, glutamic acid, methionine. In plant proteins, these amino acids are less than in animals.
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When drawing up the menu, one must remember that it is necessary to provide the body with an adequate amount of nutrients. Follow the RDI (Recommended Daily Intake) norms, paying particular attention to vitamins and minerals.
Intermittent fasting is a rather severe limitation, it is not easy to follow this regime. In order to avoid negative consequences, you should consult your doctor. Only healthy people who do not suffer from chronic diseases can start the practice of intermittent fasting.
Anastasia Sukalskaya