When you think of fasting, the first things that come to mind are likely deprivation and starvation. You probably don’t think of eating food. And to a certain extent, you’d be right: the common definition of fasting is abstinence from all or some kinds of food and drink. Sound impossible? With the right fasting nutrition plan, it doesn’t have to be.

what is intermittent fasting?

Most eating plans focus on what you should or, more often, shouldn’t eat. But intermittent fasting is all about when you eat. When you practice intermittent fasting, you rotate between periods of eating and periods of abstaining from food. Depending on your plan, you may only eat during a specific window of time, or you may choose to fast on certain days of the week.

Despite these options, many people may still have a hard time incorporating fasting into their lifestyle and sustaining fasting periods long enough to see results.

Although all forms of intermittent fasting can impact wellness over time, the truly transformative nature of fasting lies in prolonged fasting.

One of the primary benefits of prolonged fasting is that it can trigger a clean-up mechanism inside cells, causing them to rejuvenate and appear more like their younger selves. Yoshinori Ohsumi discovered the mechanisms controlling this process, known as autophagy, and received the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his research.

Harness your body’s natural power In five days

Why five days? That’s the amount of time you need to maximize the benefits of fasting without putting too much stress on your body. Because the proprietary formula of fasting mimicking nutrition doesn’t trigger nutrient-sensing pathways, you can extend your fast and begin to see benefits fast.

Here is a walk-through of what happens to your body on each day of a prolonged fast using fasting mimicking nutrition:

Originated by Dr. Valter Longo, Director of the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California, research on fasting and fasting mimicking nutritechnology has been tested in top university research centers, such as Stanford University School of Medicine; Sapienza University, Rome; Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin; University Hospital Heidelberg; and Leiden University Medical Centre, the Netherlands.

Longo’s trail-blazing research was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health and other scientific institutions and led to the discovery that fasting mimicking mechanisms could trigger and sustain autophagy during a fast while providing essential nutrients.

Dr. Longo also founded L-Nutra, Inc., a nutritechnology company, to develop foods that trick the body into thinking it’s fasting without requiring complete deprivation. These developments turned the culture of fasting upside down: fasting can now be a nourishing experience rather than one of starvation.

For those practicing intermittent fasting, this means there are foods formulated to be consumed during your fasting window that can actually extend your fast, making it effective and much safer and easier to do than traditional water-only fasting.

Beyond individual wellness benefits, fasting mimicking nutrition is a true breakthrough with the potential to change both everyday personal maintenance as well as the course of health care.

Explore the Science

You see, fasting with food only sounds contradictory. With the power of fasting mimicking science, you too can reap the benefits of a fasting-based lifestyle. And the innovative products from ProLon can help you prolong your fast for 5 full days. So, you get optimal health benefits, and you get to eat - all while your body remains in a fasting state.