Fasting and exercise can boost the longevity hormone FGF21, but what can we eat—or avoid eating—to get similar results?
Over a century ago, fasting was was greeted not only as a means of combating ‘brain fatigue’, but also to ‘extend healthy longevity’. If this turns out to be true, FGF21 might it is a missing link. FGF21 is is characterized as a “systemic longevity enhancer”. It might be enhanced through prolonged fasting, but fortunately, there are other, less drastic measures, such as more carbohydrates or less protein.
Give people have a lot of starchy foods and FGF21 levels increase. Healthier sources are likely it is whole grains and beans, as butyrate appears to boost FGF21 as well, and we take that of fibers. This is one of the things that makes our good gut bugs from high fiber foods.
FGF21 levels are also circulating increase dramatically after a lower protein diet—an increase of more than 150% within four weeks. By the way, “lower protein” simply means reducing intake from the typical excess that most Americans consume over the recommended amount.
The recommended daily allowance of protein for most men it is 56 grams of protein per day, although most American men are to take more than 100 grams. When the researchers studied men who took the typical excess of about 112 grams a day and cut it to 64—more than the recommended 56 grams, so the “restricted” protein group still got more than enough protein—found that blood levels of FGF21 essentially doubled. This may explain why they lost more body fat, despite taking in far more calories. How can you eat 300 more calories a day and still lose two pounds of equal body fat? By simply reducing your protein levels to normal levels. Who hasn’t fantasized about a diet that allows you to consume excess calories that burn effortlessly by increasing fat burning? So maybe we should be “downgrading protein to play metabolism,” thanks to FGF21.
Even a moderate protein restriction regimen at recommended levels can have significant clinical benefits. Now, this happened after a month and a half. A similar study I establish that even less protein restriction, reducing men to just 73 grams per day, resulted in a sixfold increase in FGF21 within a week, accompanied by a significant increase in insulin sensitivity, as you can see below and at 2:46 in my video How to boost FGF21 with diet for longevity.Researchers he concluded that diluting dietary protein promotes our metabolic health.
Evidence suggesting that lower protein intake has positive associations with better health, survival, and insulin sensitivity continued to increase, but we weren’t sure exactly how. Perhaps FGF21 provides an explanation. Interestingly, the studies were feeding people get 9 percent of their calories from protein, which is about what Okinawans got when they were one of the healthiest and longest-living populations in the world.
I’ve talked before about methionine restriction to fight cancer and as a life extension strategy. Methionine is an amino acid I establish mainly in animal proteins, so one could achieve methionine restriction by limiting animal foods. It actually can it is an FGF21 effect. Methionine restriction enhances levels, so much so that it has been called “the most important mediator of metabolic reprogramming in methionine restriction.” Some proteins can it is more important to limit than others. The highest levels of methionine are found in meat. Legumes (beans, split peas, chickpeas, and lentils) have about three times less methionine than meat, as you can see below and at 3:55 in my video.
FGF21 was is suggested as a potential mediator of the protection against cancer, autoimmune diseases, diabetes and obesity afforded by strictly plant-based diets. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why whole food and plant-based diets were it seems to have such excellent results. Take, for example, Dr. Esselstyn’s work showing that coronary heart disease—the number one killer of men and women—can be largely stopped or reversed, and the risk of heart attack nearly eliminated, with the help of a whole-food, low-fat vegetarian diet. This benefit cannot be attributed solely to lowering cholesterol, as we now have powerful cholesterol-lowering drugs that can bring cholesterol levels as low as those of healthy eaters, but appear to have less of an effect. Thus, the remarkable benefits reported by Esselstyn appear to reflect a variety of protective mechanisms associated with whole-food, plant-based diets, and FGF21 may be one of these mechanisms. So it’s not just fat and cholesterol – the amount and quality of protein can also play a role. But there never is it was a study to see if vegans actually have higher levels of FGF21…until now.
Except studying In obese New Zealand mice, the researchers looked at circulating levels of FGF21 among those who ate plant-based diets, then tested it by removing meat from other people’s diets to see if FGF21 levels would rise. They found that levels of FGF21 were significantly higher in vegans compared to omnivores, and levels increased when omnivores switched to vegetarian diets after just four days. And not just by a small amount—FGF21 levels increased by 232% after just four days without meat.
The essence it is that “various fasting approaches are likely to have limited efficacy, particularly in aging and in conditions other than obesity, unless combined with high-nutrient diets such as the moderate-calorie and predominantly plant-based Mediterranean or low-protein Okinawan diets,” by which they mean the recommended amount of protein.
Doctor’s note
I introduced FGF21 in the first video. If you missed it, check it out Life extension with FGF21.
The methionine videos I mentioned are Methionine restriction as a life extension strategy and Starving cancer with methionine limitation.
