Instead of 5:2, what about 25:5, spending five days a month on a “fasting-mimicking diet”? Longevity researcher Valter Longo designed a five-day meal plan to try to simulate the metabolic effects of fasting by being low in proteins, sugars, and calories with zero animal protein or animal fat. By making it plant-based, he was hoping to lower the level of the cancer-promoting growth hormone IGF-1 related to animal protein consumption, which he accomplished, along with a drop in markers of inflammation, after three cycles of his five-days-a-month program.4310
