Fasting-Mimicking Diet Composition for Safe Calorie Restriction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Prolonged fasting is difficult to implement in human subjects and may exacerbate nutritional deficiencies, making it unsafe for certain populations, while the benefits of fasting mimicking diets for disease prevention and treatment have not been adequately studied in humans.
Innovation Solution
A fasting mimicking diet (FMD) providing between 3000-4600 kJ per day with high micronutrient nourishment, packaged into daily meal portions, mimicking the effects of fasting on IGF-1, IGFBP1, glucose, and ketone bodies, designed for human consumption over 1 to 10 days.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If prolonged fasting is implemented to achieve health benefits, then cellular protection mechanisms are activated and pro-growth signaling is reduced, but nutritional deficiencies are exacerbated and safety is compromised for certain populations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a fasting mimicking diet as an intermediary substance that replicates the beneficial effects of fasting without requiring actual fasting. The diet includes specific food combinations (vegetable soups, crackers, nutrition bars) that provide necessary nutrients while inducing metabolic states similar to fasting, thus mediating between the desire for fasting benefits and the need to avoid nutritional deficiencies
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameter of caloric intake by providing controlled amounts (3000-4600 kJ per day) through specific diet formulations. This controlled parameter change allows the diet to mimic fasting effects on IGF-1, glucose, and ketone bodies while maintaining sufficient nutrition, thereby resolving the contradiction between fasting benefits and nutritional safety
2Reliability
If prolonged fasting is implemented to reduce IGF-1 and glucose levels, then disease risk factors are reduced, but the diet becomes difficult to implement and less safe for vulnerable populations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the fasting mimicking diet into specific daily meal portions packaged as individual compositions (vegetable soups, crackers, nutrition bars). This segmentation makes the diet easier to implement by providing pre-prepared, measurable portions that can be consumed without complex planning or preparation, thereby improving ease of operation while maintaining disease prevention benefits
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a copying of the fasting state through dietary intervention rather than actual fasting. The fasting mimicking diet replicates the metabolic effects of fasting (reduced IGF-1, altered glucose metabolism) without requiring the subject to actually fast, thus copying the beneficial effects while eliminating the implementation difficulties and safety concerns of prolonged fasting
3Reliability
If very low calorie fasting-mimicking diets are used to achieve fasting effects, then health benefits are observed, but the diet may not provide sufficient nutrients and becomes less safe for children, elderly, and frail individuals
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by providing different types of compositions at different times during the day. The diet includes carbohydrate-rich items (crackers, soups) in the morning and fat-rich items (nutrition bars) in the evening, creating locally optimized nutritional quality that matches circadian rhythms and fasting effects while ensuring sufficient overall nutrient provision for vulnerable populations
Data Source
AI summary
A fasting mimicking diet package providing daily meal portions for a predetermined number of days is provided. The fasting mimicking diet package includes a kale cracker composition, a first vegetable broth composition, a mushroom soup composition, a tomato soup composition, a quinoa-containing minestrone soup composition, a bean-containing minestrone soup composition, and a pumpkin soup composition. Characteristically, the daily meal portions are packaged into meal servings or into a total daily serving to be divided into meals.