New five-day diet that mimics fasting launched in Dubai
‘Prolon’ promises weight loss, reversal of lifestyle diseases
Dubai: A new diet that mimics fasting for a limited period of five days, promises to boost metabolism, help people detox and knock off kilos of fat, even reverse diabetes and other lifestyle diseases was launched at the Arab Health exhibition on Monday.
Introducing Prolon to the UAE market, Dr Joseph Antoun, CEO of L-Nutra, told Gulf News: “Usually diets are low calorie where people are asked to eat small, limited calorie foods to lose weight. Prolonged eating of low calorie food can make people suffer from low blood sugar among other things.”
Prolon, he claimed, is the world’s shortest diet that lasts only for five days and mimics fasting which triggers autophagy or cellular clean up. In other words, dead cells are cleared and detoxification triggered, while a lot of energy is released and insulin resistance reversed.
Dr Antoun said: “At the cellular level, we are programmed to grow old and age. Prolon is the result of research at the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California where work was carried out to ascertain how gluten free, plant-based nutrition could protect and rejuvenate the body and decelerate the process of aging. The diet provides enough to replenish macro and micronutrients but not enough for the body to detect food at a cellular level. This tricks the body into believing it’s fasting thereby triggering autophagy and weight loss.”
The Prolon kit contains chemical free gluten free, plant-based macro nutrients such as healthy fats from nuts, complex fibre rich proteins and carbohydrates and micronutrient such as vitamins, mineral and enzymes, all plant based carbs. The diet is not for those who might have nut allergy, are too frail and old or women who might be pregnant and lactating. The diet has currently three studies on the impact it has on reversing diabetes and at least 24 clinical trials ongoing on the impact it has on other lifestyle diseases.
“We are very excited about the research. In clinical trial on mice, the kit eliminated insulin resistance and reversed diabetes. We are still awaiting results of human trials but thousands of people who have used Prolon since 2017 when it was launched in the US have reported weight loss,” added Antoun.
Prolon diet
- Day 1: 1,100 calories of food that are divided into three meals and a snack to trigger the body’s fasting state.
- Day 2: Body switches to fat burning mode, using up reserves of fat and gets into a cellular clean up state.
- Day 3: Body goes into active ketosis (burning up fat reserves for energy) and the cellular recycling continues.
- Day 4: Cellular rejuvenation and revival begins.
- Day 5: Cellular rejuvenation is completed.
The diet kit which is priced at Dh1,100 can be bought online and through the recommendation of a GP. It can be done once a month by those who are obese, once in three months by those who are slightly overweight and once in six months by healthy and active individuals for best results.