Sirtfood Diet: How sirtuin-loaded foods can be combined with calorie restrictions for weight loss

Sirtuins. You might not have heard this word, or of the sirtfood diet yet, but it is gaining in popularity. This might be because British singer Adele is rumoured to have lost weight by adopting it, or it might be because a diet that allows you to drink red wine and eat dark chocolate is bound to attract everyone’s attention. But what really is the sirtfood diet, and does it really help with weight loss? Let’s find out. What is the sirtfood diet? According to a study published in Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity in 2013, sirtuins are a class of proteins, a class of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide-consuming enzymes, to be precise,  which are considered to be promising in treating human disease and increasing lifespan. Another study in Drug Discoveries Today: Technologies in 2014 points out that natural products that contain sirtuins, their consumption and effects on the body have been studied for decades now. However, whether it helps lose weight or not is still a matter that requires more research. The sirtfood diet, on the other hand, promises to increase the sirtuin production in the body by an increased intake of sirtuin-foods or sirtfoods as well as calorie restriction over a period of three weeks. After this initial period, the inclusion of sirtfoods is recommended to be continued and the calorie restriction is not supposed to be as harsh as the initial three weeks. The diet was created by Aidan Goggins and Glen Matten, two health consultants based out of Britain. How does this diet work? Goggins and Matten devised the sirtfood diet to have a three-week course divided into two phases. These phases are supposed to detox the body, increase sirtuin production in it, and lead to weight loss due to its effects and calorie restriction (because there can be no diet without proper calorie restriction after all). The following are the two phases of the sirtfood diet.

• Phase I: Consumption of one meal of sirtfoods and three green juices worth an accumulated 1,000 calories for the first three days of the first week. This must be followed by two sirtfood meals and two green juices per day for the rest of the first week.
• Phase II: The consumption of three sirtfood meals and one green juice per day for two weeks is recommended.

Your sirtfood meals can consist of the following foods: Kale, red wine, strawberries, onions, soy, parsley, extra virgin olive oil, dark chocolate (85%), matcha green tea, buckwheat, turmeric, walnuts, arugula or rocket, bird’s eye chilli, lovage, mejdool dates, red chicory, blueberries, capers and coffee. Sirtfood green juice ingredients:

• 75g kale
• 30g arugula
• 5g parsley
• 2 celery sticks
• 1cm ginger
• Half a green apple
• Juice of half a lemon
• Half teaspoon matcha green tea

Method: Put all ingredients except the matcha and lemon juice in a blender and juice them. Pour into a glass and add the remaining ingredients. Mix well and drink up. Is this diet effective? As mentioned before, current research regarding sirtuins suggests that their increased production in the body can prevent diseases, reduce inflammation and help increase your lifespan. Any correlation between eating only sirtfoods (while excluding other foods) and weight loss has not been proven yet, so whether you’ll lose weight or not will depend on a number of other factors. On the other hand, the combination of calorie restriction and consuming nutritious foods is known to help in sustainable weight loss. All sirtfoods are, without a doubt, healthy, nutritious and filling. So, when combined with calorie restriction, this diet might lead to weight loss. For more information, read our article on Healthy foods to lose weight. Health articles in Firstpost are written by myUpchar.com, India’s first and biggest resource for verified medical information. At myUpchar, researchers and journalists work with doctors to bring you information on all things health.