Researchers have come to a conclusion on the long-debated topic of fasting and its benefits. Although studies have long shown that fasting can slow down the metabolism increasing the risk of weight gain when returning to a normal diet, new studies have found that there may be other, better, benefits.

At the University of Southern California, researchers have found that a new diet that can be followed just five days out of the month could actually improve several health measures, according to Science World Report.

“Strict fasting is hard for people to stick to, and it can also be dangerous, so we developed a complex diet that triggers the same effects in the body,” said the study’s lead researcher Valter Longo, director of the USC Longevity Institute. “I’ve personally tried both, and the fasting mimicking diet is a lot easier and also a lot safer.”

The study that came to these conclusions involved 19 participants whose caloric intake was limited to a percentage that mimicked the effects of fasting. The 5-day trial restricted calorie intake to 750-1050 calories a day that included a very strict regimen of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and micronutrients.

Longo added that although the diet looked like a plant-based diet it was actually was created to trigger the regenerative effects and beneficial changes in the many risk factors linked to aging as well as diseases.

The researchers found that after three months of the trial, the participants in fact had lowered the risks for many health issues including, but not limited to, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.

“This is arguably the first non-chronic pre-clinically and clinically tested anti-aging and healthspan-promoting intervention shown to work and to be very feasible as a doctor or dietitian-supervised intervention,” Longo said. “The FMD intervention will now undergo the rigorous process needed for FDA approval, which will first require confirmation and additional tests in 60 to 70 participants, followed by a trial with 500-1,000 participants.”