Superstar, and reclusive, British singer Adele made quite a dramatic statement earlier this month, with a photo she posted on Instagram on the occasion of her 32nd birthday. In the caption, she thanked the frontline workers in the UK who are risking their lives during the pandemic to keep citizens safe. But more than that, it was her dramatic loss of weight that grabbed attention, putting the spotlight on the sirtfood diet, which reportedly helped her shed over 20 kg. Adele hasn't gone on record to ascertain that it was indeed this relatively new diet that led to her slim look. But that hasn't stopped it from gaining wide traction in the popular consciousness, with people looking to take a leaf out of the celebrity's book.

The important question is, is it safe? There isn't a lot of credible research around the subject yet, says Dr Siddhant Bhargava, nutritionist and founder of health food platform Food Darzee. "You'll find very little scientific material on it online, and even whatever is available is not from reliable sources," he tells us. But what we do know for sure so far is that two British dietary experts, Aidan Goggins and Glen Matten, first propounded this regimen in a book of recipes they published in 2016, called The Sirtfood Diet. The name comes from sirtuins, a protein subset that aids metabolism. And the focus is on increasing the intake of foods that contain this component.