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Sometimes it seems as if the diet world is nearly as polarized as the political sphere. Especially when it comes to Intermittent Fasting (IF). I wrote a piece about it last year and, almost immediately, saw people sub-tweeting me to complain about promoting an eating disorder in the name of wellness. That’s a pretty stock response to the mere mention of IF in some circles. On the other end of the spectrum are the die-hard devotees of this popular weight-loss plan, which places more emphasis on when people eat than what they eat. Earlier this fall, when Dr. Ethan Weiss,...

Scientists have found that a fasting-mimicking diet could be more effective at treating some types of cancer when combined with vitamin C. In studies on mice, researchers found that the combination delayed tumor progression in multiple mouse models of colorectal cancer; in some mice, it caused disease regression. "For the first time, we have demonstrated how a completely non-toxic intervention can effectively treat an aggressive cancer," said Valter Longo, the study senior author. "We have taken two treatments that are studied extensively as interventions to delay aging -- a fasting-mimicking diet and vitamin C -- and combined them as a...

Fasting is gaining popularity among biohackers looking for an edge, but there’s remarkably little information on what happens inside the body during a fast. While some research has shown that caloric restriction can increase lifespans in lab animals, and plenty of intermittent fasting enthusiasts swear it boosts their cognition and helps them lose weight, the molecular mechanisms have remained somewhat vague — limited mostly to the fat-burning phenomenon of ketosis. To start filling in this knowledge gap, a small new study shows that fasting’s effects on human metabolism are actually much broader than previous research has shown, and intermittent fasting...

Researchers from Baylor College of Medicine suggest fasting from dawn to sunset may reduce the risk of cancer and other illness. They did not eat or drink during daylight hours, but had no calorie restrictions outside of that time. After the 30 days, their blood samples showed an increase in proteins, that protect against cancer, obesity, diabetes, and even some neurological disorders. But don't change your diet yet , or without talking to your doctor. Researchers say larger and longer studies are needed. The study was led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and published in 'Journal of Proteomics.''

Note: This post addresses intermittent fasting as a diet, not fasting done for religious or cultural purposes. You should consult with a doctor, nutritionist, or dietician before trying intermittent fasting, or any diet. A few weeks ago, a group of friends and I were trying to plan a fairly low-key wine and cheese night. As if trying to work around everyone’s schedules isn’t already difficult enough, we found ourselves faced with a new challenge: one of our pals was intermittent fasting and their “eating window” closed right when the rest of us could get together. Sigh.

Fasting seems to works at least as well as other diets, and may have additional health benefitsIntermittent fasting may be more than just the latest weight loss trend. According to a recent review published in the New England Journal of Medicine, it could have health benefits that go beyond those usually associated with losing weight. "We think in the long run that an intermittent fasting eating pattern will likely decrease one's risk for stroke and possibly Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases," said Mark Mattson, one of the co-authors of the review. Mattson is adjunct professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University....

The largest clinical study of its kind to look at the effects of strict alternate-day fasting in healthy people has shown a number of health benefits. The participants alternated 36 hours of zero-calorie intake with 12 hours of unlimited eating...Overall, they reached a mean calorie restriction of about 35% and lost an average of 3.5 kg [7.7 lb] during four weeks of ADF.

Time-restricted eating is one variation of a hot diet trend that also includes intermittent fasting. According to Krista Varady, an associate professor of nutrition at the University of Illinois at Chicago, there are several types of intermittent fasting, including one meal per day, the 5/2 method, which involves five feast days and two days with restricted calories, and alternate-day fasting. "With alternate-day fasting, people typically lose 3 to 8 percent of their body weight over three to 12 months," Varady said. And it can work with both low- and high-fat diets. Weight loss is not the only benefit. In a...

Intermittent fasting is known to improve sensitivity to the blood glucose-lowering hormone insulin and to protect against fatty liver. DZD scientists from DIfE have now discovered that mice on an intermittent fasting regimen also exhibited lower pancreatic fat. Fatty liver has been thoroughly investigated as a known and frequently occurring disease. However, little is known about excess weight-induced fat accumulation in the pancreas and its effects on the onset of type 2 diabetes. Intermittent fasting reduces pancreatic fat The team of scientists divided the overweight animals, which were prone to diabetes, into two groups: The first group was allowed to...

A diet designed to imitate the effects of fasting appears to reverse diabetes by reprogramming cells, a new USC-led study shows. "Cycles of a fasting-mimicking diet and a normal diet essentially reprogrammed non-insulin-producing cells into insulin-producing cells," said Longo, who is also a professor of biological sciences at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. "By activating the regeneration of pancreatic cells, we were able to rescue mice from late-stage type 1 and type 2 diabetes. We also reactivated insulin production in human pancreatic cells from type 1 diabetes patients." The reprogrammed adult cells and organs prompted a...

"The pancreas can be triggered to regenerate itself through a type of fasting diet, say US researchers," BBC News reports. Research in mice found a low-calorie diet may help in cases of type 1 and type 2 diabetes. The pancreas is an organ that uses specialised cells known as beta cells to produce the hormone insulin, which the body uses to break down sugars in the blood (glucose). In type 1 diabetes the pancreas stops producing insulin. In type 2 diabetes either not enough insulin is produced or cells in the body fail to respond to insulin (insulin resistance). Mice...

Is it a good thing to ‘starve’ yourself each day, or a few days of the week? Well, a tonne of evidence indicates that timed periods of fasting are a good thing. Fasting has become increasingly popular over the years, especially among the health community. Whilst most health practitioners are afraid to recommend eating less due to the stigma involved, it still doesn’t alleviate the incredible benefits of fasting when used sensibly. In this article, we’ll explore 10 benefits of fasting that will surprise you, and how you can incorporate them into your own life. 1. Fasting Helps Weight Loss...

A five day diet which mimics fasting could slow down ageing, add years to life, boost the immune system and cut the risk of heart disease and cancer, scientists believe. The plan which restricts calories to between one third and a half of normal intake has been developed by academics at the University of Southern California. But now they have found that a calorie-restricted diet comprising of vegetable soups and chamomile tea has the same affect. And dieters only need to follow the Fasting Mimicking Diet (FMD) for five days a month, eating what they like for the rest of...

Prevailing theories posit plaques in the brain cause Alzheimer's disease. New UC Riverside research instead points to cells' slowing ability to clean themselves as the likely cause of unhealthy brain buildup. Along with signs of dementia, doctors make a definitive Alzheimer's diagnosis if they find a combination of two things in the brain: amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. The plaques are a buildup of amyloid peptides, and the tangles are mostly made of a protein called tau. "Roughly 20% of people have the plaques, but no signs of dementia," said UCR Chemistry Professor Ryan Julian. "This makes it seem as...

A little-known scientific process is being hailed as the new way to lose weight, look younger and prolong life. Autophagy is a natural regeneration process that occurs at a cellular level in the body, reducing the likelihood of contracting some diseases as well as prolonging lifespan. In 2016, Japanese scientist Yoshinori Ohsumi won the Nobel Prize for his discoveries into the mechanisms of autophagy. These have led to a better understanding of diseases such as Parkinson's and dementia. ... What is autophagy? The word autophagy comes from the Greek for "self" and "phagein", which means "to eat" It is the...

This shows lewy bodies. Brown spots are immunostaining using an antibody specifically recognizing an abnormal form of alpha-synuclein. Clumps of α-synuclein protein in nerve cells are hallmarks of many degenerative brain diseases, most notably Parkinson's disease. "No one has been able to determine if Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites, hallmark pathologies in Parkinson's disease can be degraded," says Virginia Lee, PhD, director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. "With the new neuron model system of Parkinson's disease pathologies our lab has developed recently, we demonstrated that these aberrant clumps in...

Scientists have shown that feeding a simple polyamine called spermidine to worms, fruit flies and yeast significantly prolongs their lifespan. In addition, adding spermidine to the diet of mice decreased molecular markers of ageing, and when human immune cells were cultured in a medium containing spermidine, they also lived for longer.Spermidine - a simple linear molecule found in large quantities in human sperm and grapefruit - is known to be necessary for cell growth and maturation, and as cells age their level of spermidine is know to fall. Now, Frank Madeo from the University of Graz in Austria and his colleagues have shown...