Occasional starvation - healthy or just modern?
As anyone in the field of nutrition already knows, there are many extreme dietary practices. Personally, I've heard about everything from the baby diet to Dukan eating to something about alkaline levels in the blood. Usually, these extreme dieting practices only encounter eye flipping, knowing that these outrageous diets last about as long as avocados in their perfect state. But what if there is a dietary trend that promises long-term health benefits that focus not necessarily on what you eat, but when you eat?
Occasional fasting is any period of voluntary restriction of food. Protocols vary and may include religious fasting, time-limited feeding (i.e., consuming all calories in a short period of time), or scheduled days with extreme calorie restriction (i.e., ≤ 25% of energy needs), followed by normal or high-calorie days.
I am always skeptical of any diet or dietary pattern that claims to solve everything from obesity to cancer, but occasional starvation is gaining a lot of attention in research. A recent and thorough review in The Annual Review of Nutrition concluded that occasional fasting may be a viable strategy to improve overall human health, including biomarkers associated with chronic diseases. However, most human research is limited by small sample sizes, lack of control groups, lack of additional follow-up, and inclusion of healthy or normal weight individuals who are unlikely to respond to interventions.
The best diet for optimal health is one that is sustainable. A large (n = 100) and long (one-year) study performed in adults with metabolic obese health, published last year, found that the dropout was highest in the randomized fasting group. Long-term adherence to occasional starvation and its applicability to public health is therefore questionable.
The quantity and quality of food will always be most important to promote optimal health and healthy aging. As for me, I couldn't live without my morning matcha latte and eggs. But perhaps breakfast is not the most important meal of the day, at least for ordinary meals without breakfast.
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