Five-Day Fasting Diet Could Fight Disease, Slow Aging
Fasting is all the rage. Self-help books promise it will incinerate excess fat, spruce up your DNA, and prolong your life. A new scientific study has backed up some health claims about eating less. The clinical trial reveals that cutting back on food for just 5 days a month could help prevent or treat age-related illnesses like diabetes and cardiovascular disease. “It’s not trivial to do this kind of study,” says circadian biologist Satchidananda Panda of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, California, who wasn’t connected to the research. “What they have done is commendable.” Previous studies in rodents and humans have suggested that periodic fasting can reduce body fat, cut insulin levels, and provide other benefits. But there are many ways to fast. One of the best known programs, the 5:2 diet, allows you to eat normally for 5 days a week. On each of the other 2 days, you restrict yourself to 500 to 600 calories, about one-fourth of what the average...