I have read a couple of things this week about intermittent fasting. Here is Dr. Briffa's article on it:
http://www.drbriffa.com/2012/05/17/mous ... t-fasting/
And here is the summary for research Dr. Briffa talks about: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 131703.htm
Dr. Briffa's explanation of the results of the study is this:
The Science Daily article is entitled: "Extended Daily Fasting Overrides Harmful Effects of a High-Fat Diet: Study May Offer Drug-Free Intervention to Prevent Obesity and Diabetes"For example, those mice with restricted eating ended up weighting significantly less than the other mice. Insulin functioning was improved too (improved insulin sensitivity is generally taken as a good thing and something that would help reduce the risk of weight gain and chronic diseases including type 2 diabetes over time). Functioning of the hormone leptin was improved too, which is important as this hormone is known to help speed the metabolism (and may suppress appetite too).
The mice that were restricted in their feeding has lower levels of inflammation. This is perhaps important because inflammation is believed to impair the functioning of both insulin and leptin. These mice enjoyed relative protection from liver damage too.
The lead researcher is quoted as saying:
To me, the decrease of inflammation is much more important than chastising people for eating a high-fat diet. Everyone has an agenda, I guess..."This was a surprising result," says Megumi Hatori, a postdoctoral researcher in Panda's laboratory and a first author of the study. "For the last 50 years, we have been told to reduce our calories from fat and to eat smaller meals and snacks throughout the day. We found, however, that fasting time is important. By eating in a time-restricted fashion, you can still resist the damaging effects of a high-fat diet, and we did not find any adverse effects of time-restricted eating when eating healthy food."
Hatori cautioned that people should not jump to the conclusion that eating lots of unhealthy food is alright as long as we fast. "What we showed is under daily fasting the body can fight unhealthy food to a significant extent," she says. "But there are bound to be limits."