FOR thousands of years, beginning with philosophers like Hippocrates, Socrates and Plato, fasting was recommended for health reasons.

Naomi Neufeld, an endocrinologist at University of California, Los Angeles, says most adults need about 2,000 calories a day. Those calories make energy, or glycogen.

“Glycogen is necessary for thinking; it’s necessary for muscle action; it’s necessary just for the cells to live in general,” says Neufeld.

He says it doesn’t hurt — it might even help the body — to fast or stop eating for short periods of time, say 24 hours once a week, as long as you drink water.

“You retune the body, suppress insulin secretion, reduce the taste for sugar, so sugar becomes something you’re less fond of taking,” Neufeld says.

Eventually the body burns up stored sugars, or glycogen, so less insulin is needed to help the body digest food. That gives the pancreas a rest. On juice diets recommended by some spas, you may lose weight, but your digestive system doesn’t get that rest.

Mark Mattson, a scientist with the National Institute on Aging in the United States, says that when we convert food into energy, our bodies create a lot of byproducts we could do without, including free radicals.

“These free radicals will attack proteins, DNA, the nucleus of cells, the membranes of cells,” Mattson says. “They can damage all those different molecules in cells.”

And even if you don’t fast, Mattson says that simply limiting the calories you consume may be beneficial.

Mattson thinks partial fasting has numerous benefits, from improving glucose regulation, which can protect against diabetes, to also lowering blood pressure. Some animal studies have also shown that partial fasting has very beneficial effects on the brain, protecting against Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and stroke.

Partial fasting may even extend lifespan because eating less sends a message to the cells of the body that they should conserve and use energy more efficiently.

(SD-Agencies)