Fast or Feast' Diet May Lengthen Lifespan: Study

Hungry person hand holding fork knife on food plate

By Charlotte Libov | Tuesday, 03 Mar 2015 11:37 AM

A diet that alternates feasting and fasting could lengthen life and also reduce the risk of chronic ailments, a new study suggests.

Fasting has been shown in mice to extend lifespan and reduce the risk of age-related disease, but skipping meals and severely reducing caloric intake can be hard to maintain, Florida University researchers noted

So they decided to look at what would happen if they put mice on a “feast or fast” diet. For three weeks, the mice alternated eating 25 percent of their normal daily caloric intake one day and 175 percent of it the next. (For the average male human, this translated to 650 calories on the fasting days and 4,550 calories on the feasting days.)

The researchers found this regimen slightly increased SIRT 3, a gene known to promote longevity.

The study, published in Rejuvenation Research, is one of a growing number that have found intermittent fasting could be a way to boost health, lose weight, and possibly prevent diabetes.