Does Fasting Make You Smarter?
Like all diet trends, the current fasting craze is rooted in one part tradition (numerous religious rituals include fasting, though many were the result of resource management, not spiritual ambition), one part science, and many parts overinflated buzz. Metabolic changes associated with fasting predominantly end when the fast does, while the prospect of living in a perpetual state of fasting is not sustainable for most. As with many questions in nutrition, it leaves us wondering fasting’s actual benefits versus forgettable hyperbole.
Mark Mattson finds fasting satisfying. He has not eaten breakfast in 35 years. The Chief of the Laboratory of Neurosciences at the National Institute on Aging Intramural Research Program consumes 2,000 daily calories in a six-hour window, a practice called intermittent fasting that has grown especially popular in the paleo and ketosis communities.
Excerpted from Big Think
