Does Intermittent Fasting Work — or Is It Just a Fad?
Food fads come on and go. Remember the cabbage soup diet? The macrobiotic diet? Or my favorite: drinking man’s diet? Many fad diets have been debunked as lacking in vital nutrients or just plain not sustainable for the long term. Some, however, are based on solid research and actually work. Good examples include the DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) and the Mediterranean eating plan.
What about intermittent fasting? Unlike some fad diets, this one has actually been studied, though most of the research to date is on animals.
Intermittent fasting is basically a way to lose weight by not eating (or eating very little) on certain days or fasting at certain times of the day. According to a review on the topic by registered dietitian and associate clinical professor Dana Angelo White of Quinnipiac University, one common method of intermittent fasting is to fast (consume no calories or very few) on certain days of the week alternated with other days of normal eating. A modified version of this involves fasting say, two days a week (not in a row) and eating normally on the other five days.
Excerpted from the Herald Net
