Fasting (was Re: exhaustive research on life extension)
Holger Wagner (Holger.Wagner@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)
Tue, 14 Apr 1998 14:12:09 +0200
CurtAdams wrote:
[about ketotic diets I guess]
> You can lose weight like crazy on this plan. You will also be physically
> weak,
> often nauseous, and you will smell like nail polish remover. If you go
> on the diet and then off it, you will gain back all you lost. If you stay
> on it, you'll subject your body indefinitely to a metabolic regime it's
> manifestly not adapted for. Research on the long-term safety of ketotic
> diets is zilch, which I consider inexcusable given than Dr. Atkins has been
> pushing this diet for 25 years. Not even a rodent study! Dr. Atkins' diet
> may be a good thing, but he is a quack.
This sounds very similar to fasting (= eating nothing at all). I think
the main purpose of fasting is not losing weight, but "detoxing" your
body, though. According to what I've read on this subject (not
scientific literature), when your body switches off digestion, it can
work on dealing with all kinds of more or less toxic chemicals that
accumulate with time.
This might make fasting once in a while (maybe once or twice a year)
quite helpful in staying healthy.
Are there any studies that show the effects of fasting on the body?
later,
Holger