Longer daily fasting times improve health and longevity in mice

If you eat once a day you are ‘Yogi’, if you eat two times a day you are ‘Bhogi’ and if you eat three times a day you are a ‘Rogi

New Delhi, September 08, 2018 :

If you eat once a day you are ‘yogi’, if you eat two times a day you are ‘bhogi’ and if you eat three times a day you are a ‘rogi’, is an old Vedic saying. Now a study published in the Sept. 6, 2018 issue of Cell Metabolism has shown that increasing time between meals made male mice healthier overall and live longer compared to mice who ate more frequently. Mice who ate one meal per day, and thus had the longest fasting period, seemed to have a longer lifespan and better outcomes for common age-related liver disease and metabolic disorders.

The scientists randomly divided 292 male mice into two diet groups. One group received a naturally sourced diet that was lower in purified sugars and fat, and higher in protein and fiber than the other diet. The mice in each diet group were then divided into three sub-groups based on how often they had access to food. The first group of mice had access to food around the clock. A second group of mice was fed 30 percent less calories per day than the first group. The third group was meal fed, getting a single meal that added up to the exact number of calories as the round-the-clock group. Both the meal-fed and calorie-restricted mice learned to eat quickly when food was available, resulting in longer daily fasting periods for both groups.

Meal-fed and calorie-restricted mice showed improvements in overall health, as evidenced by delays in common age-related damage to the liver and other organs, and extended longevity. The calorie-restricted mice also showed significant improvement in fasting glucose and insulin levels compared to the other groups. Interestingly, the researchers found that diet composition had no significant impact on lifespan in the meal fed and calorie restricted groups.

Increasing daily fasting times, without a reduction of calories and regardless of the type of diet consumed, resulted in overall improvements in health and survival in male mice. Perhaps this extended daily fasting period enables repair and maintenance mechanisms that would be absent in a continuous exposure to food.