Fasting diets are growing in popularity; here is why they may be better than the average diet and better for you overall. - Charschan Chiropractic in North Brunswick, NJ and Scotch Plains, NJ

Fasting diets are growing in popularity; here is why they may be better than the average diet and better for you overall.

The idea of fasting has been around forever. Many religions have fasting built into their customs and we rarely question why.

The truth is, fasting may be good for us and perhaps, some of these ancient ideas may have some science behind them. Another truth is that the typical breakfast, lunch and dinner we know today may be a byproduct of the industrial age, and many years ago, meals were not as frequent.

There is of course less starvation than ever in the USA, but there is a high incidence of diabetes and obesity, which is likely due to the way we eat and the amount we eat.

There is growing research that now supports the idea of fasting for a day here and there, or for parts of the day is actually good for us and may keep us healthier, as recently reported by the NY Times.

Check it out here

Fasting Diets Are Gaining Acceptance
By Anahad O’Connor March 7, 2016

Mark Mattson, a neuroscientist at the National Institute on Aging in Maryland, has not had breakfast in 35 years. Most days he practices a form of fasting “” skipping lunch, taking a midafternoon run, and then eating all of his daily calories (about 2,000) in a six-hour window starting in the afternoon.

“œOnce you get used to it, it”™s not a big deal,” said Dr. Mattson, chief of the institute”™s laboratory of neurosciences. “œI”™m not hungry at all in the morning, and this is other people”™s experience as well. It”™s just a matter of getting adapted to it.”

In a culture in which it”™s customary to eat three large meals a day while snacking from morning to midnight, the idea of regularly skipping meals may sound extreme. But in recent years intermittent fasting has been gaining popular attention and scientific endorsement.

It has been promoted in best-selling books and endorsed by celebrities like the actors Hugh Jackman and Benedict Cumberbatch. The late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel claims that for the past two years he has followed an intermittent fasting program known as the 5:2 diet, which entails normal eating for five days and fasting for two “” a practice Mr. Kimmel credits for his significant weight loss.