WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A recent study published in Nature Metabolism discussed about how our body responds to fasting, offering valuable insights about its health benefits.
Researchers from Queen Mary University of London's Precision Healthcare University Research Institute and the Norwegian School of Sports Sciences followed 12 healthy participants, who were following a seven-day water-only fast.
They kept a track of changes in the levels of nearly 3,000 proteins in the blood of the participants before, during, and after the fast.
'For the first time, we're able to see what's happening on a molecular level across the body when we fast. Fasting, when done safely, is an effective weight loss intervention,' Claudia Langenberg, Director of Queen Mary's Precision Health University Research Institute, said.
'Popular diets that incorporate fasting - such as intermittent fasting - claim to have health benefits beyond weight loss. Our results provide evidence for the health benefits of fasting beyond weight loss, but these were only visible after three days of total caloric restriction - later than we previously thought.'
The scientists found that within first two or three days of fasting, the body switches its energy source from glucose to stored fats. Following the fasting, the participants lost an average of 5.7 kg of fat mass as well as lean mass.
'Our findings have provided a basis for some age-old knowledge as to why fasting is used for certain conditions,' Maik Pietzner, Health Data Chair of PHURI and co-lead of the Computational Medicine Group at Berlin Institute of Health at Charite, said.
'While fasting may be beneficial for treating some conditions, often times, fasting won't be an option to patients suffering from ill health. We hope that these findings can provide information about why fasting is beneficial in certain cases, which can then be used to develop treatments that patients are able to do.'
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