From Skipping Meals May Help, Not Hurt, Health:
A report released Monday found that a diet in which mice ate only every other day appeared to protect them more from diabetes and the memory-robbing Alzheimer’s disease than either a low-calorie diet or eating as much food as they wanted every day.
Interesting. How did they test this exactly?
The mice were forced to fast for a day and then given free reign to gorge on food the next. Consequently, those who fasted ate as many calories as did mice given as much food as they wanted every day, the researcher explained. A third group of mice ate every day, but consumed 40 percent fewer calories than the other rodents.After the mice followed the diet for five months, the researchers gave them a neurotoxin that selectively damages nerve cells important for learning and memory, a pattern typically seen in Alzheimer’s disease.
The researchers found that the toxin damaged fewer nerve cells in the brains of mice who fasted than in those who either ate freely or followed the low-cal diet.
Furthermore, blood tests revealed that mice who fasted had lower insulin levels than those who followed the other diets, an indication they also had a reduced risk of developing diabetes.
So fasting and gorging may be healthier than eating a steady diet because…it protects mice against a neurotoxin that selectively damages nerve cells important for learning and memory?