In recent years, ketogenic diets and intermittent fasting have become popular on the web.
A diatribe has opened up on the issue that has been going on for a long time now, with a part of experts who deem it harmful, and an equal part that instead deems it a valid and safe diet.
“These are food behaviors that do not create a real fast, but that suspend nutrition for several hours a day. The most common is that which provides for a fast of 16 hours and 8 hours in which, instead, you have access to food ”, however, Dr. Elena Dogliotti, biologist, nutritionist and scientific supervisor for the Umberto Veronesi Foundation, tells Huffpost.
Above all due to the fact that many, also due to the Internet, use this diet without first consulting a nutritionist, therefore in a self-prescription regime.
Intermittent fasting: what the experts say
The benefits of intermittent fasting, for example, were listed in a 2020 paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine. “Eating intermittently is a choice that can be part of a healthy lifestyle”, said Mark Mattson, neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University,
With intermittent fasting: “The regulation of blood glucose is improved, the inflammatory response is reduced and increases resistance to stress “.
Of the opposite opinion the Technical table for nutritional safety (TaSiN) of the Ministry of Health: “Despite the health benefits of intermittent fasting and its possible practical application in numerous diseases, there are impediments to widespread adoption of this eating pattern in the community.”
Not recommended for some groups of people
However, it would seem to be suitable for certain groups of subjects: “It can be said that studies, to date, argue that caloric restriction, obtained through various modalities and possibly with the Mediterranean model, represents the best dietotherapeutic approach in overweight or obese patients. C.Nevertheless, from the metabolic point of view, intermittent fasting seems to be particularly promising in the control of insulin sensitivity, dyslipidemia, hypertension and inflammation ”.
Clear no to intermittent fasting in children and other groups of subjects: It must be absolutely avoided by children or adolescentsas well as from donne in pregnancy or by those in a condition of risk or malnutrition. In addition, particular attention must be paid to people with a propensity to develop eating disorders, since these behaviors insist a lot on caloric restriction and schematize food intake times ”, he explains again to Dr. Dogliotti at Huffpost.