Berlin Intermittent fasting is a very popular trend that promises healthy living and weight loss. But it can also extend life.
There are more and more scientific studies about fasting. Intermittent fasting in particular is said to have a positive effect on health. Apparently this doesn’t just affect quality of life. The duration could also be positively influenced by intermittent fasting. What is known
The health ones Advantages Intermittent fasting has not yet been clearly proven. According to the German Society for Nutrition, there are too few clinical studies carried out on people. However, there is hope Animal studies: There are results that suggest health benefits of intermittent fasting, such as those from Victoria Acosta-Rodríguez from the University of Texas. She published with her team in 2022 a study, which shows that intermittent fasting extends the lives of mice. And that’s up to 35 percent. Read here: New study on fasting highlights enormous importance for health.
To do this, they used an apparatus that provided the animals with food at set times. The animals lived in individual cages during the study so that the Results remained as comparable as possible. The researchers divided the more than 200 mice into six different groups.
Group 1 was the control group. They were allowed to eat as much as and when they wanted. The remaining groups then received 30 to 40 percent less food.Group 2 received the daily food ration (nine food pellets) at the beginning of the day. The animals ate everything within two hours and then waited 22 hours for the next feeding.Group 3 Like group 2, they received the ration as a whole. However, at the beginning of the night, the natural activity time of mice. Here too, everything was gone within two hours.Group 4 received the daily ration over a period of 12 hours. They received a food pellet every 90 minutes. The first was at the beginning of the day and the last in the evening.Group 5 received the food in the same distribution as group 4. The only difference: feeding took place over the twelve hours of the night, i.e. again during the animals’ natural activity time.Group 6 received the daily ration evenly distributed over 24 hours.
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The first look is at the control group. The animals in this group survived an average of 792 days, or just over two years. The mice ate 75 percent of their food at night, i.e. their natural time Activity time.
Groups two to six then received 30-40 percent less food and had longer fasting periods. Groups two and three fasted for 22 hours, groups four and five for twelve hours.
Unlimited food ensures the shortest life
The sobering realization straight away: this Mice The control group, who were allowed to eat as much as and when they wanted, lived the shortest. The lifespan of around two years corresponds to the average life expectancy of a laboratory mouse. According to the Federal Environment Agency, wild house mice only have a lifespan of around one year.
The mice in group 6 received their calorie-reduced food ration distributed throughout the day. They were regularly given a food pellet over the course of 24 hours. This lengthened their average lifespan by 10.5 percent compared to the control group. They lived an average of 875 days. The researchers concluded that even a diet with fewer calories can prolong life. Without intermittent fasting.
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The mice that were fed outside of their natural activity time lagged behind compared to the mice that were fed at night. It doesn’t matter whether they had to fast for 22 hours (Group 2) or for twelve hours (Group 4). The animals that ate during their natural activity period lived longer on average than those that did not biorhythm had to stop to eat.
Greatest life extension with intermittent fasting with fewer calories
The low-calorie one Diet However, in combination with intermittent fasting, the mice’s lives were extended more than a pure calorie reduction. The mice that ate during the day lived 18.9 percent longer, an average of 942 days, when they fasted for twelve hours. With a fast of 22 hours, they lived 21.1 percent longer, i.e. had a lifespan of 959 days.
The greatest life-extending effects were seen in the mice
They ate calorie-reduced foods, received food during their natural activity time – i.e. at night – and fasted at intervals.
These included the mice in groups three and five. The animals for twelve hours the fast, lived an average of 1058 days, i.e. 33.6 percent longer than the animals in the control group. In group three, who fasted for 22 hours, life was extended to 1,068 days, or by 34.8 percent.
The timing of food intake also plays a role
The timing of food intake is also responsible for prolonged life. The researchers were able to determine a similar body fat percentage and body weight in all mice that were fed a reduced-calorie diet. So these points could not be the reason for the longer life.
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However, the researchers found that the… time food intake has an impact on the genes that control the mice’s biorhythms. Genetically caused inflammation in old age could be partially compensated for by fasting. This compensation was most effective when fasting occurred during the natural rest phase.
The timing of feeding also played a role in life extension.
Photo: Unknown / IMAGO / Westend61
Life extension at a glance
Lifespan: 792 days, 0 percent Life extension, control group, unlimited food lifespan: 875 days, 10.5 percent Life extension, calorie-reduced diet, feeding evenly over 24 hours Lifespan: 942 days, 18.9 percent Life extension, reduced calorie diet, fasting period: 12 hours, feeding over 12 hours, during the day (outside of activity time) Lifespan: 959 days, 21.1 percent Life extension, calorie-reduced diet, fasting period 22 hours, ration in one piece, feeding during the day (outside of activity time), everything eaten in two hours. Lifespan: 1058 days, 33.6 percent Life extension, calorie-reduced diet, fasting period: 12 hours, feeding for 12 hours, at night (within the activity period) Lifespan: 1068 days, 34.8 percent Life extension, calorie-reduced diet, fasting period 22 hours, ration in one go, feeding at night (within activity time), everything eaten in two hours
Healthier Mice – Healthier People?
Applied to humans, this would mean: Those who eat reduced calories during the day and fast during the night – the natural rest phase – are the most successful Results. But it is still unclear whether similar effects can be transferred to humans.
Nutrition expert Dr. Matthias Riedl like that. He is known, among other things, from the NDR program “The Nutrition Docs”. In his “Healthier Living Podcast” Riedl explained that the studies are still inconsistent in their conclusions, which makes it difficult to assess whether intermittent fasting works or not. Nevertheless, he describes himself as a “big fan of intermittent fasting”. In combination with healthy food and species-appropriate nutrition has an effect. For example, in improving and preventing type 2 diabetes. The doc’s conclusion: “I can only recommend this.”
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