Fasting Diets: What's the Skinny?

Fasting diets are all the rage right now and health-fluencers claim it can help you lose weight, live longer and even fight cancer. So what does the science say? We speak to nutrition researchers Dr Krista Varady and Dr Courtney Peterson, as well as cancer researcher Professor Valter Longo. Check out the full transcript here.Selected references: 

Krista’s study comparing alternate day fasting with regular dieting, which found they had similar weight loss after one year. Courtney’s study which measured metabolic changes after time-restricted feeding without weight loss. Valter’s paper summarizing the studies in fasting and cancer.  Credits:This episode was produced by our senior producer Kaitlyn Sawrey and Wendy Zukerman with help from Michelle Dang, Rose Rimler, and Meryl Horn. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell, with extra editing help from Caitlin Kenney and Annie-Rose Strasser. Fact checking by Eva Dasher and Michelle Dang. Mix and sound design by Peter Leonard. Music by Peter Leonard, Emma Munger and Bobby Lord. A huge thanks to all the researchers we got in touch with for this episode including Dr Peter Chisnell, Dr Mikkel Holm Vendelbo, Dr Jiahong Lu, Dr Dorothy Sears, Prof. Mark Mattson, Dr James D Dvorak, Dr Calloway Scott, Professor Richard Billows, Professor Nancy Worman, Dr  Barbara Kowalzig  and the University of Alabama, Birmingham. Also thanks to the Kimmie Regler, Helen Zaltman Zukerman Family, Frank Lopez and Joseph Lavelle Wilson.