I’m new to all this, so forgive the tardy post.

One of the aspects of the Mediterranean diet which has not been discussed very much is fasting. Cultural and religious fasting has been practiced for centuries. This is possibly one of the elements contributing to the effectiveness of the Mediterranean diet. But, generally, fasting does not get very much attention in any studies and especially not in relation to other diet regimes such as Mediterranean. Ansel Keys studied the Mediterranean diet as part of the Seven Countries study (sevencountriesstudy.com) and never mentioned fasting as part of the cultural dietary practices.

But others have:

“In 1963, Walter Bloom, then director of research at Atlanta’s Piedmont Hospital, published a series of articles on starvation therapy for obesity, noting that total starvation—i.e., fasting, or eating nothing at all—and carbohydrate restriction had much in common.” (Good Calories, Bad Calories, Taubes, pg 130)

“Ernst Drenick in 1964 about his fasting studies at UCLA”. (Taubes, pg 132)

“As early as 1907, the German physiologist Adolf Magnus-Levy had noted that during periods of fasting between meals “the fat streams from the depots back again into the blood … as if it were necessary for the immediate needs of the combustion processes of the body.” A decade later, Francis Benedict reported that blood sugar provides only a “small component” of the fuel we use during fasting, and this drops away to “none at all” if our fast continues for more than a week. In such cases, fat will supply 85 percent of our energy needs, and protein the rest, after its conversion to glucose in the liver. Still, because the brain and central nervous system typically burn 120 to 130 grams of glucose a day, nutritionists insisted (as many still do) that carbohydrates must be our primary fuel, and they remained skeptical of the notion that fat plays any role in energy balance other than as a long-term reserve for emergencies”.(Taubes, pg 145)

“Fasted children “rarely, if ever, complained of hunger,” Sidbury noted” (Taubes, pg 152)

Fasting has a contentious aspect as well: “Periods of fasting, Brooks noted, were “followed by an augmentation of appetite and development of a greater degree of obesity than had been attained before fasting.”” (Taubes, pg 140) *** Note, however, Brooks was studying mice!

So, it may be that fasting, if practiced on its own may be just another dietary fad but if it is part of an overall lifestyle choice, it seems to be effective.

(Note – page references are to a pdf copy that I have, may not be consistent with other copies.)

Hi Barry, Thanks for your post. It is very interesting to think about the way fasting is incorporated in the Mediterranean diet.