A recent study by the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, at the European Endocrinology Society in Spain, suggests that Intermittent fasting could cause serious harm to the body’s metabolism that increases insulin resistance, damage pancreatic cells, and build up more abdominal fat. The study found that intermittent fasting can impair the normal activity of the pancreas and compromise insulin production, leading to increased risk of type 2 diabetes.
According to the study, the research was conducted in healthy, thirty-day-old female Wistar rats for three months with intermittent fasting. The result showed that body weight decreased as expected from rats three months later, but body fat distribution shift to curdle more belly fat, far from expectation.
Researchers of the study did not provide any explanation for all the cases that produced benefits of the diet. Not surprisingly, some researchers already raised questions on the validity of the study.
Dr. Nicola Guess, Lecturer in Nutritional Sciences at King’s College London was one of them,
“Firstly, it’s important to bear in mind there are important differences between rodents and humans – particularly with regard to diet. For example, a high-fat diet causes insulin resistance in rats but it does not appear in humans.
“The exact method is unclear from the abstract, but if the rats have fasted for one day, this is equivalent to an approximately 3 to 4 week fast in humans! So it’s not applicable to the 24-hour or 48-hour fasts practiced by humans on common fasting diets.”
“We certainly need more studies to understand the impact of fasting diets on the underlying factors which can lead cause type 2 diabetes, but this preliminary data in rats is not a cause for concern.”