禁食对你有好处吗?

禁食对你有好处吗?

For some people, fasting is a way to cleanse the body of toxins. For others, it's a religious or spiritual practice.

对一些人来说，禁食是一种净化身体毒素的方法。对其他人来说，这是一种宗教或精神实践。

While some health experts have questioned its safety — particularly when used in the extreme — fasting proponents have praised its value. Fasting has been linked in several studies to weight loss, immune system benefits and brain function.

虽然一些健康专家质疑它的安全性——尤其是在极端情况下使用时——禁食的支持者却称赞了它的价值。几项研究表明，禁食与减肥、免疫系统和大脑功能有关。

Putting the plates (and the food) aside for a limited period of time might have health benefits. (Photo: Lolostock/Shutterstock.com)

In an earlier study, researchers developed a five-day monthly diet that they called the "Fasting Mimicking Diet." In the study, also published in Cell Metabolism, scientists said the 19 participants who followed the fasting regimen for three months had reduced risk factors for aging, cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

在早期的一项研究中，研究人员开发了一种每月5天的饮食，他们称之为“禁食模仿饮食”。这项研究也发表在《细胞代谢》(Cell Metabolism)杂志上。科学家说，19名参与者坚持禁食三个月，降低了衰老、癌症、糖尿病和心血管疾病的风险因素。

Is fasting normal?

禁食正常吗?

Our "normal" meal pattern of three daily meals (plus snacks) is highly abnormal from the perspective of human evolution, wrote an international group of researchers in a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Early hunter-gatherers often ate intermittently, depending on how often they were able to capture prey.

一组国际研究人员在发表于《美国国家科学院院刊》(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)上的论文中写道，从人类进化的角度来看，我们“正常”的三餐(外加零食)饮食模式极不正常。早期的狩猎采集者经常间歇性地进食，这取决于他们捕捉猎物的频率。

"Intermittent fasting helps the body to rejuvenate and repair, thereby promoting overall health," article co-author Satchidananda Panda, associate professor of regulatory biology at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, told LiveScience.

“间歇性禁食有助于身体恢复活力和修复，从而促进整体健康，”文章作者之一、圣地亚哥索尔克生物研究所调节生物学副教授Satchidananda Panda告诉LiveScience。

"Fasting alone is more powerful in preventing and reversing some diseases than drugs," he said.

“单独禁食在预防和逆转某些疾病方面比药物更有效，”他说。

The researchers concluded that restricted fasting can have an impact (at least on mice) on the prevention of metabolic diseases.

研究人员的结论是，限制禁食可以(至少对小鼠)对预防代谢性疾病产生影响。

What happens to your body when you fast?

当你禁食时，你的身体会发生什么变化?

Technically, most of us fast every night when we sleep. Fasting is defined as going without food for eight or more hours — so when you wake up in the morning, your body is in a fasting state. That's when your body has stopped absorbing nutrients from the last meal you've eaten.

从技术上讲，我们大多数人每晚睡觉时都会禁食。禁食被定义为8小时或更长时间不进食——所以当你早上醒来时，你的身体处于禁食状态。这是你的身体停止从你吃的最后一餐吸收营养。

Some people go on special fast diets — drinking just juice or eating just cabbage soup, for example — hoping to rid the body of chemicals and pollutants accumulated from food, the environment and everyday life.

有些人进行特殊的快速饮食——例如只喝果汁或只喝卷心菜汤——希望清除身体中从食物、环境和日常生活中积累的化学物质和污染物。

Intermittent fasting

间歇性禁食

Fasting typically doesn't mean having to abstain from all food and drink. Whether for religious, spiritual or health reasons, people typically fast by limiting their food to certain hours or types or by cutting back dramatically on their overall food intake.

禁食通常并不意味着必须戒掉所有的食物和饮料。无论是出于宗教、精神或健康方面的原因，人们通常会通过将食物限制在特定的时间或种类，或大幅减少总体食物摄入量来禁食。

Should fasting be used for weight loss?

禁食应该用来减肥吗?

Fasting is questionable when used as a quick way to lose weight. (Photo: Billion Photos/Shutterstock)

When fasting can be dangerous is when it is used as a weight loss tool, says Melinda Johnson, MS, RDN, clinical assistant professor at Arizona State University and president of the Arizona Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

亚利桑那州立大学(Arizona State University)临床助理教授、亚利桑那营养与饮食学会(Arizona Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics)主席梅林达·约翰逊(Melinda Johnson)女士表示，当禁食被用作减肥工具时，它就可能是危险的。

But another study published in Nutrition and Healthy Aging points to a specific use of fasting that might work better for some people. Researchers put 23 obese volunteers on a 16:8 fasting diet where they ate between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. and drank only water the rest of the time. After 12 weeks, the fasting volunteers lost about 3% of their body weight and their blood pressure dropped.

但发表在《营养与健康老龄化》(Nutrition and health Aging)杂志上的另一项研究指出，禁食的一种特定用途可能对某些人更有效。研究人员让23名肥胖志愿者在16:8禁食，他们在上午10点到下午6点之间进食，其余时间只喝水。12周后，禁食的志愿者体重减轻了约3%，血压也下降了。

"The 16:8 diet is another tool for weight loss that we now have preliminary scientific evidence to support. When it comes to weight loss, people need to find what works for them because even small amounts of success can lead to improvements in metabolic health."

16:8饮食是另一种减肥方法，我们现在有初步的科学证据支持。说到减肥，人们需要找到适合自己的方法，因为即使是很小的成功也能改善新陈代谢健康。”