The FastDay Forum

http://www.drsharma.ca/health-benefits-of-fasting

The actual article (abstract): http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26135345

It is good to be reminded that there isn't much out there in the way of randomized controlled trials, but don't hold your breath waiting for one on clinical outcomes (rather than just indicators).

Unfortunately, I don't have access to the full text...

Putting official position statements and considerations aside for the moment, the risks and costs of intermittent fasting are so low (virtually zero) and the benefits so great in such a short period of time (a few months at most), that waiting for the (relative) certainty of 10-20 years studies gleaned from thousands of carefully monitored double-blind participants is the very definition of letting perfect be the enemy of good.

At least in the case of intermittent fasting, it's far better to be an early adopter and reap the considerable benefits, than a toe-the-line perfectionist who will otherwise continue being fat, miserable and die early while waiting.

sure - I'm definitely still sticking with it (just for weight loss/maintenance). The experiments they seem to be proposing are never gonna happen anyway. But it does make me cringe when people speak about the benefits as if it is certain. And there is probably a lot that can be learned in the sort of short term randomized trials that researchers do - such as a comparison of methods (16:8 vs. 5:2, for example).