Intermittent fasting linked to better gut and liver function in mice

Limiting meals to an eight-hour window each day regulates the circadian rhythm of multiple organs in mice, potentially staving off chronic disease

By Grace Wade

Restricting meals to an eight-hour time frame each day leads to better organ function in mice.

The finding, presented this month at the American Society for Nutrition conference, reveals how intermittent fasting — or cycling between periods of fasting and eating — may improve health, says Satchidananda Panda at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California.

Panda and his colleagues divided about 200 young male mice into two groups and fed each a high-fat, high-sugar diet with the same total number of calories. …