It improves the condition of the body, reduces inflammation and teaches perseverance. At least in theory, as Ewa Pawlik found out.

Everyone knows you should eat fruit and vegetables, but hardly anyone realizes that sometimes it’s good to take a bite out of yourself as well. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, was recommending ‘self-eating’, otherwise known as fasting, to his patients as early as 400 BC. In 2016, the Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi for his research into the phenomenon of autophagy, the controlled degradation of proteins and other cellular structures that is associated with fasting. After several hours of fasting, insulin levels drop and glucagon levels increase; these changes give rise to autophagy. The level of growth hormone also increases, activating regenerative processes. Meanwhile, the risk of developing cancer is lowered, and symptoms associated with diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases and cardiovascular diseases also subside. Even the ageing process slows down. All you need to do is stop eating!

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