Coldplay frontman Chris Martin sparked an online debate today when he revealed he only eats one meal a day.
The singer, 46, also admitted that he stops eating after 4pm daily, meaning he skips dinner.
There is a significant body of research going back at least a decade suggesting that intermittent fasting — or staying within a strict time window — can extend a person’s life, cause weight loss, and lower the risk of diseases, including diabetes and Alzheimer’s.
Scientists suggest that the benefit is that restricted calorie intake lowers inflammation levels in the body and gives cells time to flush toxic products from the body that could be harmful.
In recent years, however, a small amount of research has emerged linking the trend to a shorter lifespan and a higher risk of heart disease. Experts suggest this may be because intermittent fasters eat more in one sitting, which they say could damage cells.
Chris Martin, 46, made the shocking admission that he only ate one meal a day while appearing on Conan O’Brien’s Needs A Friend podcast
Experts say that intermittent fasting is still better than overeating, most likely because it makes one less likely to become obese. However, the benefits have not been conclusively proven.
Martin also hasn’t revealed what he eats, though he did joke that it was normally buffalo flank and steroid sauce.
However, he did say he’s a terrible cook – he said he had to call the fire department for the two times he tried to cook in the last 10 years.
His motivation for the strict diet plan came when he had lunch with 73-year-old Bruce Springsteen and noticed that he was “in better shape” than himself.
Other celebrities who have signed up for the diet in the past include Mark Wahlberg, Chris Hemsworth, and Hugh Jackman.
Proponents of intermittent fasting have highlighted some of the diet plan’s touted health benefits.
They include a major Canadian meta-analysis released in 2020 that analyzed 27 studies from 27 studies that showed that people using the plan could lose up to 13 percent of their weight without any serious adverse effects.
Another meta-analysis published in 2015 by researchers in Salt Lake City, Utah, suggested that the plan made people less likely to develop coronary artery disease or diabetes.
Research has also found that the habit can increase cells’ sensitivity to insulin, which may be due to less of the hormone being released daily, further reducing the risk of diabetes.
Stacks of papers in mice have shown that the diet plan can extend longevity, with researchers suggesting that periods without food may enable repair and maintenance mechanisms in the body.
Studies in mice have also suggested that the diet reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia. They found that this may be due to lower levels of inflammation and the fact that it flushes more beta-amyloid proteins from the brain.
However, these benefits have yet to be confirmed in humans – some studies now suggest the opposite.
A paper published last year that followed 24,000 Americans over age 40 warned that those who ate one meal a day were 30 percent more likely to die from any cause in 15 years compared to those who ate three.
This was true even when people exercised, ate healthily and rarely smoked or drank alcohol, the researchers claimed.
Scientists suggested this was because fasters end up consuming a large amount of food at one time, which can damage the body’s cells over time.
However, they added that it was too early to say for sure that intermittent fasting played a role in early death.
Another suggested that intermittent fasting was no more effective for weight loss than restricting your calorie intake.
And a third conducted in mice suggested that skipping breakfast could increase the risk of developing heart disease or cancer.
Experts have previously warned DailyMail.com that people should be careful if they choose to fast intermittently.
Kim Pearson, a nutritionist based in the UK, told the website: ‘In general, men find time-restricted eating easier than women on a consistent basis.
‘In women, their appetite will fluctuate quite a bit during the month.
“So leading up to their period, they tend to get a lot hungrier and the body’s calorie needs increase.
“Many women tell me that fasting the week before a period is a struggle. For people who are particularly stressed, it can contribute to this.’
.
