Metabolism

Intermittent Fasting: Is the Wait Worth the Weight?

Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Health, Aging, and Disease

A comprehensive NEJM review of intermittent fasting research synthesizes animal and human evidence showing broad metabolic, neurological, and anti-aging benefits from periodic caloric abstinence independent of overall calorie reduction. The mechanism centers on a metabolic switch from glucose to ketones that activates evolutionarily conserved cellular stress-response pathways.

The Hidden Truths About Calories

Scientific American on the hidden complexity behind calorie counting — how the Atwater factors used on nutrition labels are crude approximations, how cooking changes caloric availability, and how gut microbiome composition affects calorie extraction. The 'a calorie is a calorie' model is much messier in practice.