>From:    Ken Stuart <[log in to unmask]>
>
>c) This one, referenced above in the context that "periods of fasting
naturally
>occurred in the lives of ancient man", is the silliest one yet.    Periods of
>having one's arm chewed off by predators also happened to occur - is this the
>next health regime? :-)

I think you're oversimplifying here.  As the article on Evolutionary
Fitness points out, humans have evolved to survive and even thrive in a
world with a certain amount of randomness.  Periods of food scarcity, and
occasional fasts such as when fleeing a forest fire or other natural
disaster, must have occurred.  And the human body seems to have an
impressive ability to draw benefit from apparent hardships -- for instance,
UV radiation is harmful, but there are some cells (in the skin? eye? I
forget) that actually use the UV to produce vitamins.

So it makes sense to me that a diet with some randomness, including
occasional fasts or near-fasts, would in fact have some health benefit.  By
the same token, it's possible that occasional "mega-feasting," or eating
large amounts of certain foods at the season when they would be plentiful,
or gaining some body fat in autumn to prepare for a lean winter, might also
be beneficial.

Also, it's interesting to note that in many H-G cultures, vision quests or
other spiritual practices are accompanied by fasting -- perhaps there's a
benefit that goes beyond physical health.

P.S.  the aricle I mentioned is at

http://www.socsci.uci.edu/econ/personnel/devany/Essay.html

Parts are rather technical, but overall it's a good read.