Aakancha Shaw, St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata
According to new research conducted by the University of East Anglia (UEA), fasting could impact the health of future generations in a significant manner. Fasting diets have become a trend nowadays and have gained popularity in recent years. However, the long term impact of this reduced intake of food has significant long term effects, particularly for future generations. The new research was published in the Journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B revealed that reduced food intake or fasting diets in roundworms(Caenorhabditiselegans) had a detrimental effect on three generations of its offsprings especially when the offsprings the descendants had unlimited access to food.
The team was quite aware of the fact that reduced food intake was known to increase the life span in many animals including humans, however, the long term effects of reduced food intake were unexplored including time-limited fasting on distant descendants. The team decided to explore more about the impact, Or rather the long term impact of fasting diets. The research team investigated the effect of time-limited fasting on reproduction and life span in roundworms and also across the three generations of their offsprings. They studied around 4 generations of 2500 worms. The first generation was placed in one of the food environments where it was being able to eat as much as it liked(unlimited access to food) and one is on a fasting diet. Next, four generations of descendants from these parents were then placed onto either fasting diets or fully feeding diets. The research team then investigated the effects of different scenarios on the reproduction ability and the longevity of future generations. These investigations included what happens when great grandparents fast but future descendants have unlimited access to food they liked and cumulative fasting for four generations.
Now the question comes why were roundworms chosen and how is it similar to humans because unlike us they are only one millimetre long and survive in the soil also they don’t have bones or a circulatory system. But still, they are a classic model organism for studying the process of ageing in biology. Why so? It is because they possess many genes and molecular pathways that control development and these genes and pathways are similar to those of humans. They also proved to be beneficial for the experiment because they have a short life cycle that is only 2 weeks so their development and that of the generations could be studied in a very short amount of time. A similar study involving humans would probably take a century or more. The scientists found out that fasting did increase their life span alongside improving offspring performance when reproduction was concerned. But this was all true when offspring themselves were fasting but when the offspring had unlimited access to food, reduced performance in the offspring was noticed and this detrimental effect was very much evident in grand offsprings and great grand offsprings.
All this proves that fasting can be very problematic and costly for our defendants and its effect might persist for generations. It is really important to consider the long term effects of fasting while we are trying to pursue a healthy lifestyle because the detrimental impact of the fasting diet might manifest itself in future generations.
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Source: Ivimey-Cook Edward R.,Sales Kris, Carlsson Hanne, Immler Simone, Chapman Tracey and Maklakov Alexei A.2021Transgenerational fitness effects of lifespan extension by dietary restriction in Caenorhabditis elegansProc. R. Soc. B.2882021070120210701http://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.0701
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