POPULAR fasting diet favoured by celebrities could have long-term effects on your health, a new study has shown.
Fasting has grown in popularity in recent years as a weight loss regime, with A-lister Elon Musk revealing he felt 'healthier' after loosing over 20lbs due to fasting.
Other fans of the diet include supermodel Gisele Bundchen, actresses Scarlett Johansson and Jennifer Aniston, and Kourtney Kardashian
The practice can involve going without food between certain hours – or on specific days.
Some believe that fasting for some hours each day or eating just one meal a couple of days a week helps the body burn fat.
Lead author of a new study into the diet, Dr Filip Swirski of Icahn Mount Sinai in New York, said: "There is a growing awareness that fasting is healthy, and there is indeed abundant evidence for the benefits of fasting."
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However, Dr Swirski's research brought to light a more sinister side to the practice.
Skipping meals, including breakfast, triggers a reaction in the brain that damages immune system cells and makes the body more vulnerable, the study found.
It can also trigger a stress reaction in the body.
"Our study provides a word of caution as it suggests that there may also be a cost to fasting that carries a health risk," Dr Swirski said.
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Dr Swirski's research team used mice as test subjects and split them into two groups: one was given breakfast and the other went without.
This second group was fasted for up to 24 hours before being given food again.
The researchers observed the mice's monocytes – these are white blood cells made in bone marrow that fight infections, heart disease and cancer.
They identified a difference in the number monocytes the mice had if they had been fasted.
At the outset, all mice had the same amount. But after four hours 90 per cent disappeared from the bloodstream of the fasting set – with further decline at eight hours.
While they reappeared in the mice's bloodstream once they were given food again, this led to heightened levels of inflammation.
So instead of protecting against infection, fasting made the mice's bodies more vulnerable.
The second thing researchers noticed was that fasting elicited a stress response dubbed 'hangry' – this means feeling angry and hungry at the same time.
Dr Swirski said: "The study shows that, on the one hand, fasting reduces the number of circulating monocytes, which one might think is a good thing, as these cells are important components of inflammation.
"On the other hand, reintroduction of food creates a surge of monocytes flooding back to the blood, which can be problematic.
"Fasting, therefore regulates this pool in ways that are not always beneficial to the body's capacity to respond to a challenge such as an infection," he continued.
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"Because these cells are so important to other diseases like heart disease or cancer, understanding how their function is controlled is critical."
The study is published in the journal Immunity.
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