Reddit mentions of The Miracle of Fasting: Proven Throughout History for Physical, Mental and Spiritual Rejuvenation

This it? It's also on The Pirate Bay.

There's a lot of good science behind fasting. I'm currently living an Eat Stop Eat (5:2) fasting lifestyle. The only thing I do differently than the 5:2 program of the documentary is that I consume absolutely zero calories for any given 24 hour fast. Beware that when many people write "intermittent fasting" they may be referring only to a Leangains-style program, apparently unaware that other fasting programs exist.

I've made a post about intermittent fasting before, so for the sake of convenience, I'm going to copy and paste:

Fasting intermittently is surprisingly beneficial. But, you need a program to follow which dictates X hours of fasting with Y hours of eating. Fasting is a subset of caloric restriction. There are many programs of fasting/caloric restriction:

• fasting for 20 hours a day, and eating 4 hours ("The Warrior Diet")
  
• alternate day fasting ("The Alternate-Day Diet")
  
• extended (more than one day) fasts ("The Miracle of Fasting")
  
• long term caloric restriction ("Hara hachi bu")
  
• fasting for 24 hours once or twice per week (nonconsecutively) ("Eat Stop Eat")
  
• fasting 16 hours a day, and eating 8 hours ("Leangains", "Cheat Mode")
  
• etc.
  
  Some things to keep in mind:
  
  

1. in this post, I use the terms "fasting" or "intermittent fasting" to refer to any type of it, though the studies I cite may use only one specific regimen.
   
   
2. Most studies are not done over the long term (i.e., over the lifetime of a human being). Many scientific studies are conducted over relatively short periods; though intermittent fasting appears to be safe, any potential negative effects over the course of a lifetime are simply not known at this time.
   
   
3. I've yet to see any scientific study on intermittent fasting done on pregnant women or minors, therefore, any and all results of the scientific studies do not apply to them. Intermittent fasting appears safe and well tolerated for non-pregnant adults. It could be that intermittent fasting could harm pregnant women (or their unborn babies) or minors; we simply don't know. Likewise, studies on fasting done on healthy individuals are only applicable to healthy people; the benefits of fasting should not be extrapolated to diseased people, unless explicitly described in the study (such as with diabetes or asthma). It is always wise to check with your doctor before trying any fasting plan.
   
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   Human Studies:
   
   Fasting raises your metabolic rate. (Zauner 2000)
   
   Fasting reduces the risk of various diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. (Varady 2007. This is a review of various human and animal studies)
   
   Intermittent fasting increases insulin sensitivity--which is implicated in preventing diabetes (Halberg 2005)
   
   Intermittent fasting lowers LDL ("bad") cholesterol, does not decrease HDL ("good") cholesterol, lowers triglycerides, and lowers blood pressure. (Varady 2009, Bhutani 2010, and Sarri 2004)
   
   Fasting reduces insulin levels in the blood (insulin causes fat storage), and the amount of fat burning done by the body increases markedly starting at about 18 hours of fasting. (Klein 1993)
   
   Fasting for 15 hours produces a 5-fold expression of a gene (UCP3) that mediates fat burning. (Tunstall 2002)
   
   Human cells cultured in vitro from fasting subjects showed remarkable resistance to stress, such as from heat. The cells also showed an up-regulation of genes which indicate increased longevity. (Allard 2008)
   
   Fasting causes your body to secrete growth hormone. This increase can be dramatic, including up to 5 times the amount of growth hormone you secrete in the unfasted state. (Ho 1988 and Hartman 1992) (Growth hormone stimulates cell growth and repair, burns fat, grows muscle, and stimulates the immune system, among other benefits.)
   
   Asthma sufferers who fasted had reduced symptoms and better airflow measurements. Like other studies, participants also experienced reduced levels of cholesterol and triglycerides. Not only did they have improved lung function, but also showed reduced markers of inflammation, and oxidative stress (which is the damage to cells you try to avoid by taking antioxidants). (Johnson 2007) Another study (Aksungar 2007) also found reduced inflammation in the bodies of those who fast.
   
   Cancer patients who fasted had reduced side effects from chemotherapy. Fasting was associated with protection from weakness, fatigue, and gastrointestinal side effects. (Fernando 2009 and Lee 2011)
   
   People who lose weight via dieting always tend to regain the weight they lost, but people who lose weight via fasting tend to keep it off. (Johnstone 2006)
   
   Fasting improves mood and relieves chronic pain in those suffering from it. (Michalsen, 2010)
   
   It also should be noted that fasting may save you significant money; doing an Eat-Stop-Eat style single day fast per week (without overindulging to compensate for the lost calories) reduces your grocery need (and therefore grocery bills) by about 14% (1/7). Fasting for two (nonconsecutive) 24 hour periods in a week reduces your grocery bill by about 29% (2/7).
   
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   Animal Studies:
   
   Fasting protects brain cells against degenerative brain diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, and causes neurogenesis (new brain cell growth) and neuroplasticity. (Mattson 2003 and Alirezaei 2010)
   
   Intermittent fasting reduces the risk of coronary artery disease, by reducing blood pressure, increasing insulin sensitivity, improving cardiovascular stress adaptation, and making cells more resistant to damage in the event of heart attack or stroke. (Mattson 2005 and Ahmet 2005)
   
   Fasting shows promise in preventing breast cancer (Harvie 2012) and increasing survival rates of it (Siegel 1988)
   
   Fasting makes cells so resistant to stress and toxicity, fasting prevented toxic effects in mice when given large doses of a toxic chemotherapy drug. (Johnson 2009) The abstract to this study notes that caloric restriction increases the resistance of cells to various toxins, including mercury.
   
   Intermittent fasting improves blood sugar regulation in mice, even when their overall caloric intake was not reduced. (Anson 2003)
   
   Fasting reduces cancer cell proliferation, and retards the growth of tumors of various cancer types. (Varady 2008 and Lee 2012)
   
   Intermittent fasting improves survival in cases of chronic heart failure, by strengthening heart function and causing an increase in cardiac capillary density (meaning fasted hearts had more beneficial blood vessel growth). (Katare 2009)
   
   It prevents diabetic neuropathy (nerve damage due to high blood sugar). (Tikoo 2007)
   
   It increases life span in various, diverse species. (Honjoh 2009)
   
   Intermittent fasting protects the brain from cognitive decline in old age--it protects neurons from aging. (Halagappa 2007 and Martin 2006)
   
   Intermittent fasting helps protect the body from radiation damage. (Kozubik 1982)
   
   Fasting produces a neuroprotective effect in the hippocampus (the part of the brain responsible for learning and memory), which may help prevent severe epileptic seizures, stroke, and neurodegenerative disorders. (Lee et al., 2006)