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Ancient wisdom for lifelong health


I was excited to read John Durant's book The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health. Whether or not you're interested in paleo, it's full of interesting nuggets.

Especially the part where Durant explains how fasting can help fight infections.

One indication of this effect comes from the behavior of sick animals, including humans, who often lose their appetite until an illness has passed. Farm animals, pets, zoo animals and wild animals often just stop eating altogether when facing an acute infection or a serious injury. The widespread nature of this phenomenon suggests it's an adaptive response. Loss of appetite isn't a bug, it's a feature.

Like attacking the supply lines of an invading army, dietary restriction weakens pathogens while the immune system mounts a counteroffensive. Tiny pathogens don't have large nutrient reserves and rely on the host for nutrition — therefore manipulating our nutrition is a way to manipulate their nutrition

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Ancient wisdom for lifelong health - The Week

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I have read that calorie deficits correlate with longevity:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorie_restriction

John Durant's explanation for starving pathogens makes a lot of sense, too.

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