Who created fasting?
Written by: Brad Pilon
Intermittent Fasting isn’t new. Not by any stretch of the imagination.
I recently read an on-line forum thread that was discussing the invention Intermittent Fasting – People were suggesting it was either me, Martin Berkhan or Ori Hofmekler – and while we all did our parts to help popularize Intermittent Fasting (as did many others) none of us would ever dream of claiming to have ‘invented’ it.
Why? Because it’s been around for a long, long time.
I found a reference leading back to the early 200’s AD, where the philosopher Plotinus (born in 205 AD) advised one of his students Rogatianus, (a member of the Roman senate) to only eat every second day. As a result it is said that Rogatianus regained his health and was cured of his gout.
Now, we also know that Rogatianus also stopped eating meat, and knowing what we know now about Gout, that probably played a big role (fasting certainly doesn’t get all the credit), however the important part of this story its that this is the earliest recording I have found of intermittent fasting being used for curative health purposes, but I’m sure there are earlier examples.
The point is that A) nobody alive today invented intermittent fasting and B) that intermittent fasting should not be viewed as some new way of eating, instead it should be viewed as a rediscovered way of eating.
Truth be told, Intermittent fasting may be popular, but it’s not a fad diet – we’ve known about the health benefits of fasting for close to 2,000 years.
Your fasting may be odd to some people, because to them its new and different, but remember you’re really not doing anything new, you’re simply adopting a style of eating that was favored by some of the world’s greatest philosophers.
