Research paper
de Cabo R, Mattson MP. Effects of intermittent fasting on health, aging, and disease. N Engl J Med. 2019;381(26):2541-2551.
Why we cite it
A clinical review of intermittent fasting published in the NEJM by two NIA/NIH senior scientists — the venue and the authors are the checkable standing here (corrected 2026-09-02, card 6NM98H: previously “The most authoritative clinical review”). Presents the metabolic switch as a mechanism (”Establishes … as the central mechanism” corrected 2026-09-10: neither word is in the held excerpt) underlying IF benefits and critically argues that the benefits are not simply from caloric restriction or weight loss (the held excerpt’s wording is ”reduced free-radical production or weight loss”, not caloric restriction; corrected 2026-09-10) but from evolutionarily conserved adaptive cellular responses triggered by periodic switching between fed and fasted states. (”This is the definitive reference for discussing fasting science with healthcare providers and complements the mechanistic detail in Anton et al 2018 (cfa01)” removed 2026-09-10 as a ranking.)