{"id":263397,"date":"2025-11-05T13:30:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T13:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/263397\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T13:30:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T13:30:09","slug":"intermittent-fasting-doesnt-affect-mental-ability-review-finds-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/263397\/","title":{"rendered":"Intermittent Fasting Doesn’t Affect Mental Ability, Review Finds | Health"},"content":{"rendered":"

Key Takeaways<\/p>\n

Short-term fasting doesn\u2019t appear to have any impact on thinking ability<\/p>\n

Researchers found no cognitive impact from fasts of 12 hours or less<\/p>\n

However, children are affected more by fasting than adults<\/p>\n

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 5, 2025 (HealthDay News) \u2014 Intermittent fasting<\/a> shouldn\u2019t dull an adult\u2019s ability to think, remember and problem-solve, a new evidence review says.<\/p>\n

Mental abilities like memory recall, decision making and responsiveness aren\u2019t hampered by skipping a meal or fasting for a half-day, according to an analysis published Nov. 3 in the journal Psychological Bulletin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur main finding was that there is generally no consistent evidence that short-term fasting impaired mental performance,\u201d said senior researcher David Moreau<\/a>, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Auckland in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndividuals who fasted performed remarkably similarly to those who had recently eaten, suggesting cognitive function remains stable in the absence of food intake,\u201d Moreau said in a news release.<\/p>\n

For the evidence review, researchers analyzed data from 71 prior studies involving nearly 3,500 people.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile fasting has become trendy over the years, there is widespread concern, often reflected in common sayings like, \u2018You\u2019re not you when you\u2019re hungry,\u2019 that going without food might acutely impair mental sharpness,\u201d Moreau said.<\/p>\n

Results showed no overall impact from fasts of 12 hours or less.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were certainly surprised in one sense, as our results contradict the widespread assumption that fasting inherently compromises thinking ability,\u201d Moreau said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAcross a broad range of diverse tasks, cognitive performance remained remarkably stable,\u201d he continued. \u201cMany people believe that missing a meal leads to immediate declines in mental acuity, but our synthesis of the evidence suggests otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, people\u2019s cognitive performance did decline slightly if fasts lasted longer than 12 hours, researchers said.<\/p>\n

Children also showed greater declines in brain power while fasting than adults, even in the short-term, researchers said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAge was a powerful and salient moderator,\u201d Moreau said. \u201cChildren showed noticeable declines in performance while fasting, echoing earlier studies that highlighted the steady cognitive advantages of eating breakfast in younger age groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

The findings, Moreau added, suggest “pediatric populations may require particular consideration when evaluating fasting interventions, suggesting that the developing brain has a heightened vulnerability to energy unavailability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, the results support the use of intermittent fasting, as people can skip meals without fear of a brain drain, researchers said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe primary takeaway is a message of reassurance: Cognitive performance remains stable during short-term fasting, suggesting that most healthy adults need not worry about temporary fasting affecting their mental sharpness or ability to perform daily tasks,\u201d Moreau said.<\/p>\n

More information<\/p>\n

Johns Hopkins Medicine has more on intermittent fasting<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SOURCE: American Psychological Association, news release, Nov. 3, 2025<\/p>\n

What This Means For You<\/p>\n

Experts say people can engage in intermittent fasting without dulling their thinking abilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Key Takeaways Short-term fasting doesn\u2019t appear to have any impact on thinking ability Researchers found no cognitive impact…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[23445,10454,49,48,7001,10936,22062,55142,50975,80704,15082,84,121801,27150,67276,12302,90171,8916,9078,395,23446,8680,121802],"class_list":["post-263397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-behavioural-sciences","tag-brain","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-child","tag-cognition","tag-cognitive-psychology","tag-cognitive-science","tag-consumer-news","tag-decision-making","tag-fasting","tag-health","tag-interdisciplinary-branches-of-psychology","tag-intermittent-fasting","tag-meal","tag-memory","tag-mental-processes","tag-neurology","tag-neuroscience","tag-nutrition","tag-psychological-concepts","tag-psychology","tag-recall-memory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}