Fasting is good for your pets, too!

I’M A big fan of a type of extended, overnight fasting, called time-restricted eating — where you try to go longer without eating by extending your normal overnight fast.

The easiest way to do this is to stop eating a few hours before bed, and then delay your breakfast for an hour or so.

There is evidence that going without food, overnight, for 12 hours or more leads to modest weight loss and improvements in blood pressure, blood sugar and blood fat levels.

And what’s good for humans may also be good for our pets. Our family dog, a King Charles Spaniel called Tari, is fed once a day. But I must confess I also give her scraps from our evening meal.

Perhaps I shouldn’t. A recent study by the University of Washington in the U.S. based on the eating habits of more than 24,000 dogs found that feeding pets just once a day may be key to keeping them healthier as they age.

Not only did the dogs given food once daily show fewer signs of dementia, they also had lower rates of ‘gastrointestinal, dental, orthopaedic, kidney/ urinary, and liver/ pancreas disorders’.

In other words, dogs that fasted for a big chunk of the day were enjoying a healthier old age. They were, presumably, also costing significantly less in vet bills.

This follows another study, published last year by the University of Guelph, in Canada, which found that feeding cats one meal a day makes them leaner and healthier. In the study, eight healthy cats had one large meal a day, or four small ones (in both cases with the same total amount of food). After three weeks, they swapped to the other eating pattern. Research showed that when the cats were fed once a day they were less hungry and demanding; they also burned more fat and put on more lean muscle. This is important because cats, like humans, tend to lose muscle mass with age. So though it may seem harsh, a time-restricted eating plan may be just what your pet needs.